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NURS12154 - Pharmacology for Nursing Practice

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit provides you with information based on evidence and best practice principles in the safe use of medications across the lifespan. Knowledge of pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics as well as biochemical and microbial considerations are included to ensure safe nursing practice and quality use of medicines. You will also become familiar with the Australian legal requirements and ethical issues as they relate to the administration of medications. The content of this unit will be applied in the clinical nursing practice units.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 2
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 1
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Pre-requisites

NURS11161 Clinical Nursing Practice 1 or NURS11154 Foundations of Nursing Practice 2

BIOH11005 Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology

Co-requisite

BIOH11006 Advanced Anatomy and Physiology

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 - 2016

Term 1 - 2017 Profile
Bundaberg
Distance
Rockhampton
Term 2 - 2017 Profile
Distance
Term 1 - 2018 Profile
Bundaberg
Distance
Rockhampton
Term 2 - 2018 Profile
Bundaberg
Distance
Rockhampton
Term 1 - 2019 Profile
Bundaberg
Online
Rockhampton
Term 2 - 2019 Profile
Bundaberg
Online
Rockhampton
Term 1 - 2020 Profile
Bundaberg
Online
Rockhampton
Term 2 - 2020 Profile
Bundaberg
Online
Rockhampton
Term 1 - 2021 Profile
Online
Term 2 - 2021 Profile
Online

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) 20%
2. Written Assessment 30%
3. Written Assessment 50%

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 1 - 2021 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 4.7 (on a 5 point Likert scale), based on a 37.61% 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 feedback via email
Feedback
Online quiz duration
Recommendation
Reduce the number of online quiz questions to allow for reading and typing answers. Due to COVID-19 in T1 2020, the University moved all examinations to online assessment including quizzes. The unit coordinators changed the exam questions to online quiz questions.
Action Taken
The number of online quiz questions were reduced from 43 questions in Term 1 2020 to 32 questions in Term 1 2021. Only eight of the 214 students that attempted the quiz did not complete the quiz in the allocated time period.
Source: Student evaluation
Feedback
Assessment 1 marking criteria weighting
Recommendation
Increase the weighting for the criteria related to approach and argument to provide more opportunity for students to demonstrate the unit learning outcomes, and reduce structure and referencing to the minimum allowable marks on the marking criteria sheet.
Action Taken
The weighting criteria for the assessment structure and reference was decreased from 30% collectively in term 1 2020, to 20% in term 1 2021. Therefore 80% of the marks are now awarded for the approach and argument.
Source: Student evaluation
Feedback
End-of-term online quiz preparation
Recommendation
Organise regular Zoom sessions to discuss clear expectations for the end-of-term quiz and share tips on what would be useful on preparing students.
Action Taken
Two prerecorded lectures were uploaded to Moodle in which the expectations of the end of term quiz was explained. Also, an additional online tutorial was held in Week 9 to discuss this assessment item, and a drop in Zoom session was held in Week 12 to award students the opportunity to pose questions. Throughout the term, during the weekly lectures and tutorials, hints were given regarding potential end of term quiz questions.
Source: Student evaluation
Feedback
Weekly content
Recommendation
Teaching team members should remain focussed on the weekly activities, and avoid any digression from each week's theme.
Action Taken
The lecturer ensured that no digression occurred during the lecture. The material offered focused on the week's theme. No negative feedback was received from the students regarding the lecture content.
Source: My Experience
Feedback
"The layout of moodle, use of readings and relevant information is great. Danielle is very logical and easy to understand. Knows and covers relevant information fully".
Recommendation
Nil changes required
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: My Experience
Feedback
"Danielle is an amazing supportive lecturer. I struggle with the content because its very hard, but Danielle has an amazing way of teaching to help me understand".
Recommendation
Nil changes requested
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: My Experience
Feedback
"Great, relevant information. Super interesting and well presented. We know exactly what we need for each assessment piece . This subject has enhanced our knowledge of medication and pharmacology, thankyou".
Recommendation
Students appear satisfied with unit material and assessment instructions. Nil changes required.
Action Taken
Nil.
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Examine the principles of quality use of medicines (QUM), as related to nursing practise
  2. Consider the pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamics, biochemical and microbial influences medications can have upon individuals across the lifespan
  3. Analyse the professional and ethical implications of medication administration and the associated legislative requirements to nursing practise
  4. Explore the use and implications of non-traditional and complementary pharmacological therapies.

The learning outcomes are linked to the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation (ANMAC) Standards for registered nurses and the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) registered nurse standards for practice.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Online Quiz(zes)
2 - Written Assessment
3 - Written Assessment
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
Introductory Level
Intermediate Level
Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
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
1 - Online Quiz(zes)
2 - Written Assessment
3 - Written Assessment