Unit Synopsis
This unit introduces you to the foundations of research skills and knowledge required for nursing, midwifery and social sciences research. You will critically appraise and justify research paradigms and develop and justify research questions for qualitative, quantitative or mixed method designs, and propose suitable research paradigms and designs to answer your research question.
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 - 2026
Term 1 - 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 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 | 40% |
| 2. 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%).
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 - 2024 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 0.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 20% 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: Discussions with student.
This unit overlaps with NURS20173 which is usually undertaken concurrently. Assessment 1 (research paradigms) has little relevance to research in clinical practice.
The unit will be rewritten to ensure scaffolded learning and better flow between NURS20168 and NURS20173. Learning outcomes and assessments will be refined to ensure theoretical research knowledge is incorporated with practical research skills for a clinical focus rather than an academic focus.
This unit has been rewritten and the assessments are better aligned to practice rather than research theory.
Source: Student feedback.
Individual student-focused teaching helped to achieve a great outcome
Orientate teaching in accordance with the individual student's needs. Ensure Zoom drop-in sessions are at appropriate times to suit both the lecturer and the students. Continue to add to available resources on Moodle as required by students.
An extra Zoom session was created during the morning for those students who were unable to meet at 6 pm. This resulted in better student engagement.
Source: Student
Student feedback suggests that the unit is challenging.
Alert students that the expected workload and engagement with unit contents is 10-12 hours per week. This will be provided in writing and discussed during Zoom meetings hosted at various times to accommodate student rosters.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Critically appraise and justify research paradigms and methods used to answer research questions in contemporary and diverse healthcare settings
- Construct and justify research question/s appropriate to qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods research design
- Propose and justify a research paradigm and design to answer a research question
There are no learning outcomes linked to external accreditation for this unit.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | |
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | • | • | • |
| 2 - Communication | • | • | |
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | • | • | |
| 4 - Research | • | • | • |
| 5 - Self-management | • | ||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | • | • | • |
| 7 - Leadership | • | ||
| 8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | • | ||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | |