NURS13140 - Law and Ethical Considerations in the Profession of Nursing

General Information

Unit Synopsis

As a nursing student, you may be confronted by legal and ethical dilemmas that will require you to be able to apply appropriate decision-making skills. This unit will support your transition to a graduate nurse by ensuring that you understand the healthcare laws that govern the profession of nursing. In this unit, you will examine the legal concepts and ethical principles and explore how registered nurses apply these in a healthcare context.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 3
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 1
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Pre-requisites:

BIOH12012 Pathophysiology and Pharmacology 2 or BIOH12008 Human Pathophysiology or NURS12158 Clinical Nursing Practice 3.

Co-requisites:

NURS12162 Mental Health Nursing with Professional Experience Placement or NURS12157 Concepts of Mental Health Nursing.

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 - 2025

Term 1 - 2025 Profile
Brisbane
Online
Rockhampton

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) 15%
2. Presentation 25%
3. Written Assessment 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 1 - 2023 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 70.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 18.77% 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: SUTE feedback
Feedback
Students requested weekly recorded information to explain the content.
Recommendation
Presentations that explained key components of the content were available in a prerecorded format for all weeks. All modules had a presentation available from week one of the term. Opportunities were made available for students to discuss content via online drop-in sessions. These sessions were held every two weeks; however, they were not well attended by students despite the daytime and evening options provided.
Action Taken
Weekly recorded content was provided. The previous recommendations were implemented and this pattern of delivery is recommended to continue.
Source: SUTE feedback
Feedback
Students requested weekly access to coordinators
Recommendation
Weekly online sessions were made available however, these were infrequently accessed by students in Term 1. The drop-in sessions will remain scheduled on a weekly basis with greater awareness of these opportunities made to students.
Action Taken
Student engagement remains a challenge. An increase in the number of evening sessions was well received by students and is recommended to continue in the next offering.
Source: SUTE feedback
Feedback
Students requested more zoom sessions in relation to the assessments.
Recommendation
Deconstruction for assessment one was provided in a recorded information presentation. Assessment one also had feedback provided via the forums. Online sessions providing the opportunity to discuss assessment items and content were provided; however, these were not well attended by students. Four live sessions were available for assessment item 2 (two of which were recorded and made available to students), and an additional AV presentation on how to approach the assessment was also provided. No further sessions are deemed necessary; however, students will be encouraged to attend the drop-in online sessions and view the recorded material relating to the assessment, as well as attend the live zoom workshops.
Action Taken
The deconstruction of the major assessment was undertaken on four occasions. The first two sessions were recorded. Subsequent drop in sessions were held in alternating day and evening timeslots and were well attended by students. It is recommended this approach continues.
Source: SUTE feedback
Feedback
Students indicated that the teaching scenario would have been a better option for the assessment instead of the scenario provided.
Recommendation
The teaching scenario was used to deconstruct the assessment 2 task. Workshopping the teaching scenario added to the depth of understanding by the students, as coordinator direction, peer-assisted learning and group consensus approach occurred. The teaching scenario was similar to the assessment scenario however, the assessment task itself required the demonstration of critical thinking by students on an individual basis. No changes to the complexity or structure of the scenarios are deemed necessary.
Action Taken
A teaching scenario was adopted and well received. Greater encouragement to engage in the forum discussions regarding smaller example type mini-scenarios would be an advantage. Alternately, presenting a series of smaller mini-scenarios in the weekly contact sessions would also achieve this enhancement.
Source: SUTE feedback
Feedback
Students reported being disadvantaged if they were not located in Rockhampton as this is the only campus that holds face to face workshops.
Recommendation
Face to Face workshops was held on the Rockhampton campus to meet the requirements for international students, and the sessions were open to all students. This opportunity was not accessed by many students. These sessions were not recorded as they are tutorial sessions. There were multiple opportunities provided through online workshops and coordinator online and drop-in sessions however, these were not well utilised by students despite both day and evening opportunities being made available. On-campus workshops will remain to meet the needs of international students with an open invitation to others in the vicinity. Workshops online will be held in response to FAQ where a more detailed response is required. These will be held on an as-needs basis. Coordinator online & drop-in sessions will continue to be available on a weekly basis.
Action Taken
The provision of weekly contact sessions and drop in sessions nearing assessment times was well received and should continue. These sessions in addition to encouragement to post to the forums to stimulate discussion and debate around weekly topics would be an advantage to facilitating access to coordinators and encouraging peer to peer discussions.
Source: Students in the session.
Feedback
Drop in sessions nearing assessment submission times were well received by students.
Recommendation
Continue to facilitate this connection with coordinators.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Students who attended the session and viewed the recording.
Feedback
Using a similar type scenario to deconstruct the essay assessment task was very useful.
Recommendation
Continue with this deconstruction process
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Students who attended the session, emails and calls to coordinators.
Feedback
Opportunities to attend a drop in session and not be recorded.
Recommendation
While student's appreciated the recordings of sessions, a number of students also requested time in these sessions where the recording was stopped do they could discuss their personal perceptions on topics. They indicated that recording would then open up to all students an individuals students conceptualising on some sensitive topics. To record the first general discussion and to give off camera time to discussion at the end of each session.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Drop in sessions, SUTE data
Feedback
While some students indicated four small short answer tasks submitted every two weeks was challenging, other students applauded the smaller items.
Recommendation
Retaining the smaller short answer tasks is ideal however, giving students more flexibility with the submission dates might be of benefit. For example Task A due prior to census date and Tasks B, C & D due by week 10. The compromise is possibly the amount of feedback the student will receive prior to their final assessment task 2. This will also need consideration in relation to the assessment schedule for other final years units.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Demonstrate an informed understanding of the basic concepts and principles that underpin Australian healthcare law.
  2. Analyse and reflect on healthcare problems and identify relevant ethical and legal issues.
  3. Develop a broad and coherent body of knowledge of how legislation, policies, frameworks, codes, and guidelines are applied to nursing practice in Australia.

Content in this unit incorporates a number of professional nursing requirements

Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia Registered Nurse Standards for Practice

Thinks critically and analyses nursing practice

Engages in therapeutic and professional relationships

Maintains the capability for practice

Evaluates outcomes to inform nursing practice

Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia Nursing Code of Conduct

Legal compliance

Person-centred practice

Cultural practice and respectful relationships

Professional behaviour

Teaching, supervising and assessing

Research in health

Health and wellbeing

International Council of Nursing Code of Ethics for Nursing

Nurses and People

Nurses and Practice

Nurses and the Profession

Nurses and co-workers

National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards

Clinical governance

Partnering with consumers

Preventing and Controlling healthcare-associated infection

Medication safety

Comprehensive care

Communicating for safety

Patient Safety Competency Framework

Person-centred care

Therapeutic communication

Cultural competence

Teamwork and collaborative practice

Clinical reasoning

Evidence-based practice

Preventing, minimising and responding to adverse events

Infection prevention and control

Medication safety

Aged Care Quality Standards

Organisation’s service environment

Feedback and complaints

Human resources

Organisation governance

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3
1 - Online Quiz(zes) •
2 - Presentation • •
3 - Written Assessment • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3
1 - Communication • •
2 - Problem Solving • •
3 - Critical Thinking • • •
4 - Information Literacy •
6 - Information Technology 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