ECHO12003 - Principles of Cardiac Assessment

General Information

Unit Synopsis

An understanding of the concepts of invasive and non-invasive diagnostic cardiovascular procedures is necessary in the field of echocardiography. In this unit you will be introduced to colour and spectral Doppler echocardiographic assessment techniques. You will analyse echocardiographic measurements to assess systolic and diastolic function and perform haemodynamic calculations. You will compare and contrast cardiac pressures derived using echocardiography to those obtained using cardiac catheterisation. You will apply your knowledge to a variety of cardiovascular pathologies and case studies. You will formulate differential diagnoses and consider patient management strategies within an ethical framework of best practice and patient safety. You will perform the standard echocardiographic protocol, with colour and spectral Doppler, in the simulated laboratory environment demonstrating professional behaviour and reflective practice. Attendance is required at practical activities.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 2
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 2
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Pre-requisite:
ECHO12006 Cardiac Science
AND
MEDS12001 Physics of Ultrasound

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 3 - 2024

There are no availabilities for this unit on or after Term 3 - 2024

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).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Undergraduate 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. Online Quiz(zes) 40%
2. Practical Assessment 0%
3. Performance 0%
4. Reflective Practice Assignment 0%
5. Online Test 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%).

Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 2 - 2022 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 25% 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 Unit Teaching Evaluations, Moodle Verbal
Feedback
Assessment feedback for online quizzes and tests was considered inadequate by some students.
Recommendation
Live tutorial discussions, forum posts and personalised emails addressing areas of poor performance will be strengthened’.
Action Taken
Students were emailed via CQU success and prompted to ask for feedback after quiz results had been released. Students who requested individualised feedback were then contacted directly via Zoom and/or email. Specific feedback was provided to those who requested it. Generalised feedback was provided to the entire cohort via Moodle forum posts and through discussion in the following live tutorial.
Source: Student Unit Teaching Evaluations, Moodle
Feedback
Students noted differences in expectations and explanations between tutors and staff members in scanning sessions
Recommendation
Students will be reminded that exposure to differing teaching styles is beneficial and similar to clinical experience. To promote a more synonymous delivery, casual tutors will be more thoroughly briefed prior to lab delivery, and a TEAMS site will be established to centralise point of contact with staff members and document guidance for reflection as required.
Action Taken
Students were continually reminded at the start of each session that it is a valuable experience to receive advice from different tutors. All tutors were briefed prior to scanning labs about expectations for that particular session.
Source: Student Unit Teaching Evaluations, Moodle
Feedback
Students were dissatisfied with random patient model allocation during assessment sessions, particularly when they were allocated a peer they had not scanned prior.
Recommendation
Students will be reminded that the assessment scanning schedule generated is a random draw. Students will be encouraged through forum posts via Moodle, to not always scan and pair up with the same person during the unmanned practise sessions. They will also be encouraged to partner with peers from the other scanning day. To ensure equity in marking, peer moderation of final assessment will and does occur.
Action Taken
Students were reminded that patient selection for assessments is random. They were encouraged to scan a different person each session to make sure that they got used to scanning everyone.
Source: SUTE
Feedback
Students felt that video resources could be Improved.
Recommendation
The video resources in this unit are abundant. Comments about how good they were will ensure their implementation into future units. Lecture materials will be revised to ensure currency if used again.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: SUTE
Feedback
Students would like more step by step examples of calculations.
Recommendation
Performing calculations in echo is a fundamental part of data formulation. As students are required to perform calculations in their future careers, it is practiced in this unit. These calculations were practiced face-to-face in the PC lab and were revisited in the live tutorial sessions. A review of tutorial material should be considered to further ensure that each step is clearly explained. Students may benefit from the reinforcement of calculation examples over several tutorial sessions.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Contrast the aetiology, pathophysiology, diagnostic assessment process and patient management strategy for a variety of cardiovascular disease processes
  2. Perform, analyse and contrast haemodynamic calculations on cardiac assessment data to formulate differential diagnoses
  3. Perform the standard echocardiographic protocol with colour and spectral Doppler
  4. Display professional behaviour, teamwork and communication skills consistent with safe practice
  5. Apply constructive feedback to professional practice improvement.

Linked to National and International Standards
1. ASAR Accreditation Standards for Cardiac Sonography - critical practice Unit 8 - Cardiac
2. European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging Core Syllabus
3. American Registry for Cardiac Sonography Core Syllabus

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Online Quiz(zes) • •
2 - Practical Assessment •
3 - Performance •
4 - Reflective Practice Assignment •
5 - Online Test • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Communication • • • • •
2 - Problem Solving • • • • •
3 - Critical Thinking • • • • •
4 - Information Literacy • • •
5 - Team Work •
6 - Information Technology Competence •
7 - Cross Cultural Competence • •
8 - Ethical practice • •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10