NURS11165 - The Profession of Nursing

Showing: 2026 HE Term 1
General Information

Unit Synopsis

The 21st-century nursing profession is a product of historical and contemporary, socio-political and cultural influences. You will explore these while considering legal and ethical frameworks, the role of professional governing bodies and governance while beginning to investigate the profession of nursing. You will explore the personal skills, inherent requirements and attributes required in the profession and consider what your personal journey towards becoming a registered nurse will require.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 1
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 1
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Pre-requisite:

Must be enrolled in CL91 Bachelor of Nursing or CG41 Start Uni Now

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).

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. Online Quiz(zes) 40%
2. Reflective Practice Assignment 60%

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%).

Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

Previous Feedback

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 report
Feedback:
I like the design of the subject. Particularly, the combination of readings, images and videos helps us understand and study. Thank you for preparing very diverse and interesting learning material. I found it difficult to attend the lectures/ workshops due to other commitments, but I still felt very engaged in the content because the Moodle content was very good.

Recommendation:
Continue to provide a variety of interactive and multi-media learning materials that assist students with different learning preferences to engage with the unit content. In Moodle, provide clear learning objectives and an outline of the content to be covered each week so that students can decide how they will interact with materials and achieve learning expectations.

Action Taken:
Moodle content was designed to continue to present a variety of interactive and multi-media learning materials to assist students with different learning preferences.
Source: SUTE report
Feedback:
I really enjoyed this subject the lectures were amazing and very informative. I loved the fact you had two attempts on the quizzes in case one was a terrible disaster. The quizzes challenged me but were very fair.

Recommendation:
Continue to provide challenging quiz practice throughout weeks one to six in Moodle workbooks and in workshops. These help students to engage with the Moodle content and identify learning needs for discussion in workshops.

Action Taken:
Practice quizzes were continued as for many this is their first attempt at a quiz. In this offering, quiz questions comprised of a variety of styles such as multiple choice, drag and drop, select the correct response. Practice quizzes offered students an opportunity to families themselves with these response styles before the quiz. Two attempts continued to be offered. A common concern of students was what if they did worse on the second attempt, reassurance was given that the highest grade is the one used in Gradebook. This could perhaps be communicated more clearly with students to reassure them.
Source: Student attending an open office 'drop in' session. SUTE report
Feedback:
I've really learnt about managing my workloads, timetabling my assignments, using Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) and the Academic Learning Centre (ALC). I really benefitted from the feed back I received early on in my assessments and have discovered how to succeed in my studies. I would like more prompts to research evidence.

Recommendation:
Continue to encourage students to connect with student support services early, promote the ALC, Peer Assisted Study Sessions and Librarians and Library tutorials. Increase the amount of feedback provided to students when they use practice quizzes and assessment quizzes. Students may benefit from an early in term ALC workshop on how to locate peer reviewed literature. Providing short, guided literature search activities within the interactive workbooks throughout the course may assist some students to build skill in this area.

Action Taken:
The ALC had its own section in Moodle, and their services were promoted regularly throughout the term. There was also ALC provided workshops that included how to access the library and library resources.
Source: SUTE report
Feedback:
I really struggled using Microsoft Teams for this unit as it was very separate and different to navigate.

Recommendation:
The MS Teams classroom is an appropriate communication tool for whole of class real-time messaging, meetings and collaborations. It is particularly useful because students can communicate with the class and unit coordinators using their phone app. To improve student connection with TEAMs Classroom we recommend providing more obvious links to the chat forum and class workshop meetings in Moodle. A copy of the workshop weekly meeting also needs to be stored in Moodle for students who choose not to engage with MS Teams and wish only to use the Moodle site.

Action Taken:
A copy of the weekly workshop was uploaded and available in Moodle as recommended.
Source: Email
Feedback:
I want to say thank you for all the work you all have put into this unit to make it so enjoyable and engaging in every part of its various contents. I remember Carmen saying in a recorded workshop that you had created a variety to touch everyone's learning styles; after these few weeks I have found this unit to be truly beneficial as a visual and interactive/tactile learner. This has been such an encouraging experience and has made me fall in love with nursing school again. I actually look forward to watching my lectures, the interactive content, videos, and going through the content. I want you to know how helpful this unit has been in grasping the content; my comprehension has been quicker than any other unit so far. I can see the time and love poured into the content design and hope to get some of you within the next semesters ahead. That is to say, I may not be an A student, but I'm a loving-to-learn one.

Recommendation:
Continue to provide weekly content that meets the needs of different learning styles and promotes interaction.

Action Taken:
In Progress
Source: Collated from verbal feedback from students, emails, and Teams messages.
Feedback:
Feedback was received from students who were confused over why extensions were not available for quizzes.

Recommendation:
In Moodle, a clear explanation of quiz extensions should be provided.The DDLT is working on recommended wording for future assessment templates, which should help clarify this.

Action Taken:
In Progress
Unit Learning Outcomes

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

  1. Analyse historical and contemporary factors that continue to influence the image, status and nature of nursing practice.
  2. Investigate the role of professional governing bodies in relation to professional nursing practice, patient safety and governance.
  3. Assess the four major bioethical principles and how they are applied in health care.

Content in this unit incorporates a number of professional nursing requirements

Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) Registered Nurse Standards for Practice

Thinks critically and analyses nursing practice

Engages in therapeutic and professional relationships

Maintains the capability for practice

Comprehensively conducts assessments

Develops a plan for nursing practice

Provides safe, appropriate and responsive quality nursing practice

Evaluates outcomes to inform nursing practice

Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) Code of Conduct

Legal compliance

Person-centred practice

Cultural practice and respectful relationships

Professional behaviour

Research in health

Health and wellbeing

International Council of Nurses Code of Ethics for Nurses

Nurses and People

Nurses and Practice

Nurses and the Profession

Nurses and Co-workers

National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards

Clinical governance

Partnering with consumers

Communicating for safety

Patient Safety Competency Framework

Person-centred care

Therapeutic communication

Cultural competence

Teamwork and collaborative practice

Evidence-based practice

Preventing, minimising and responding to adverse events

Aged Care Quality Standards

Consumer dignity and choice

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3
1 - Online Quiz(zes)
2 - Reflective Practice Assignment
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
Introductory Level
Intermediate Level
Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3
3 - Critical Thinking
4 - Information Literacy
8 - Ethical practice
9 - Social Innovation
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