PMSC20001 - Advanced Clinical Assessment and Decision Making

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit will introduce you to advanced clinical assessment, combining the skills of clinical history taking with those for physical examination, whilst incorporating knowledge of cultural and linguistically diverse populations. You will synthesise clinical information while integrating underpinning knowledge of common pathologies and pathophysiology in the critical care context. You will be able to formulate an appropriate clinical management plan to treat the critically ill or injured and employ reflective practice principles to effectively revise ongoing management plans as required. You will also critically reflect upon the leadership skills required at a critical care level.

Details

Level Postgraduate
Unit Level 8
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 2
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites There are no pre-requisites for the unit.

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 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

This information will not be available until 8 weeks before term.
To see assessment details from an earlier availability, please search via a previous term.

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 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 50.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 8.33% 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: Informal Feedback
Feedback
Students who participated in the one-on-one Zoom sessions found them extremely beneficial for developing the critical thinking skills required.
Recommendation
Continue to encourage students to participate in one on one online sessions
Action Taken
The one-on-one Zoom sessions were run in this year's unit, and many students engaged in the opportunity.
Source: Formal feedback
Feedback
Narrative style assessment was consider a poor assessment task
Recommendation
Nil change is required as per the isolated feedback and narrative writing is a recommended style to express critical thinking and reflective practice.
Action Taken
No action was taken and there were no issues identified from this year's cohort.
Source: Online zoom session.
Feedback
Numerous students highlighted the value of one-on-one zoom sessions.
Recommendation
Continue to offer online one on one zoom sessions.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Phone calls and emails.
Feedback
There was positive feedback about the introduction of case studies that had complex critical thinking challenges.
Recommendation
Continue to develop complex critical thinking case studies.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes
This information will not be available until 8 weeks before term.
To see Learning Outcomes from an earlier availability, please search via a previous term.