Unit Synopsis
The aim of this unit is to provide introductory knowledge in cardiac imaging, haemodynamic assessment and pharmacotherapy, providing a foundation for future study in the Graduate Diploma of Cardiac Ultrasound. You will acquire knowledge of the physics behind ultrasound image formation and instrumentation. You will learn haemodynamic principles which apply to volumetric flow, valve assessment and pressure calculation and develop an understanding of how pharmacotherapy affects cardiac performance. You will further develop your physics knowledge and skill of ultrasound imaging through participation in an intensive on-campus scanning workshop, in a simulated clinical environment.
Details
| Level | Postgraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 8 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Pre-requisite: Enrolment in CL74 Graduate Diploma of Cardiac 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 |
Compulsory Residential School View Unit 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. Online Quiz(zes) | 30% |
| 2. Practical Assessment | 20% |
| 3. Online Test | 50% |
| 4. Learning logs / diaries / Journal / log books | 0% |
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 - 2022 : 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: Moodle unit evaluation
Sound quality of recordings at times were quite low.
Some lecture content to be re-recorded.
Course enrolment has been paused since previous unit delivery. Current and final unit delivery was substituted with revised tutorials.
Source: Moodle unit evaluation
It might have been helpful to flip the lecture content so we were learning about echo testing modalities/function at the beginning of the semester (when we first started practical work), and then learn the complexities of the probe/machine at the end of the semester.
Technical complexities are taught as primary unit content as this knowledge provides strong foundations for correct scanning and image acquisition. Without this foundational knowledge, comprehension of more advanced scanning concepts such as Doppler would be hindered.
Clinical case study discussions were incorporated into the tutorial delivery (in a Q&A format style) to highlight relevance of lecture content to clinical practice.
Source: Student email
Student requested a guide for reference values for echocardiographic measurements.
The development of a course-wide echocardiography reference value sheet will be considered. This will provide consistent information regarding reference values in line with current industry guidelines to be communicated to students.
In Progress
Source: Student email
Student requested mock online test to be provided.
While revision questions and answers are readily available on Moodle, a selection of revision questions and answers will be supplied in an online test form to improve recall of knowledge and to simulate the online test format.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Discuss the theoretical principles underlying assessment of cardiac haemodynamics using echocardiography and cardiac catheterisation
- Describe how cardiac performance is altered by pharmacotherapeutic agents
- Discuss the physics behind ultrasound image formation and instrumentation, including imaging artefacts
- Apply knowledge of ultrasound physics and practical skills to acquire optimal ultrasound images, with due regard for bioeffects and safety
- Perform basic Doppler haemodynamic calculations using data derived from an echocardiogram
- Engage in cardiac ultrasound practice as per external accreditation requirements (Australasian Sonographer Accreditation Registry).
Linked to the Australian Sonographers Accreditation Registry (ASAR) Accreditation Standards for Cardiac Sonography:
Foundation Units of Competence
- Unit 1: Deliver safe, patient centred service
- Unit 2: Practice within professional and ethical frameworks
- Unit 3: Locate, analyse and synthesise information to support evidence based practice
- Unit 4: Contribute to workplace health and safety and quality assurance
- Unit 5: Communicate effectively
Critical Practice Unit of Competence
- Unit 8: Cardiac
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | |||||
| 2 - Practical Assessment | • | |||||
| 3 - Online Test | • | • | • | • | ||
| 4 - Learning logs / diaries / Journal / log books | • | |||||
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Communication | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| 5 - Self-management | • | |||||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | • | • | ||||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | |