Unit Synopsis
The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) Registered Nurse Standards for Practice (2016) expect that a registered nurse is able to think critically and analyse nursing practice. This is achieved by accessing, analysing, and using the best available evidence, that includes research findings for safe quality practice. In this unit, you will be introduced to an evidence-based approach to clinical inquiry and decision making that informs nursing practice. You will develop skills in locating evidence, evaluating and applying research findings to inform best practice.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 2 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 1 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Pre-requisite: NURS11164 OR NURS11163, BIOH11005 OR BMSC11010, NURS11165 OR NURS11159, NURS11166 OR NURS11160 OR admission to CM77 Must be enrolled in CL91 Bachelor of Nursing OR CM77 Bachelor of Nursing (Enrolled Nurse Pathway) 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. Written Assessment | 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 1 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 76.27% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 9.56% 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: Student emails and class discussions.
Live drop-in/consultation sessions were reported as an excellent strategy by students who attended. It provided an opportunity to create examples and have the coordinators demonstrate an actual search and the refinement process. These sessions were also recorded; however, those students who attended in real-time indicated they received the most benefit
Maintain the live sessions.
We continued the optional drop-in sessions; however, there was limited attendance, so these were not recorded.
Source: Student emails.
Providing drop-in/consultation sessions in the evening was reported to be very beneficial for students who were balancing family, work, and study requirements.
Maintain some evening sessions to ensure that students who are working or attending to other responsibilities during the day are not disadvantaged.
We did not do evening sessions. We asked students if this would be useful, however no students requested these. We did provide late afternoon sessions, and these were not well attended. Students advised us that they felt that the Moodle content and tutorial materials were sufficient to address their needs.
Source: Class discussions and SUTE data.
Promoting research skills in locating supporting journal articles through databases was well received. Students reported that gaining these skills not only assisted with NURS12165, but also enhanced their confidence and use of databases, improving results in their other units.
Demonstrating examples of how to use databases effectively should be maintained. Having coordinators who can use databases with ease and also demonstrate the refinement processes in response to student-directed questions was also identified as good practice of learning and teaching design as a variation of the "flipped classroom".
Four sessions were provided by the ALC, including a library information session focused on database searching. Students reported that they found these really useful.
Source: SUTE data and class feedback.
Another positive feature of NURS12165 was the ability to provide a choice of topics for the written assessments. Students were able to select a topic area and formulate a clinical challenge question that aligned with their interests. Students reported that this made learning and undertaking the associated tasks more enjoyable, as they had input and became active contributors to the process.
Embedding this practice of adult learning should be maintained.
We continued with this recommendation, with a choice of topics provided in Assessment 1, that provided the basis for the Assessment 2 task.
Source: SUTE data
Didn't understand what the assignments were asking for at first. An example of the formatting could be useful.
Provide a proforma for formatting assessments for both assessment 1 and 2.
In Progress
Source: SUTE data
The markers weren't very clear with their feedback.
Provide clearer direction to markers regarding assessment requirements and feedback format.
In Progress
Source: SUTE data
This unit was really useful to understand the Uni Library; I gained a better idea of how to search for credible resources.
Continue to collaborate with the ALC to provide targeted information session on research and library skills.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Apply information literacy skills.
- Employ a systematic approach to locating evidence to address a specific clinical situation.
- Appraise evidence and use critical thinking skills when applying evidence in clinical contexts.
- Reflect on the purpose of evidence in nursing practice and explain why clinical decision making should be based on the best available evidence.
Content in this unit incorporates a number of professional nursing requirements
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia Registered Nurse Standards for Practice
Thinks critically and analyses nursing practice
Maintains the capability for practice
Develops a plan for nursing practice
Evaluates outcomes to inform nursing practice
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia Nursing Code of Conduct
Legal compliance
Person-centred practice
Cultural practice and respectful relationships
Professional behaviour
Research in health
Health and wellbeing
International Council of Nursing Code of Ethics for Nursing
Nurses and People
Nurses and Practice
Nurses and the Profession
Nurses and co-workers
National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards
Comprehensive care
Patient Safety Competency Framework
Person-centred care
Therapeutic communication
Cultural competence
Teamwork and collaborative practice
Clinical reasoning
Evidence-based practice
Preventing, minimising and responding to adverse events
Infection prevention and control
Medication safety
Aged Care Quality Standards
Consumer dignity and choice
Ongoing assessment and planning with consumers
Personal care and clinical care
Organisation’s service environment
Feedback and complaints
Organisation governance
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | |||
| 3 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | |||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • | • |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | • | |
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | • | • | • | |
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |