Unit Synopsis
Proposed Unit Synopsis In this unit, you will practice nursing care in the complex care environment. You will apply the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) Registered nurse standards for practice (2016). You will continue to explore the importance of the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards (2017) and apply the Patient Safety Competency Framework (PSCF) (Levett-Jones et al., 2017). You will be expected to identify risk and recognise and respond appropriately to the deteriorating patient in the simulated and clinical environment. You will work within your scope of practice using the decision-making framework (NMBA, 2020). You are required to participate in a compulsory four (4) day residential school prior to attending professional experience placement for this unit. This unit includes a 160 hour block professional experience placement in a complex care environment. You must meet specific mandatory health, safety and security requirements to be eligible to attend your professional experience placement. Professional experience placements may be limited in your community and you may be placed in other locations. Please be prepared financially and personally to cover the costs to relocate for placements. Due to the limited availability of placements, some block placements have start and/or end dates that fall outside standard term dates.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 3 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 1 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Pre-requisites: NURS12163 Chronic Health and Community Care or NURS13134 Community Nursing PerspectivesNURS12164 Professional Experience Placement 3 or NURS13133 Clinical Nursing Practice 4 Co-requisite: NURS13141 Acute Alterations in Health in Complex Care Environments 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 2 - 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. In-class Test(s) | 0% |
| 2. Professional Practice Placement | 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
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: Student evaluation
Undertaking res school online was incredibly valuable, part of its success I feel was having access to my own pack to utilise and practice even once res school had finished and in preparation for my placement
One residential school had to be moved online due to a weather event. This has highlighted that we need to be prepared for future terms due to unexpected events in order to provide a high quality of teaching and resources.
No residential school required conversion to online delivery during the 2026 offering.
Source: Student evaluation
The patient scenarios at the end of res school were great. We should have more of these earlier in the degree eg first year.
Continue to focus on delivering content that is current and relevant to contemporary nursing practice. Consider incorporating scenarios earlier in studies.
Scenario-based learning was embedded throughout the 2026 residential school rather than being limited to the final sessions. Students participated in clinical activities and simulations from Day 1, including medication administration, primary and secondary surveys, chest pain, sepsis, tracheostomy care, paediatric nursing, pain and epidural management, complex-care skills, diabetic ketoacidosis, hypoglycaemia, traumatic wounds, and peer-feedback scenarios. These activities provided repeated opportunities for students to apply clinical reasoning, recognise and respond to deterioration, communicate using ISBAR, practise medication safety, and receive structured peer and lecturer feedback.
Source: Student evaluation
I found that residential schools were very dragged out and the skills could have easily been covered in 3 days. Long days made it very hard to keep interested in the content and some skills that were covered were not relevant or could have been covered much faster. I believe students should have more of a say in what we want to learn/focus on in class time.
Continue to review and refine teaching and learning resources to support clarity and consistency in teaching delivery. With the upcoming change to the curriculum, it would be beneficial to consider condensing the learning material of residential schools in order to reduce the length to 3 days.
The Unit Coordinator team reviewed and refined the residential-school resources to improve relevance, sequencing, and consistency of teaching delivery. The 2026 clinical learning manual explicitly mapped residential-school activities to the content delivered in NURS13141 Complex Care and Patient Deterioration. This mapping was intended to strengthen theory-to-practice integration and reduce unnecessary duplication. Daily reflection, SMART goal development, peer feedback, and placement preparation were incorporated to support purposeful and student-centred learning. The residential school remained a four-day, 32-hour requirement during the 2026 offering. The recommendation to consider a condensed three-day model should be carried forward for consideration through the curriculum renewal process rather than implemented within the current approved unit structure.
Source: 2026 Student Unit and Teaching Evaluation
The 2026 evaluation results remained positive overall, although overall satisfaction and all seven evaluation indicators decreased compared with 2025.
Review available qualitative feedback and campus-level delivery experiences to identify factors contributing to the decline. Communicate planned enhancements to students through Moodle, email, and residential-school orientation.
In Progress
Source: 2026 Student Unit and Teaching Evaluation
Learnt from assessments and useful feedback were the two lowest-rated evaluation indicators.
Strengthen the explanation of how the medication calculation assessment, residential-school activities, and ANSAT assessment support preparation for safe clinical practice. Standardise the coaching and feedback provided across campuses and provide students with clear opportunities to act on feedback.
In Progress
Source: Student Feedback
Previous student feedback identified concerns regarding the length, pacing, and perceived relevance of some residential-school activities.
Continue reviewing the volume and sequencing of residential-school content. Prioritise high-value clinical simulations, reduce unnecessary duplication, and use student and teaching-team feedback to inform the future curriculum structure.
In Progress
Source: Unit Coordinator team and residential-school resources
The 2026 residential school incorporated authentic clinical scenarios and peer feedback across all four days.
Retain scenario-based learning, deliberate practice, structured debriefing, peer feedback, and SMART goal development. Continue standardising facilitator guidance to support consistent learning experiences across campuses.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Apply the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) Registered nurse standards for practice (2016) in the assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of people experiencing acute alterations in health in a complex care environment
- Recognise, respond and appropriately manage the deteriorating patient
- Demonstrate safe decision-making and justify prioritisation of nursing care
- Recognise risk and implement strategies to ensure safety in the complex care environment
- Communicate and collaborate effectively with people, including members of the interdisciplinary health care team, to facilitate positive health outcomes for a person affected by an acute alteration in health
- Demonstrate knowledge and application of safe supply and administration of non-parenteral and parenteral medication.
Content in this unit incorporates a number of professional nursing requirements
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia decision-making framework (DMF) - nursing
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia 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 Nursing Code of Conduct
Legal compliance
Person-centred practice
Cultural practice and respectful relationships
Professional behaviour
Teaching, supervising and assessing
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
Clinical governance
Partnering with consumers
Preventing and Controlling healthcare-associated infection
Medication safety
Comprehensive care
Communicating for safety
Blood management
Recognising and responding to acute deterioration
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
Services and supports for daily living
Organisation’s service environment
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - In-class Test(s) | • | • | ||||
| 2 - Professional Practice Placement | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 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 | • | |||||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |