Unit Synopsis
In this unit, you will explore cognitive and sensory impairments in and on the lives of the older person. You will apply the principles of advanced nursing knowledge, law, ethics, and professional attributes in the provision of best practice nursing care for the older person with cognitive and/or sensory impairment. You will apply and justify nursing clinical decision-making in the assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of nurse-led and collaborative care that aims to maintain or enhance the cognitive and sensory capabilities of the older adult.
Details
| Level | Postgraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 8 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 1 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
There are no pre-requisites for the unit.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Presentation | 40% |
| 2. Written Assessment | 60% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 1 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 33.33% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: Student verbal feedback in Zoom Q & A sessions.
Regular online tutorials - were appreciated and received positively by the students in this unit. The students who attended these regularly commented on "the value of these in preparing for assessments".
Unit coordinator to continue to offer regular online Q & A tutorials to enable students to discuss learning content and its application to the two assessments. This approach enables the students to consider how the learning outcomes could be applied to each assessment.
The unit coordinator implemented regular online Q&A tutorials to support student engagement with learning content and its application to the two assessments. These sessions provided the students with the opportunity to clarify the assessment task, ask questions, and explore how the learning outcomes align with the assessment requirements; therefore, they enhanced their understanding of the assessment task and performance of grades.
Source: SUTE Unit Comments Report, T 1, 2024.
The unit coordinator has been great at assisting and guiding. She is also an excellent lecturer, and the course material was well explained.
Unit coordinator to continue to provide contemporary evidence-based lecture content that aligns with practice in caring for older people. Continue to have a clear and succinct Moodle site and written course materials to enhance student learning in the unit.
The unit coordinator continues to deliver contemporary evidence-based content and assessment tasks that reflect current best practices for the care of older people. The Moodle content has been maintained to be clear, well-organised, succinct, supporting student navigation and enhancing overall learning engagement within the unit.
Source: Student verbal feedback after their oral presentation assessment.
Assessments were really interesting, I never thought of hypertension affecting the older adult in the way it can, especially an older adult with dementia.
The unit coordinator to continue to design assessments that encourage critical thinking and real-world application of clinical concepts, particularly in complex scenarios involving older adults with comorbidities such as dementia. Consider incorporating more case-based assessment to further enhance students’ understanding of the multifaceted impact of conditions like hypertension in older people.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Investigate cognitive and/or sensory function impairment and the impact of these impairments in and on the lives of older people.
- Apply contemporary nursing knowledge, ethical, legal, and professional practice concepts to the nursing care of older adults experiencing cognitive and/or sensory impairment.
- Critically discuss complex nursing care management of the older adult who has cognitive and/or sensory impairment in your context of specialty practice.
- Justify the nursing care of an older adult experiencing cognitive and/or sensory impairment in your context of nursing practice.
There is no external accreditation linked to this unit.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Presentation | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Communication | • | • | • | |
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | • | • | • | • |
| 4 - Research | • | • | • | • |
| 5 - Self-management | • | |||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | • | • | ||
| 7 - Leadership | • | • | ||
| 8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | • | |||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | |