NURS28003 - Optimising Health in the Correctional Setting

General Information

Unit Synopsis

The health needs of offenders in the correctional setting are greater than those of people in the general community. This group often have long-standing physical illnesses and/or mental health issues. Social disadvantage and inadequate health literacy are often contributing factors towards a lower health status. While offenders often have not accessed healthcare before entering prison, they make extensive use of health services provided within prison. Thus, the correctional nurse has a major role in contributing to the current and potential health of the offender through acute and primary health care. This unit explores the role of the correctional nurse in optimising prisoner health in a highly regulated environment. This includes health promotion and health education, triaging and managing acute and chronic physical and mental health conditions and Sexually Transmitted Infection management and tracking.

Details

Level Postgraduate
Unit Level 8
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band 7
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites There are no pre-requisites for the unit.

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

Be Different Intakes

Note: BeDifferent Units are available to study all year round
There are no Be Different Intakes availabilities for this unit.

Higher Education Unit Availabilities from Term 2 - 2020

There are no Higher Education availabilities for this unit on or after Term 2 - 2020
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. Online discussion forum 10%
2. Case Study 40%
3. Portfolio 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 2 - 2021 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 5 (on a 5 point Likert scale), based on a 17.24% 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: Informal student communication
Feedback
Good learning resources and links to external resources provided.
Recommendation
Learning resources will be reviewed and updated to maintain currency and relevance to the unit content.
Action Taken
Learning resources are updated and changed where required. Learning resources are chosen that are relevant and current to the Australian context when available.
Source: Have your say survey.
Feedback
There were no qualitative feedback responses provided through the 'have your say' survey. All questions were marked strongly agree by the 5 participants.
Recommendation
The quality of feedback could be improved through teaching staff encouraging the students to be more specific in their responses to the questions related to good teaching and required improvements.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: Student feedback
Feedback
Appreciate support given my difficult work situation
Recommendation
Consideration will continue to be given to students within university policies to complete their course of study.
Action Taken
Nil.
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Identify the range of physical and mental health issues prevalent in the offender population, including those related to sexual and reproductive health and those experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
  2. Analyse the primary health care role of the correctional nurse
  3. Identify organisational and cultural barriers to providing treatment for persons with acute or chronic illness in the correctional setting and provide strategies to decrease the impact
  4. Demonstrate principles of triage, and recognising and responding to clinical deterioration, in simulated scenarios
  5. Explain the prevalence of communicable diseases in the correctional setting, including Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and evaluate a program and/or strategy designed to minimise this prevalence
  6. Construct a health education program for an individual offender and/or group of offenders to optimise their health while being imprisoned and/or for returning to the community.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 - Online discussion forum
2 - Case Study
3 - Portfolio
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
Advanced Level
Professional Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 - Knowledge
2 - Communication
3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills
4 - Research
6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
Advanced Level
Professional Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 - Online discussion forum
2 - Case Study
3 - Portfolio