Click Here to view current information
Unit Synopsis
In this unit, you will develop an understanding of the fundamental principles of pharmacology and pharmacotherapy relevant to your health profession. You will explore the mechanism of action of major drug classes used in pharmacological interventions or procedures in patient management relevant to your profession. You will be required to demonstrate critical analysis of this content and align this with current practice in your respective professions.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 2 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Pre-requisites: Pre-requisite for all courses except CV69 and CB86: BMSC11005 Foundations of Biochemistry Pre-requisite for CV69: ECHO11004 Biochemistry for Cardiac Pharmacology Pre-requisite for CB86: MPAT12001 Pathophysiology Co-requisite for CB86: MBIO12013 Microbiology for Health Professionals 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). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
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.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Written Assessment | 30% |
| 2. Online Quiz(zes) | 20% |
| 3. Online Test | 50% |
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%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web 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.
Source: SUTE; Unit coordinator
Students generally feel confident in their learning from assessments; however, the purpose of each assessment task and/or the concepts being assessed could be more clearly articulated.
Review assessment resources. Introduce additional worked examples or guided explanations to help students clearly understand what they are expected to learn from each assessment task.
Assessment resources were reviewed and alignment with unit learning outcomes was clarified. Further development of worked examples and guided explanations remains an area for improvement.
Source: SUTE
Students commented positively on the engaging lecture delivery but noted that some lectures are long, which can make sustained attention difficult.
Maintain the current engaging style in the lectures with stories, analogies and interactive elements. Review lecture length to ensure it is manageable while acknowledging that additional explanations are included to enhance student understanding, and this naturally adds to lecture duration.
Lecture materials continued to provide detailed explanations and examples. Review of lecture length and content volume remains an area for further refinement
Source: SUTE; Student performance; Unit coordinator
Students value the detailed feedback and support provided for the written assignment but would benefit from additional guidance to further develop higher-order critical thinking skills.
Provide additional exemplars and resources for the written assignment to help students better understand how to demonstrate higher-order critical thinking skills while maintaining academic rigour.
Additional guidance on assignment structure was provided, together with a worked example. Further development of resources supporting higher-order critical thinking will be incorporated into future offerings
Source: SUTE; Student comments; Unit coordinator
Students would benefit from assessment tasks that more clearly communicate expectations and better demonstrate the relevance of pharmacological knowledge to professional practice.
Continue refining assessment design, assessment support resources and formative learning opportunities to improve assessment clarity while maintaining academic rigour.
In Progress
Source: SUTE; Unit coordinator
Students value the learning resources and lecture delivery but reported challenges associated with content volume and lecture length.
Review learning materials to improve conciseness, relevance and alignment with Australian healthcare practice.
In Progress
Source: SUTE; Student comments
Students would benefit from additional opportunities to apply pharmacological knowledge through authentic clinical scenarios and assessment-aligned tutorial activities.
Develop interactive, case-based tutorial activities that strengthen links between lectures, assessments and professional practice.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Discuss the basic principles of pharmacology, including pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics and drug design.
- Discuss the indications, pharmacological action, routes of administration, contraindications, side effects and precautions of the major medication groups used in your health profession.
- Discuss pharmacological applications associated with common procedures undertaken with your health profession.
- Critically analyse the scientific literature relating to drugs and medicines within your health profession.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | |
| 2 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | |||
| 3 - Online Test | • | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | |||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • | • |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | |||
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | • | • | |
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |