CQUniversity Unit Profile.

In this unit, you will have the opportunity to practice fundamental nursing care in the clinical environment. You will apply the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) registered nurse standards for practice (2016). You will continue to explore the importance of the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards (2017) to all nursing practice in Australia and use the Patient Safety Competency Framework (PSCF) (Levett-Jones et al., 2017) in your practice as a nursing student. You will be expected to identify risk and recognise and respond appropriately to the older adult who is a deteriorating patient in the simulated and clinical environment. 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 four (4) day residential school prior to attending professional experience placement for this unit. This unit includes a 240-hour block professional experience placement in a clinical environment. This must be undertaken in a fulltime capacity. 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 to relocate for placements. Due to the limited availability of placements, some block placements have start and/or end dates that fall outside standard term dates. You must be physically and mentally well and meet the inherent requirements of the course to undertake this unit in the simulated and clinical environment. To be successful in this unit you must pass both assessment items.

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 Feedback collected from students, teaching staff and clinical placement hosts through Unit Coordinator contact sessions and communication with clinical facilitators.

Feedback from students undertaking six-week continuous clinical placements indicated a need for structured feedback earlier in the placement. Students reported that formal feedback at approximately Week 2, followed by another structured review later in the placement, would better support their learning, confidence and clinical skill development before the final summative assessment. Clinical facilitators also identified that the current assessment structure may delay recognition of learning needs or performance concerns, limiting opportunities for timely support and intervention. An inequity was also identified between placement structures. Students undertaking two separate three-week placements receive a formative and summative ANSAT during each placement, whereas students undertaking one continuous six-week placement receive only one formative ANSAT at Week 3 and one summative ANSAT at Week 6.

Revise the assessment structure for six-week continuous placements to include formative ANSATs at approximately Weeks 2 and 4, followed by the summative ANSAT at Week 6. This would enable earlier identification of learning needs, provide structured monitoring of student progress and improve consistency across placement models.

Feedback from Feedback collected from students and clinical facilitators, together with consideration of the NMBA Registered Nurse Standards for Practice and the Australian Nursing Standards Assessment Tool (ANSAT). These frameworks emphasise safe, evidence-based practice, capability for practice and the early identification of learning needs.

Student and clinical facilitator feedback identified variation in students’ preparedness for higher-risk clinical activities, particularly intravenous medication administration. This may contribute to placement difficulties, delayed identification of support needs and potential risks within the clinical environment.

Introduce a mandatory Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) assessing intravenous medication administration during Residential School Day 4, before students commence clinical placement. This would confirm baseline clinical readiness, enable early identification of students requiring additional support and allow targeted intervention before placement.