NURS20168 - Designing Research in Nursing, Midwifery and Social Sciences

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit introduces you to the foundations of research skills and knowledge required for nursing, midwifery and social sciences research. You will critically appraise and justify research paradigms and develop and justify research questions for qualitative, quantitative or mixed method designs, and propose suitable research paradigms and designs to answer your research question.

Details

Level Postgraduate
Unit Level 9
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 1
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Students must be enrolled in CL22 Master of Clinical Nursing to undertake this unit.

Co-requisites: NURS20173.

Pre-requisites: NURS20167.

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 2 - 2025

Term 1 - 2026 Profile
Online

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 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. Written Assessment 40%
2. Written Assessment 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

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Previous Feedback

Term 1 - 2024 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 0.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 20% 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: Discussions with student.
Feedback
This unit overlaps with NURS20173 which is usually undertaken concurrently. Assessment 1 (research paradigms) has little relevance to research in clinical practice.
Recommendation
The unit will be rewritten to ensure scaffolded learning and better flow between NURS20168 and NURS20173. Learning outcomes and assessments will be refined to ensure theoretical research knowledge is incorporated with practical research skills for a clinical focus rather than an academic focus.
Action Taken
This unit has been rewritten and the assessments are better aligned to practice rather than research theory.
Source: Student feedback.
Feedback
Individual student-focused teaching helped to achieve a great outcome
Recommendation
Orientate teaching in accordance with the individual student's needs. Ensure Zoom drop-in sessions are at appropriate times to suit both the lecturer and the students. Continue to add to available resources on Moodle as required by students.
Action Taken
An extra Zoom session was created during the morning for those students who were unable to meet at 6 pm. This resulted in better student engagement.
Source: Student
Feedback
Student feedback suggests that the unit is challenging.
Recommendation
Alert students that the expected workload and engagement with unit contents is 10-12 hours per week. This will be provided in writing and discussed during Zoom meetings hosted at various times to accommodate student rosters.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Critically appraise and justify research paradigms and methods used to answer research questions in contemporary and diverse healthcare settings
  2. Construct and justify research question/s appropriate to qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods research design
  3. Propose and justify a research paradigm and design to answer a research question

There are no learning outcomes linked to external accreditation for this unit.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3
1 - Written Assessment
2 - Written Assessment
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
Professional Level
Advanced Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3
1 - Knowledge
2 - Communication
3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills
4 - Research
5 - Self-management
6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility
7 - Leadership
8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
Professional Level
Advanced Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8