Unit Synopsis
This unit enables you to develop an understanding of the principles of transfusion and transplantation medicine. You will gain vital knowledge on topics such as safe blood storage and handling, blood and tissue typing and the detection and identification of antibodies significant in transfusion and solid tissue transplantation. You will also perform compatibility testing and discuss the potential adverse outcomes of blood transfusions plus pre-natal, antenatal and postnatal screening. You will be required to attend a compulsory residential school as outlined in the student handbook. The residential school may be scheduled outside of the term of offering of the unit. The theoretical and practical sessions will allow you to develop skills in critical steps necessary in ensuring safe tissue transplantations and appropriate blood products and components for transfusion in both routine and emergency situations.
Details
| Level | Postgraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 9 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Prerequisites: Enrolment in Master of Laboratory Medicine. 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 |
Compulsory Residential School View Unit Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Term 2 - 2026 Profile
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 Postgraduate 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. Online Quiz(zes) | 50% |
| 2. Practical Assessment | 0% |
| 3. Examination | 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 .
Term 2 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 61.90% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 17.8% response rate.
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
Some students felt knowledge was shared in effective ways by full attention given to each student in their learning process, especially during residential school.
Continue to effectively communicate and support students in their learning process.
Attention to student needs were given individually during residential school delivery and throughout the term to enhance effective learning.
Source: SUTE
Some students felt video recordings of lectures needed updating.
Consider updating lectures to clarify key concepts and challenging topics.
Lecture recordings were updated to clarify key concepts.
Source: Student Feedback
Some students indicated that the online assessments tasks could be clearer.
Consider reviewing online assessments for clarity.
Online assessment task was updated to include more defined questions with generalised feedback.
Source: SUTE
Students found volume of content high, particularly for those encountering transfusion medicine for the 1st time.
Review the content volume and break down key concepts using more interactive learning materials to make it manageable for students.
In Progress
Source: SUTE and student feedback via email
Some students found the unit was overall delivered well, with patience, support, enthusiasm and motivation.
It is recommended to continue to deliver this unit in its current structure with additional supporting tutorials and interactive quizzes such as Kahoot.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Critically discuss the production, labelling, storage and transportation of human blood products and their medical indications
- Accurately interpret and report test results in transfusion and transplantation medicine
- Critically evaluate quality control practices in transfusion and transplantation medicine
- Demonstrate advanced testing skills in transfusion science including pre-transfusion, compatibility testing, antenatal / postnatal / neonatal screening and the testing for autoantibodies in accordance with quality control requirements for laboratory practices
- Critically evaluate the factors contributing to adverse outcomes and their effects in transfusion and transplantation medicine.
This unit was recently reviewed (03/2025) for course accreditation by AIMS - Australian Institute of Medical and Clinical Scientists.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | • | • | • | |
| 2 - Practical Assessment | • | • | |||
| 3 - Examination | • | • | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | • | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Communication | • | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | • | • | • | • | • |
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | |