MEDS12007 - Medical Sonography Clinical Unit 1

Showing: 2026 HE Term 1
General Information

Unit Synopsis

This clinical unit will provide you with opportunities to apply and integrate theoretical and practical knowledge, skills and professional behaviour in the clinical environment, independently and under the supervision of qualified professionals. The practical focus in this unit includes the completion of an ultrasound scan to ‘Novice’ – (student) Level 1 competence as described by the Professional Competency Framework for Sonographers adopted by the Australasian Sonographers Association and the Australian Sonographer Accreditation Register. You will learn to analyse images and solve problems, developing critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills. You will demonstrate reflective practice to expand your core knowledge and experience. You will also behave professionally using interpersonal skills relevant to sonographic practice in accordance with CQUniversity graduate attributes and Australian Sonographer Accreditation Registry accreditation requirements. You are expected to critically reflect on your own performance and exhibit a high level of safe patient care. Critical appraisal of performance will enable you to develop your own patient care, professional, technical and analytical skills in a work setting.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 2
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 3
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
MEDS12002 Abdominal Ultrasound Prerequisite
And    
MEDS12003 Superficial Structures in Ultrasound Prerequisite
And    
MEDS12001 Physics of Ultrasound Prerequisite
And    
MEDS12004 Sonography Skills Development 1, which must have been successfully completed within the last twelve months. Should this time limit have elapsed the student must successfully complete a skills / clinical knowledge revision and assessment as determined by the discipline lead or designate. Prerequisite

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

Term 3 - 2026 Profile
Mixed Mode

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).

Assessment Overview

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. Professional Practice Placement 0%
2. Practical Assessment 0%
3. Direct observation of procedural skills (DOPs) 0%
4. Written Assessment 0%

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.

Past Exams

Previous Feedback

Term 3 - 2024 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 71.43% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 15.38% 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: Self reflection
Feedback:
 Participation in tutorials was low, which reduces learning potential.

Recommendation:
 Consider assigning a compulsory element to tutorials to increase engagement.

Action Taken:
 Students were required to complete a 5 - 10 minute case presentation during a tutorial that was based on the clinical decision-making written assessment.
Source: SUTE
Feedback:
 Student felt unprepared for the online quiz

Recommendation:
 Consider offering practise quizzes on Moodle and in tutorials.

Action Taken:
 Additional questions were provided in tutorials and a practice quiz was created on Moodle. Unfortunately, it did not include sufficient questions, so this will need to be amended for the next offering.
Source: Self Reflection
Feedback:
 Students benefitted from pre-clincial preparation days

Recommendation:
 Continue with preclinical preparation days as they are important in building students' confidence for their first clinical placement.

Action Taken:
 The preclinical preparation days continued again, but were offered immediately following assessments in Term 2 to ensure maximum attendance. Similar to previous offerings, students found these sessions very beneficial.
Source: Self-Reflection and SUTE
Feedback:
 Students enjoy the pre-clinical days and find them very beneficial. This year there was a clash with this and an assessment in a different unit which impacted the student experience and managing their studies.

Recommendation:
 Pre-clinical "Residential School" days are included and timetabled immediately following term 2 assessments to ensure maximum attendance. Suggest confirming that other unit coordinators take this into consideration when they are finalising their unit profiles and setting assessment due dates to minimise student anxiety. Coordinate further with other Unit coordinators to scaffold assessment due dates where appropriate.

Action Taken:
 In Progress
Source: SUTE
Feedback:
 Students felt more clarity was needed regarding the written assessment task.

Recommendation:
 In additional to providing information during tutorials, create formal documents with specifics regarding the written assessment in addition to the marking rubric and provide these on Moodle.

Action Taken:
 In Progress
Source: SUTE
Feedback:
 Students would like additional practice for the online quiz

Recommendation:
 Provide additional resources, such as more practice questions via Moodle, to help the students prepare for the online quiz. These resources should be focused to help the students maintain their theoretical knowledge while utilising it on clinical placement.

Action Taken:
 In Progress
Unit Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Perform sonographic examination under supervision to meet the Competency Standards for Level 1 - Novice (Student).
  2. Evaluate sonographic findings and describe them in simple terms to solve straightforward diagnostic problems.
  3. Display professional behavior, teamwork and communication skills consistent with safe sonographic practice in accordance with CQUniversity graduate attributes, the Professional Competency Framework for Sonographers, and Australian Sonographer Accreditation Registry accreditation requirements.
  4. Critically reflect upon own professional practice, sonographer psychomotor skills, sonographic knowledge, teamwork, communication skills and safe clinical practice.

The learning outcomes for this unit relate to the requirements of general sonography courses under the Australasian Sonography Accreditation Registry (ASAR), Standards for the Accreditation of Sonographer Courses (SASC):

Foundation Units of Competence 1-5

Critical Practice Units of Competence 6, 7, 9, 10, 12 & 13

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Professional Practice Placement •
2 - Practical Assessment • • •
3 - Direct observation of procedural skills (DOPs) • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Communication • • • •
2 - Problem Solving • • • •
3 - Critical Thinking • • •
4 - Information Literacy • • •
5 - Team Work • •
6 - Information Technology Competence • • •
7 - Cross Cultural Competence • • •
8 - Ethical practice • •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 10