Overview
This unit introduces you to the important role of communication in nursing practice and strategies to effectively communicate as a nurse. You will examine types of communication strategies that are relevant to different health contexts. In particular, you will explore your own strengths in communication and how you can best use these to manage future challenges when nursing. Throughout this unit you will have the opportunity to work in small teams to explore the many different facets of communication in nursing and to build a portfolio that documents your learning and your development of skills and strategies to use in future nursing practice.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Students need to be enrolled in CL91 or Start Unit Now in order to undertake this 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).
Offerings For Term 2 - 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 Staff feedback Student Feedback - Email, SUTE
Increased staff workload due to Moodle error while registering student groups.
This resulted in an increased staff workload. Remove compulsory group work for assignments for term 2.
Feedback from Student feedback - Verbal, Email, SUTE
Students felt group work assisted in deeper learning and understanding on the content.
Students in term 2 will be encouraged to form groups to continue to receive this benefit.
Feedback from Student feedback - SUTE, Verbal, Email
Students felt the portfolio focused on too much reflection.
Portfolio tasks changed from practical activities in groups and individual reflection to theoretical individual activities.
- Examine the fundamental role of communication in in nursing practice as informed by professional standards
- Explain communication strategies that enable effective professional relationships
- Adapt communication strategies to facilitate effective communication in one-on-one and group contexts
- Analyse and evaluate your communication strengths and identify communication challenges you may encounter in future clinical practice.
Content in this unit incorporates a number of professional nursing requirements
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) Registered Nurse Standards for Practice
Thinks critically and analyses nursing practice
Engages in therapeutic and professional relationships
Maintains the capability for practice
Provides safe, appropriate and responsive quality nursing practice
Evaluates outcomes to inform nursing practice
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia Nursing Code of Conduct
Person-centred practice
Cultural practice and respectful relationships
Professional behaviour
Health and wellbeing
International Council of Nurses Code of Ethics for Nurses
Nurses and People
National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards
Partnering with consumers
Comprehensive care
Communicating for safety
Nurses and Practice
Patient Safety Competency Framework
Person-centred care
Therapeutic communication
Cultural competence
Teamwork and collaborative practice
Evidence-based practice
Preventing, minimising and responding to adverse events
Nurses and the Profession
Aged Care Quality Standards
Consumer dignity and choice
Nurses and co-workers
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Portfolio - 40% | ||||
| 2 - Portfolio - 60% | ||||
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 | ||||
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
Additional Textbook Information
Information Technology (IT) resources
Students will require access to:
- Unit website (moodle)
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Access to Microsoft Word or other word-processing packages
- Zoom
- Microsoft Teams
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
- Access to Microsoft Word or other word processing package
- Microsoft Teams
- Microsoft Teams - camera and microphone
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: American Psychological Association 7th Edition (APA 7th edition)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
s.bolton@cqu.edu.au
p.johnson@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Being a nurse - being a person
Chapter
Resources are provided on the Moodle site and via your e-reading list
Events and Submissions/Topic
Ensure you have completed the Unit introduction tile to have an understanding of the unit requirements.
Ensure that you have formed a study group through the study tree, as this can assist you with support this term
Module/Topic
Getting your message across
Chapter
Resources are provided on the Moodle site and via your e-reading list
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Are you hearing me?
Chapter
Resources are provided on the Moodle site and via your e-reading list
Events and Submissions/Topic
ALC session this week
Module/Topic
Recognising this is hard - responding to a person in distress
Chapter
Resources are provided on the Moodle site and via your e-reading list
Events and Submissions/Topic
Census Date - 5th August 2025
Module/Topic
The power of non-verbal communication
Chapter
Resources are provided on the Moodle site and via your e-reading list
Events and Submissions/Topic
Assessment 1 Portfolio due - Wednesday 13 August 2025 at 4pm
Short Answer Responses with communicating with families Due: Week 5 Wednesday (13 Aug 2025) 4:00 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Break Week
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
There are no online classes or workshops held over this week.
Module/Topic
The impact of the external environment and communication
Chapter
Resources are provided on the Moodle site and via your e-reading list
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Appearances
Chapter
Resources are provided on the Moodle site and via your e-reading list
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Whats in a word?
Chapter
Resources are provided on the Moodle site and via your e-reading list
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
My patient is sick!
Chapter
Resources are provided on the Moodle site and via your e-reading list
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Communication with children and families
Chapter
Resources are provided on the Moodle site and via your e-reading list
Events and Submissions/Topic
ALC session this week
Module/Topic
Diverse Communication needs and first look at Borton's Reflective Model
Chapter
Resources are provided on the Moodle site and via your e-reading list
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Preparing for Placement - The final frontier
Chapter
Resources are provided on the Moodle site and via your e-reading list
Events and Submissions/Topic
Assessment 2 Portfolio due - Wednesday 8 October 2025 at 4pm
Short answer Responses to stimulus Due: Week 12 Wednesday (8 Oct 2025) 4:00 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Portfolio
Aim
The aim of this assessment is for you to demonstrate your understanding of the role of communication and how to enhance communication in nursing clinical practice. You will research the area of dementia in aged care nursing and provide communication strategies in educating families of the patients with dementia, to showcase your current knowledge.
Instructions
Provide short answer responses to educate families in communicating with their family member who has dementia. Please follow the steps below to complete your assessment task:
1. Define effective communication in nursing and clearly link to Registered Nurse (RN) Standard Professional Practice 2 (200 words).
2. Identify and discuss ONE (1) communication strategy that can be used by you as the acute care registered nurse in effectively communicating with the family in of a person who has a diagnosis of dementia (200 words).
3. Identify and discuss ONE (1) communication strategy that may be challenging for you as the acute care registered nurse to engage in a discussion with the family of a person diagnosed with dementia (200 words).
4. Analyse and evaluate ONE (1) communication strategy that you as the acute care registered nurse will utilise in communicating with the multidisciplinary healthcare team (200 words).
Literature and references
In this assessment use at least 5 contemporary references (<7 years) to support your discussion. You may also use seminal scholarly literature where relevant. Suitable references include peer-reviewed journal articles as well as textbooks and credible websites. When sourcing information, consider the 5 elements of a quality reference: currency, authority, relevance, objectivity, and coverage. Grey literature sourced from the internet must be from reputable websites such as from government, university, or peak national bodies: for example, the Australian College of Nursing or the Australian Association of Social Workers, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Websites such as StatPearls, Life in the Fastlane, and Wikipedia are unsuitable for this assessment task. Lecture notes are also unsuitable for this assessment task.
Requirements
Use a cover page for your assignment that includes in the following order:
- Student name
- Student number
- Unit code and name
- Assessment type
- Due date
- In-text word count
- Use of Gen AI: Gen AI agent (insert name of GenAI agent) has been used for researching and proofreading this assessment (insert or delete as applicable).
- You may wish to submit a draft to Studiosity. If you choose to submit a draft to Studiosity, please declare this on your cover page. Use the following declaration (fill in as appropriate): Use of Gen AI: Gen AI agent XXX has been used for editing and proofreading this assessment.
- Use a conventional and legible size 12 font, such as Times New Roman, with 2.0 line spacing and 2.54cm page margins (standard pre-set margin in Microsoft Word).
- Include page numbers on the top right side of each page in a header.
- Write in the third-person perspective.
- Use formal academic, discipline specific and inclusive language.
- You may use sub-headings as required. Sub-headings are included in your word count.
- The word count is considered from the first word of the introduction to the last word of the conclusion. The word count excludes the reference list but includes in-text references and direct quotations.
- All questions in the instructions of this assessment must be attempted and clearly answered to be eligible to pass this assessment task or be eligible for a re-attempt.
- All work submitted must be your own work.
- Start your reference list on a separate page to the body of your assessment.
- Please use the seventh edition American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style. The CQUniversity Academic Learning Centre has an online APA Referencing Style Guide.
- Please use Appendix H of the APA Referencing Style Guide to ensure your reference list is complete before submission.
Resources
·You can use unit provided materials and other credible sources (e.g. journal articles, books) to reference your argument. The quality and credibility of your sources are important. Please do not reference Moodle. Please note that lecture notes are not peer-reviewed primary sources of evidence.
We recommend that you access your discipline specific library guide: the Nursing and Midwifery Guide; Social Work and Community Services Guide.
We recommend you use EndNote to manage your citations and reference list. More information on how to use EndNote is available at the CQUniversity Library website.
For information on academic communication please go to the Academic Learning Centre Moodle site. The Academic Communication section has many helpful resources including information for students with English as a second language.
You may wish to submit a draft to Studiosity.
Submit a draft before the due date to review your Turnitin Similarity Score before making a final submission. Instructions are available here. Please remember, the similarity score is only a matching tool, and the score alone does not necessarily indicate or eliminate the presence of plagiarism.
Academic Integrity
1. You must abide by the principles of academic integrity (see Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure). Completion of this assessment with another party or sharing of responses is not permitted at any time.
2. The use of any generative artificial intelligence is permitted as per Level 2 (AI planning) and Level 3 (AI Collaboration) AI Assessment scale tool indicators:
a. Gen AI content is used to generate ideas and general structures.
b. Gen AI content editing.
c. Checking spelling and grammar.
d. CQUniversity’s Gen AI tools approved for use in this assessment are Microsoft Copilot (protected version), Studiosity and Grammarly.
3. Any use of Gen AI software:
a. Must be cited in the relevant sections.
b. Must be referenced as per APA 7th guidelines.
You must complete the declaration of Gen AI use on the title page of your assessment.
Submission
Submit your assessment via the unit Moodle site in Microsoft Word format only.
Late penalties of 5% per day of the available mark may be applied as per the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Contact TASAC if you experience technical issues submitting your assessment:
· Phone toll-free 1300 666 620
· Email tasac@cqu.edu.au
Extensions: Available as per policy - The 72-hour grace period applies to this assessment
Marking Criteria
Refer to the marking rubric on the Moodle site for more detail on how marks will be assigned. Assessment re-attempt is not available for this assessment.
Minimum Pass Criteria
You must achieve a minimum grade of 49.5% to pass this assessment.
In the event you are eligible for a supplementary assessment, all assessment tasks must be reasonably attempted in this unit.
Week 5 Wednesday (13 Aug 2025) 4:00 pm AEST
Extensions: Available as per policy - The 72-hour grace period applies to this assessment
Week 7 Wednesday (3 Sept 2025)
Please refer to the marking rubric on the Moodle site for more detail on how marks will be assigned.
- Examine the fundamental role of communication in in nursing practice as informed by professional standards
- Explain communication strategies that enable effective professional relationships
- Adapt communication strategies to facilitate effective communication in one-on-one and group contexts
- Analyse and evaluate your communication strengths and identify communication challenges you may encounter in future clinical practice.
2 Portfolio
Aim
The aim of this assessment is for you to demonstrate your understanding of the role of effective communication and how to enhance communication in nursing clinical practice. You will respond to four short answer questions regarding a video to demonstrate your own knowledge to date.
Instructions
Please follow the steps below to complete your assessment task:
Watch the video located in the Moodle Assessment tile under Assessment Two:
Uncle David & Aunty Alice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqDizwy407w
After watching the video, please place yourself in the shoes of the community Registered Nurse. Please answer the following questions. Link your responses to the video by using examples in your discussion:
1. Identify and discuss effective communication skills that would be useful when communicating with Uncle David and Aunty Alice. Provide TWO (2) examples from the video where these communication skills could be used. Support your answer with three (3) relevant and current journal articles (300 words).
2. Identify and discuss cultural and clinical considerations that you, as the community registered nurse should incorporate into your communication with Uncle David and Aunty Alice (400 words).
3. Uncle David has given Aunty Alice her morning medications and has realised the medications have run out and there is not enough medication available for tomorrow. Identify and discuss your role as a community registered nurse in communicating with the Pharmacist to address this issue (300 words).
4. Using Borton’s reflective model, reflect on this experience and share how you felt watching the video. Discuss how you will use this experience to shape your nursing practice when you begin placement (200 words).
Literature and references
In this assessment use at least 8 contemporary references (<7 years) to support your discussion. You may also use seminal scholarly literature where relevant. Suitable references include peer-reviewed journal articles as well as textbooks and credible websites. When sourcing information, consider the 5 elements of a quality reference: currency, authority, relevance, objectivity, and coverage. Grey literature sourced from the internet must be from reputable websites such as from government, university, or peak national bodies: for example, the Australian College of Nursing or the Australian Association of Social Workers, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Note, that websites such as StatPearls, Life in the Fastlane, and Wikipedia are not suitable for this assessment task. Lecture notes should not be used in this assessment.
Requirements
Use a cover page for your assignment that includes in the following order:
- Student name
- Student number
- Unit code and name
- Assessment type
- Due date
- In-text word count
- Use of Gen AI: Gen AI agent (insert name of GenAI agent) has been used for researching and proofreading this assessment (insert or delete as applicable).
- You may wish to submit a draft to Studiosity. If you choose to submit a draft to Studiosity, please declare this on your cover page. Use the following declaration (fill in as appropriate): Use of Gen AI: Gen AI agent XXX has been used for editing and proofreading this assessment.
- Use a conventional and legible size 12 font, such as Times New Roman, with 2.0 line spacing and 2.54cm page margins (standard pre-set margin in Microsoft Word).
- Include page numbers on the top right side of each page in a header.
- Write in the third-person perspective.
- Use formal academic, discipline specific, professional and inclusive language.
- You may use sub-headings as required (are included in your word count).
- You may write in the first-person perspective (I, my) for reflective writing tasks, or as directed by your lecturer.
- Start your reference list on a separate page to the body of your assessment.
- Use the seventh edition American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style. The CQUniversity Academic Learning Centre has an online CQU APA Referencing Style Guide.
- Please use Appendix H of the APA Referencing Style Guide to ensure your reference list is complete before submission.
- The word count is considered from the first word of the introduction to the last word of the conclusion. The word count excludes the reference list but includes in-text references and direct quotations.
- All work submitted must be your own work.
Resources
You can use unit provided materials and other credible sources (e.g. journal articles, books) to reference your argument. The quality and credibility of your sources are important. Please note that lecture notes are not peer-reviewed primary sources of evidence.
We recommend that you access your discipline specific library guide: the Nursing and Midwifery Guide; Social Work and Community Services Guide.
We recommend you use EndNote to manage your citations and reference list. More information on how to use EndNote is available at the CQUniversity Library website.
For information on academic communication please go to the Academic Learning Centre Moodle site. The Academic Communication section has many helpful resources including information for students with English as a second language.
You may wish to submit a draft to Studiosity.
Submit a draft before the due date to review your Turnitin Similarity Score before making a final submission. Instructions are available here. Please remember, the similarity score is only a matching tool, and the score alone does not necessarily indicate or eliminate the presence of plagiarism.
Submission
Submit your assessment via the unit Moodle site in Microsoft Word format only.
Late penalties of 5% per day of the available mark may be applied as per the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Contact TASAC if you experience technical issues submitting your assessment:
Phone toll-free 1300 666 620
Email tasac@cqu.edu.au
Extensions: Available as per policy - The 72-hour grace period applies to this assessment
Academic Integrity
1. You must abide by the principles of academic integrity (see Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure). Completion of this assessment with another party or sharing of responses is not permitted at any time.
2. The use of any generative artificial intelligence is permitted as per Level 2 (AI planning) and Level 3 (AI Collaboration) AI Assessment scale tool indicators:
a. Gen AI content is used to generate ideas and general structures.
b. Gen AI content editing.
c. Checking spelling and grammar.
d. CQUniversity’s Gen AI tools approved for use in this assessment are Microsoft Copilot (protected version), Studiosity and Grammarly.
3. Any use of Gen AI software:
a. Must be cited in the relevant sections.
b. Must be referenced as per APA 7th guidelines.
c. You must complete the declaration of Gen AI use on the title page of your assessment.
Marking Criteria
Refer to the marking rubric on the Moodle site for more detail on how marks will be assigned. No re-attempt will be available for this assessment.
Minimum Pass Criteria
You must achieve a cumulative grade of at least 49.5% across all assessments to pass this unit.
In the event you are eligible for a supplementary assessment, all assessment tasks must be reasonably attempted in this unit.
Week 12 Wednesday (8 Oct 2025) 4:00 pm AEST
Extensions: Available as per policy - The 72-hour grace period applies to this assessment
Results for this assessment will be made available Wednesday, 29th October 2025 (University Vacation)
Please refer to the marking rubric on the Moodle site for more detail on how marks will be assigned.
- Examine the fundamental role of communication in in nursing practice as informed by professional standards
- Explain communication strategies that enable effective professional relationships
- Adapt communication strategies to facilitate effective communication in one-on-one and group contexts
- Analyse and evaluate your communication strengths and identify communication challenges you may encounter in future clinical practice.
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
