NURS20168 - Designing Research in Nursing, Midwifery and Social Sciences

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit introduces you to the foundations of research skills and empirical knowledge required for nursing, midwifery and social sciences research. You will examine research paradigms, and critically examine research design and methodologies related to quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research to develop a research proposal, including ethical considerations, methods, data collection, and data analysis.

Details

Level Postgraduate
Unit Level 9
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 1
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Students must be enrolled in CL22 Master of Clinical Nursing to undertake this unit.

Co-requisites: NURS20173.

Pre-requisites: NURS20167.

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 - 2024

Term 1 - 2024 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 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 60%
2. Research Proposal 40%

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 4.3 (on a 5 point Likert scale), based on a 75% 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: Unit Evaluation
Feedback
Provide more information to guide structuring and writing the research assignment in the unit profile task description.
Recommendation
Step-by-step task activities will be provided to support students' understanding of the assignment requirements and condense all assignment relevant information in one place on Moodle.
Action Taken
Moodle appearance was changed to the tile format. All assessment information was placed in the Assessment tile. Information on Moodle was placed in books.
Source: Unit Evaluation
Feedback
Weekly topic and lecture guide wanted.
Recommendation
Develop weekly topic guides outlining the scope of the topic, key learning outcomes, student questions for the discussion forum, useful links to videos, internet resources and readings.
Action Taken
An Introduction tile was developed which directed students to the Unit Profile showing each weekly topic. A CQUni Resources book was developed containing information about how to use Moodle and where to find information.
Source: Unit Evaluation
Feedback
The essay on philosophical approaches to generating knowledge was a complex and difficult assignment for students with no previous knowledge in this area.
Recommendation
For Term 2, 2020 the Unit Learning Outcomes and assessments have been extensively revised. This assignment is no longer given to students and the material is not in the scope of the unit learning.
Action Taken
N/A
Source: SUTE
Feedback
The unit worked very well with NURS20167 and NURS20173 to help add to and consolidate information across all units.
Recommendation
Continue to develop the units together to ensure scaffolding of learning.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: SUTE
Feedback
NURS10167 and NURS20168 both had very large heavily weighted assignments due very close together, not sure if it's possible but spacing one or the other out would be helpful for students undertaking these two units at the same time.
Recommendation
The timing of the assessment has been changed to avoid student overload.
Action Taken
Nil.
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Critically appraise and justify research paradigms and methods used to answer research questions in contemporary, diverse healthcare settings.
  2. Construct and justify research question/s appropriate to qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research design.
  3. Critically analyse ethical and research conduct principles to reduce risk and promote quality outcomes when conducting research in healthcare settings.
  4. Propose and justify a research paradigm and design to answer your research question, and incorporate methodological rigour to develop credible research outcomes.

There are no learning outcomes linked to external accreditation for this unit.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Written Assessment
2 - Research Proposal
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
Advanced Level
Professional Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Knowledge
2 - Communication
3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills
4 - Research
5 - Self-management
6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility
7 - Leadership
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
Advanced Level
Professional Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8