In Progress
Please note that this Unit Profile is still in progress. The content below is subject to change.Overview
This unit explores the abdomen, specifically normal and pathological ultrasound examinations. Online lectures and interactive Zoom tutorials are used to lay the foundation for this knowledge. Sonography images and scanning videos, both of normal and abnormal abdominal organs, are used to familiarise you with how things appear on ultrasound. This unit prepares you for not only MEDS12004 Sonographic Skills Development 1 where you will scan normal abdomens, but also for clinical placement, where patients' pathologies need to be detected by the sonographer. This unit will also allow you to develop the skills required to read and understand patient request forms, including what clinical tests have been done on the presenting patient, and what these tests and results are indicating in terms of areas of concern the referring doctor is looking for in the patient.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Prerequisite MEDS11001 Fundamentals of Sonographic Practice AND Prerequisite MEDS11002 Relational Anatomy and Image Recognition
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).
Offerings For Term 1 - 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).
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.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
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.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
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.
Feedback from Student feedback, SUTE, UC observation
Some students would like more practise describing images with answers provided.
The unit coordinator will look for more opportunities to incorporate practise images including descriptions for students.
Feedback from Student feedback, UC observation
The PASS sessions are proving very valuable to students, with higher success and positive experiences from students who attend these.
Encourage more students to attend the PASS sessions as it can have a very positive affect on their progress in this unit.
Feedback from Student feedback, SUTE, UC observation
Students are finding the interactive tutorials very encouraging and beneficial for their learning as they help to scaffold their learning within the unit. Some state that they are quite long though, as most go for 2 hours.
Continue tutorials in the same format but incorporate a 10-minute break after an hour to allow students (and unit coordinator) to stretch, refresh, and start again. This will also allow the recording to be two smaller ones, allowing easier viewing.
- Describe anatomical structures and commonly encountered pathologies on sonographic images and videos of the abdomen, using appropriate anatomical and sonographic terminology
- Differentiate the clinical indications, sonographic appearance, and aetiology of abdominal pathologies
- Explain the relevance of laboratory data in relation to sonographic imaging of the abdomen
- Analyse clinical scenarios to provide a pathological differential diagnosis and to produce a sonographic report
The learning outcomes for this unit relate to the requirements of general sonography courses under the Australasian Sonography Accreditation Registry (ASAR), Standards for the Accreditation of Sonographer Courses (SASC):
Foundation Units of Competence 1-5
Critical Practice Units of Competence 6
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Online Quiz(zes) - 20% | ||||
| 2 - Online Test - 30% | ||||
| 3 - Examination - 50% | ||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | ||||
| 2 - Problem Solving | ||||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | ||||
| 4 - Information Literacy | ||||
| 5 - Team Work | ||||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | ||||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | ||||
| 8 - Ethical practice | ||||
| 9 - Social Innovation | ||||
| 10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | ||||