Unit Synopsis
This unit will provide you with an introduction to the assessment and treatment of musculoskeletal conditions in the lower limb, pelvis and lumbar spine for clients across the lifespan. This unit will focus on the development of an evidence based, problem solving approach to the assessment and treatment of common clinical presentations in musculoskeletal practice. The completion of this unit will enable you to apply effective clinical reasoning that underpins your selection and performance of evidence-based and client-centred physiotherapeutic assessment and treatment techniques.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 2 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
To enrol in PSIO12001 Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy 1 you must be enrolled into the CB85 course and have completed the following pre-requisites:
Co-requisite:
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
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) | 20% |
| 2. In-class Test(s) | 40% |
| 3. Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) | 40% |
| 4. On-campus Activity | 0% |
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 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 31.91% 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: In class feedback.
Students requested an example of the end of term Objective Structured Clinical Exam earlier in the term.
It is recommended that the teaching team will provide examples of the end of term Objective Structured Clinical Exam earlier in the term to allow students to appropriately study.
Consistent with the recommendation, the teaching team provided a mock OSCE in Week 11 to allow students to be familiar with the end of term assessment.
Source: SUTE Feedback
Students suggested that a practice exam be provided for the End-Term In-class test.
It is recommended that the teaching team consider providing a practice exam to students prior to the End-Term In-class test.
In Progress
Source: SUTE Feedback
Students suggested that the content distribution of the End-Term In-class test be provided to the students prior to the assessment item.
It is recommended that a brief content distribution be provided to students prior to the End-Term In-class test.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Identify and discuss the clinical presentation of musculoskeletal conditions of the lower limb, pelvis, and lumbar spine
- Identify and discuss safe, effective, and evidence-based assessment and treatment techniques for musculoskeletal conditions of the lower limb, pelvis, and lumbar spine
- Demonstrate safe, effective, and evidence-based assessment techniques for the lower limb, pelvis, and lumbar spine, and interpret and analyse the findings
- Demonstrate safe, effective, and evidence-based physiotherapy interventions for the lower limb, pelvis, and lumbar spine, and be able to progress and/or regress appropriately
- Demonstrate acceptable professional and ethical behaviours consistent with a physiotherapy practitioner.
The Learning Outcomes and Assessment tasks have been mapped against and aligned with the Australian Physiotherapy Council’s Physiotherapy Practice Thresholds.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - In-class Test(s) | • | • | |||
| 2 - In-class Test(s) | • | • | |||
| 3 - Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) | • | • | • | ||
| 4 - On-campus Activity | • | ||||
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 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 | |