Unit Synopsis
This unit will develop your knowledge of the application of cardiac ultrasound in the assessment of pericardial and systemic heart disease, preparing you for competent practise in the health workplace as a graduate cardiac sonographer. Knowledge presented will elaborate on the aetiology, pathophysiology and clinical presentations of these disease states. You will identify the role echocardiography plays in the clinical assessment of these disease states. Through discussions of clinical scenarios and case studies you will analyse diagnostic data and provide differential diagnoses within an ethical framework of best practice and patient safety.
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: ECHO28002 Assessment of Cardiac Function 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. Written Assessment | 20% |
| 2. Online Quiz(zes) | 40% |
| 3. Online Test | 40% |
| 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 - 2023 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 50% 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 emails.
Students indicated satisfactory support was available.
Students will continue to be supported with frequent communication by the unit coordinator.
Frequent student support was continued via Moodle posts and direct email communication.
Source: Tutorials.
Time allocations for online assessments are satisfactory.
The current assessment structure will be continued.
The previous assessment structure was continued.
Source: Feedback during tutorials.
Students found the case based tutorials very engaging.
Continue to adopt case based tutorial style in future offerings, rather than regurgitating lecture content.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Differentiate between the aetiology, pathophysiology and echocardiographic assessment processes associated with a variety of pericardial and systemic heart diseases
- Critically analyse case-based clinical information to formulate differential diagnoses and plan patient management
- Perform advanced haemodynamic calculations applied to 2D, colour and spectral Doppler derived echocardiographic data
- Compare and contrast assessment data acquired from a variety of cardiac imaging modalities
- 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
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Unit 8: Cardiac
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | ||
| 2 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | • | • | • | |
| 3 - Online Test | • | • | • | ||
| 4 - Learning logs / diaries / Journal / log books | • | ||||
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | • | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Communication | • | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | • | • | • | • | • |
| 4 - Research | • | • | |||
| 5 - Self-management | • | ||||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | • | • | |||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | |