Type:                                     Written Assessment

Due date:                             16:00 hour (AEST) Wednesday, 27 August 2025 (Week 6)

Extensions:                           Available as per policy. The 72-hour grace period applies to this assessment.

Return date:                         Results for this assessment will be made available on Friday, 17 September 2025 

Weighting:                           30% 

Length:                                 500 words +/- 10% (Refers to Task 3 only)

Unit Coordinators:               Dr Danielle Le Lagadec, Dr Ashlyn Sahay, Wendy Augutis, Libin Jose

Learning Outcomes Assessed

1. Apply information literacy skills.
2. Employ a systematic approach to locating evidence to address a specific clinical situation.
3. Appraise evidence and use critical thinking skills when applying evidence in clinical contexts.
4. Reflect on the purpose of evidence in nursing practice and explain why clinical decision-making should be based on the best available evidence.

Aim
The aim of this assessment is for you to demonstrate your skills in formulating an answerable clinical question and searching for evidence using a systematic approach to answer the question. Also, you will demonstrate how you critically appraised your search findings and then reflect on this process. Your clinical question is based on the scenario below. The information required to undertake this assessment is covered in Weeks 1 to 4.

Please note that this task provides the foundation for Assessment Two.

Scenario: Delirium in older adult patients 
As a registered nurse working in a hospital ward, you notice that several of your acutely ill older adults suffer from confusion and disorientation. You wonder whether non-pharmacological intervention/s would be more effective than pharmacological interventions to reduce confusion and/or symptoms of delirium.

Instructions                         
Please follow the steps below to complete your assessment task:

Using the scenario above, complete the Assessment template provided in Moodle. 

1.    Task 1: Formulate your answerable clinical question from your chosen scenario using the PICO framework and structured search strategy (30 marks). 

• Summarise your preparatory work using the PICO format. An example of how to structure a PICO table is provided on the Assessment tile in Moodle. 
• Create one (1) search string including at least four (4) Boolean operators and other symbols.
• Develop one (1) specific clinical/research question. 
• Identify two (2) appropriate databases that you are going to search and state why you chose each database. Please do not include Google Scholar as a database. 
• Identify at least four (4) search filters or limiters. 

2.    Task 2: Level of evidence appraisal and data extraction (40 marks).

2.1)    Provide references, in American Psychological Association (APA) 7th edition referencing style, for four (4) current credible peer-reviewed journal articles that you intend to use to answer your research question. Important: The resources must be current, i.e., 2018 to the present. Do not use clinical practice guidelines, thesis, editorials, opinion/discussion pieces, conference papers, JBI (Johanna Briggs Institute) resources, hospital policies or web pages for this assessment. 

2.2)    Under each reference, identify the study design (type of study) and level of evidence in the article using the Pyramid of Evidence. 

2.3)    Complete the justification and data extraction table for one of your chosen articles (refer to the assessment template provided). In the table, you will briefly provide evidence of the article’s Authority, the study aim/research question, identify the study design/method, study setting and population/sample, provide a brief summary of the study results in dot points, and the implications for practice, i.e. how do these results affect clinical practice or how does it address your PICO question. 

3.     Task 3: Reflection (500 words±10%) (25 marks and 5 marks for academic writing and presentation).

Write a reflection on the use of the PICO framework. You do not need to support your reflection with literature (citations), but if citations are included, you will require a reference list.  

Include the following points in your reflection: 

1. How did having a clear and structured clinical/research question help (or not help) you when searching for articles? Explain your experience.
2. Why do you think it is (or is not) important to check if the information or articles found are trustworthy/credible?
3. Do you think using a generative AI tool (such as Chat GPT or other AI tools) would have been useful for completing this assessment? In your response, consider how generative AI may/may not support your learning, the ethical implications of using generative AI and/or completing tasks independently without generative AI, and any potential concerns about academic integrity.

Literature and references
In this assessment, use at least four 4 contemporary references (7 years or less). You may also use seminal scholarly literature where relevant. If you choose to use references in your reflection (Task 3), they could include peer-reviewed journal articles as well as textbooks and credible websites. When sourcing information, consider the five 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, 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 are not primary sources of evidence and should not be used in this assessment. All resources must be sources from the CQUniversity library.

Requirements

• Please complete your assessment using the template provided in Moodle in the Assessment tile.
• If you have used Gen AI then state here:  For example, Use of Gen AI: Gen AI agent has been used for editing and proofreading this assessment.
• Use a conventional and legible size 12 font, such as Times New Roman.
• For Tasks 1 and 2, single-line spacing may be used when completing the template tables. For Task 3, the reflection, please use 2.0 line spacing and     2.54cm page margins (standard pre-set margin in Microsoft Word). 
• All tasks in the instructions of this assessment must be attempted and clearly answered to pass this assessment task.
•  Write from the first-person perspective for your reflection; however, write from the third-person perspective when referring to the literature.
• Use formal academic, discipline-specific, professional and inclusive language.
• Use Microsoft Word English (Australia) spelling and grammar checker.
• Paraphrase, summarise or quote information acknowledging the original source (referencing) to avoid plagiarism.
• Headings, bullet points and tables may be used in this assessment.
• Follow academic writing conventions: spell out contractions in full; introduce abbreviations and acronyms; spell out numbers for zero through nine;  and use numerals for numbers 10 and above.
• All work submitted must be your own work. 
• This assessment does not require a reference list unless in-text citations have been included in Task 3, the reflection. However, Task 2 involves references. Use the seventh edition American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style. The CQUniversity Academic Learning Centre has an online APA Referencing Style Guide. 

Resources

• You can use materials provided in the unit, such as journal articles and books, to reference your argument. The quality and credibility of your sources are important. Please note, lecture notes are not peer-reviewed primary sources of evidence.
• We recommend that you access your discipline-specific Nursing Resource Guide.
• You may like to manage your citations and reference list. Information on how to use academic referencing software (EndNote) is available at the  CQUniversity Library website, should you wish to learn how to use it.
• For information on academic writing and referencing, 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 at least one 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 for the following purposes:

• Level 2: You may use Al for planning and to develop ideas. Your final submission should show how you have developed and refined these ideas.
• Checking spelling and grammar.
• 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:

• Must be cited in the relevant sections.
• 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 (or part thereof) 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

Marking criteria
Refer to the marking rubric on the Moodle site for more details on how marks will be assigned. Assessment re-attempt is not available for this Assessment task.

Minimum pass criteria

• To pass this unit, you must achieve a cumulative grade of at least 49.5% across all assessments.
• If you are eligible for a supplementary assessment, all assessment tasks must be reasonably attempted in this unit.

Refer to Unit Moodle

Type:                                  Written Assessment: Using Evidence to Support Nursing Practice

Due date:                           16:00 hour (AEST) Wednesday, 24 September 2025 (Week 10)

Extensions:                         Available as per policy. The 72-hour grace period applies to this assessment.

Return date:                       Results for this assessment will be made available on Wednesday, 15 October 2025 

Weighting:                         50% 

Length:                               1,300 words +/- 10% (excluding reference list)

Unit Coordinators:              Dr Danielle Le Lagadec, Dr Ashlyn Sahay, Wendy Augutis, Jose Libin

Learning Outcomes Assessed
1.    Apply information literacy skills.

2.    Employ a systematic approach to locating evidence to address a specific clinical situation.

3.    Appraise evidence and use critical thinking skills when applying evidence in clinical contexts.

4.    Reflect on the purpose of evidence in nursing practice and explain why clinical decision-making should be based on the best available evidence.

Aim
The aim of this assessment is for you to:

1. Demonstrate your skills in searching for and locating credible research evidence (peer-reviewed literature).
2. Extract and analyse the relevant information from the literature to answer a clinical/research question.
3. Ascertain the viability of applying the research evidence to clinical practice by linking the evidence to a clinical nursing guideline and the National Safety and Quality Healthcare Standards.
4. Reflect on why it is important to use evidence-based information to guide your clinical practice and why it is important to ensure our clinical practice aligns with our clinical care guidelines and NSQHS.

The information required to undertake this assessment is covered in Weeks 1 to 8.

Scenario: Delirium in older adult patients 

As a registered nurse working in a hospital ward, you notice that several of your acutely ill older adults suffer from confusion and disorientation. You wonder whether non-pharmacological interventions would be more effective than pharmacological interventions to reduce confusion and/or symptoms of delirium.

Instructions

Before we change our nursing care practices based on the research evidence we have gathered, we must ensure that these changes align with the appropriate clinical care guidelines/standards and our National Safety and Quality Healthcare Standards (NSQHS).

Please follow the steps below to complete the assessment tasks:

Task 1: Written essay (1000 words ± 10%) (60 marks)

This academic essay should include a clear introduction, a body of text and a conclusion.

Using the credible resources you identified for Assessment One and other relevant literature, extract and analyse the relevant information to answer your clinical/research question regarding appropriate interventions for reducing delirium in older adults. You must use more than just the four articles you identified in Assessment One.

1. Critically discuss three (3) interventions to reduce delirium, supporting your discussion with credible resources (peer-reviewed literature).  
2. Link each intervention with an appropriate, current clinical care (practice) guideline/standard, explaining how the intervention is linked to the clinical care guideline/standard. You may use the same clinical care guideline/standard for all the interventions discussed, or you may use multiple clinical care guidelines/standards.
3. Align each of your interventions with at least one (1) NSQHS Standard and two (2) NSQHS related Actions. Explain how your intervention meets or supports these Australian NSQHS Standards and Actions.

Task 2:  Reflection (300 words ±10%) (20 marks)

Write a reflection on why it is important to use evidence-based information to guide your nursing practice and why we should ensure that our nursing practice aligns with our clinical care guidelines/standards and the NSQHS. You may include in-text citations to give credence to your reflection.

Literature and references
In this assessment, use:

• at least six (6) contemporary references (7 years old or less), 
• at least one (1) clinical care guideline/standard, or a clinical practice guideline (preferably an Australian guideline or standard), and 
• the NSQHS.

Suitable references include peer-reviewed journal articles as well as textbooks and credible websites. Credible websites include government, university, or peak national bodies: for example, the Australian College of Nursing, Queensland Health, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and the 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 are not primary sources of evidence and should not be used in this assessment. All resources, other than web pages, must be sourced from the CQUniversity library.

Requirements
Use a cover page for your assignment that includes the following order:  

• Student name 
• Student number 
• Unit code and name 
• Assessment type 
• Due date 
•  In-text word count 
• If you have used Gen AI, then state here:  For example, Use of Gen AI: Gen AI agent has been used for editing and proofreading this assessment.

Also: 

• 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.  
• Indent the first line of each paragraph 1.27cm (standard pre-set indent in Microsoft Word). 
• Please use the headings Task 1 and Task 2. You may use subheadings within each task, if you wish, e.g. Introduction, Intervention 1, Interventions 2,  etc. 
• Task 1 must be written from the third-person perspective, while Task 2, the reflection, can be written from the first-person perspective (I, me, my). 
• Use formal academic, discipline-specific, professional and inclusive language.
• Use Microsoft Word English (Australia) spelling and grammar checker.
• Paraphrase or summarise information, acknowledging the original source (referencing) to avoid plagiarism.
• Do not use direct quotes in this assessment. 
• Follow academic writing conventions: spell out contractions in full; introduce abbreviations and acronyms; spell out numbers for zero through nine and use numerals for numbers 10 and above.
• All work submitted must be your own work. 
• Start your reference list on a separate page from the body of your assessment. 
• Use the seventh edition American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style. The CQUniversity Academic Learning Centre has an online APA  Referencing Style Guide. 
• The word count is considered from the first word to the last word of your paper. The word count excludes the reference list but includes in-text references. 

Resources

• You can use unit-provided articles or books and other credible sources 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 Nursing Resource Guide.
• You may like to manage your citations and reference list. Information on how to use academic referencing software (EndNote) is available at the   CQUniversity Library website, should you wish to learn how to use it.
• For information on academic writing and referencing, please visit 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 at least one draft before the due date to review your Turnitin Similarity Score before making a final submission. Instructions are available here. Please remember that 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:

• Level 2: You may use Al for planning and to develop ideas. Your final submission should show how you have developed and refined these ideas.
• Checking spelling and grammar.
• 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:

• Must be cited in the relevant sections.
• 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

Marking criteria
Refer to the marking rubric on the unit Moodle site for more details on how marks will be assigned. Assessment re-attempt is not available for this Assessment task.

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.

Refer to Unit Moodle 

Type:                                     Online Quiz

Quiz opens:                         00:01 hour (AEST) Monday 6 October 2025 (Week 12)

Quiz closes:                         23:59 hour (AEST) Sunday 12 October 2025 (Week 12)

Return to students:             Results for the quiz will be available after the quiz closes

Permitted attempts:            One

Weighting:                           20% 

Length:                                20 multiple-choice questions

Completion time:                40 minutes 

Extensions:                         Not available as per policy. The 72-hour grace period does not apply to this assessment.

Unit Coordinators:             Dr Danielle Le Lagadec, Dr Ashlyn Sahay, Wendy Augutis, Libin Jose

Learning Outcome Assessed
1.    Apply information literacy skills.

Aim 

The aim of this assessment is for you to demonstrate your skills and knowledge of information literacy and referencing. 

Instructions 

• You will be completing an online quiz. 
•  The quiz will assess your knowledge and understanding of materials covered in Weeks 1–11. 
• Quiz questions are drawn from a bank and will be randomised.
• Access the quiz via the Assessment tile portal on the unit Moodle site. The quiz consists of 20 multiple-choice questions. Each question is worth one (1) mark. 
• This is an open-book quiz. You can refer to your learning materials at any time during your attempt. However, students should be familiar with the content as time limits apply.
• You have a maximum of 40 minutes to complete the quiz. You must complete the quiz in one attempt. The quiz will automatically close at the end of the allocated time, and you will submit your result even if you have not finished.
• You have a maximum of one (1) attempt for the quiz.
• Once you have commenced your quiz, you cannot log out. Please do not refresh or reload your screen, as this may close your quiz and record your results.
•  If you have any technical issues, notify the unit coordinators immediately. You are required to take a screenshot or photo of the issue and email it to the unit coordinators as soon as possible. We will assist you with resolving the issue or refer you to TaSAC for further assistance (toll-free phone number 1300 666 620).

Requirements 

You will need:

•  Computer access with a reliable Internet connection.
• An active (working) CQUniversity Moodle login and password.
• Relevant unit learning materials are available to access during the quiz, including the APA 7th edition resource.

Academic integrity

• You must abide by the principles of academic integrity (see Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure). Completing this assessment with another party or sharing of responses is not permitted at any time.
• The use of any generative artificial intelligence is not permitted as per Level 1 (No AI) in the AI Assessment scale tool indicators.

Submission 

• You will complete this quiz online. 
• Click save after each question. 
• Click submit at the end of the quiz and, your answers will be automatically submitted.

Marking criteria
·         Assessment re-attempt is not available for this Assessment task.

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.
• The 72-hour grace period does not apply to this online quiz.

Not Applicable