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NURS28011 - Advanced Practice Pharmacology 1

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This is the first of two advanced pharmacology units in the Master of Nurse Practitioner course. The unit focuses on the advanced pharmacology and Quality Use of Medicines (QUM) knowledge required of a nurse practitioner prescriber, which would inform your safe prescribing and selection of appropriate medicines for individual consumers based on their health assessment and diagnosis. In this unit, you will utilise critical analysis and clinical reasoning skills to develop your clinical and theoretical knowledge about the pharmacotherapeutic, pharmacokinetic, and pharmacodynamic principles of medications and their physical, biochemical, psychological, and pathophysiological effects when making decisions for consumer care. You will develop a comprehensive understanding of the legislative, clinical, professional, and organisational requirements that inform the QUM, safe prescribing and administration for nurse practitioners. You will also be encouraged to reflect on how the pharmacotherapeutic, pharmacokinetic, and pharmacodynamic principles and the QUM are applied within their context of specialty and scope of practice. Students must be enrolled in the Master of Nurse Practitioner course to undertake this unit.

Details

Level Postgraduate
Unit Level 8
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 the Master of Nurse Practitioner course to enrol into this unit.

Pre-requisites:

  • Foundation of Nurse Practitioner Practice
  • Advanced Health Assessment, Diagnostics and Interventions.

Co-requisite: Nurse Practitioner Integrated Professional Practice 1.

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 - 2025

There are no availabilities for this unit on or after Term 3 - 2025

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 30%
2. Examination 30%
3. Practical Assessment 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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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.

Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Critically discuss the legal, ethical, political, and professional responsibilities associated with medication prescribing and administration within your specialty practice and scope of practice
  2. Apply clinical expertise in conducting a comprehensive medication history, including prescription, non-prescription, and complementary or alternative medicines
  3. Analyse the therapeutic effect of medications on the major body systems, pharmacological drug classes including alternative medicinal approaches, and their roles in the person-centred treatment of disease/illness
  4. Critically analyse evidence of the pharmacotherapeutic, pharmacokinetic, and pharmacodynamic principles that inform the nurse practitioner’s safe medication prescribing, administration, and therapeutic use of medicines to make appropriate consumer care decisions.

Content in this unit is linked to the Nurse practitioner standards for practice (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2021).

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Written Assessment • •
2 - Examination • • •
3 - Practical Assessment • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Professional Level
• Advanced Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Knowledge • • • •
2 - Communication • • • •
4 - Research • • •
6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility • •
7 - Leadership • • •
8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures • • •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Professional Level
• Advanced Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8