Unit Synopsis
This clinical unit will provide you with opportunities to apply and integrate theoretical and practical knowledge, skills and professional behaviour in the clinical environment, independently and under the supervision of qualified professionals. The practical focus in this unit includes the completion of an ultrasound scan to ‘Novice’ – (student) Level 1 competence as described by the Professional Competency Framework for Sonographers adopted by the Australasian Sonographers Association and the Australian Sonographer Accreditation Register. You will learn to analyse images and solve problems, developing critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills. You will demonstrate reflective practice to expand your core knowledge and experience. You will also behave professionally using interpersonal skills relevant to sonographic practice in accordance with CQUniversity graduate attributes and Australian Sonographer Accreditation Registry accreditation requirements. You are expected to critically reflect on your own performance and exhibit a high level of safe patient care. Critical appraisal of performance will enable you to develop your own patient care, professional, technical and analytical skills in a work setting.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit Level | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Credit Points | 6 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
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). |
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| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 3 - 2026
Term 3 - 2026 Profile
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 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
To see assessment details from an earlier availability, please search via a previous term.
This is a pass/fail (non-graded) unit. To pass the unit, you must pass all of the individual assessment tasks shown in the table above.
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 3 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 75.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 16.84% 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: Self-Reflection and SUTE
Students enjoy the pre-clinical days and find them very beneficial. This year there was a clash with this and an assessment in a different unit which impacted the student experience and managing their studies.
Pre-clinical "Residential School" days are included and timetabled immediately following term 2 assessments to ensure maximum attendance. Suggest confirming that other unit coordinators take this into consideration when they are finalising their unit profiles and setting assessment due dates to minimise student anxiety. Coordinate further with other Unit coordinators to scaffold assessment due dates where appropriate.
The pre-clinical "Residential School" was scheduled after Term 2 assessments to minimise timetable clashes and support attendance.
Source: SUTE
Students felt more clarity was needed regarding the written assessment task.
In additional to providing information during tutorials, create formal documents with specifics regarding the written assessment in addition to the marking rubric and provide these on Moodle.
Additional formal assessment guidance documents were developed and made available on Moodle clearly outlining expectations for the written assessment task, supplemented information was also provided during tutorials.
Source: SUTE
Students would like additional practice for the online quiz
Provide additional resources, such as more practice questions via Moodle, to help the students prepare for the online quiz. These resources should be focused to help the students maintain their theoretical knowledge while utilising it on clinical placement.
Additional practice resources, including targeted quiz-style questions, were available on Moodle to support preparation for the online quiz and reinforce the application of theoretical knowledge in the clinical setting.
Source: Self reflection
Some students did not attend the pre‑clinical day. Given the importance of this session in preparing students for clinical placement, attendance is considered critical to enhancing readiness and optimising the clinical placement experience.
As the pre-clinical day is essential for clinical placement preparation, improved course-wide communication is recommended, including coordination with the Unit Coordinator of the prerequisite scanning skills unit to reinforce that attendance is mandatory. The pre-clinical day will again be scheduled in the official student term timetable.
In Progress
Source: Student feedback
The marking rubric for Assessment 4 was unclear, particularly in distinguishing between the case presentation and the case report.
It is recommended that separate marking rubrics be implemented for the case presentation and the case report to clearly delineate assessment expectations and support consistency in student understanding and marking.
In Progress
Source: Student Unit Teacher Evaluation
Some students sought more clarity of Assessment items 1 (log book) and 4 (written assessment) at the beginning of the term as they did not understand the relevance to their learning.
Ensure that assessment requirements are clearly explained and outlined in the assessment video and the first compulsory tutorial to allow students to ask any questions early on if they are unsure of the requirements.
In Progress
To see Learning Outcomes from an earlier availability, please search via a previous term.