CQUniversity Unit Profile.

In this unit, you will have the opportunity to practice fundamental nursing care, including the care of the older adult. You will apply the relevant Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) Professional Standards and the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards (NSQHS) in your practice as a nursing student. You will learn to identify risk and recognise and respond appropriately to the needs of the patient in the simulated and clinical environments. You will review the concept of scope of practice using the Decision-Making Framework (DMF) (NMBA, 2020). You are required to participate in a compulsory three (3) day, 24-hour residential school or equivalent prior to attending professional experience placement for this unit. This unit includes a 120 hour block professional experience placement in a clinical care environment. You must meet specific mandatory health, safety and security requirements to be eligible to attend each professional experience placement. Professional experience placements may be limited in your community, and you may be placed in other locations. Please be prepared financially and personally to cover the costs of relocating for placements. Due to the limited availability of placements, some block placements have start and/or end dates that fall outside standard term dates.

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.

This is a pass/fail (non-graded) unit. To pass the unit, you must pass all of the individual assessment tasks shown in the table above.

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 SUTE Data

I found residential school, didn't really prepare me for placement for things regarding assisting patient movements and ADL's

Safe mobilisation of patients and assistance with daily activities such as feeding and showering are covered in the residential school content. HOS and Unit Coordinators to review amount of time spent engaging in this activity during residential school.

Feedback from SUTE Data email feedback from clinical facilitators in industry

During placement, it would be beneficial to have a skills checklist available in addition to the ANSAT form. This would allow students to track and evidence their progress in specific clinical skills more effectively. For example, the checklist could include a set number of opportunities to complete and be observed performing core nursing tasks such as: - Conducting five sets of patient observations - Performing three wound dressings using aseptic technique - Assisting with a specified number of patient showers or hygiene cares Having this structured checklist would support clearer goal setting, enhance skill development, and ensure consistency in learning experiences across placements.

A list of clinical skills within the scope of practice for PEP 1 students is provided on Moodle and also emailed to clinical facilitators at the commencement of placement. This could be adapted to a checklist format and could be useful for some students' learning to record their practice at clinical skills and keep track of skills they have not yet had an opportunity to practice. Students were advised that not all placements in NURS11170 would provide the same opportunity, given their differing patient cohort and clinical settings. Recommend the inclusion of a clinical skills checklist for students for consideration in 2026.

Feedback from SUTE Data verbal student feedback during residential school

I also believe that for the students who have not seen what dementia can be like when there is aggression - should be spoken (sic) or shown a video clearly so that they are somewhat prepared as it is a scary sight to be confronted with on the first day of placement.

A video showing dementia from the perspective of the patient is currently shown in residential school. Virtual Reality Headsets or simulation activities such as Mask ed may be an alternative option for students to explore dementia, challenging behaviours and de-escalation skills. Recommend UC explore this possibility with Head of Simulation for 2026.