Unit Synopsis
You will develop knowledge and clinical skills relating to the comprehensive management of adult and paediatric patients with acute and chronic cardiac and respiratory conditions (e.g. ischaemic heart disease, heart failure, COPD, cystic fibrosis, bronchiectasis and pneumonia). You will apply the principles of evidence-based approaches to cardiorespiratory physiotherapy management of patients in the context of biological, social and psychological factors. You will relate the role of the cardiorespiratory physiotherapist working in a diverse range of hospital and community care facilities to that of the inter-professional team, family members and carers of patients.
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 this unit you must be enrolled in the CB85 Course and meet the following pre-requisites:
Additionally you must be enrolled in or have already completed the following 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 2 - 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) | 15% |
| 2. In-class Test(s) | 35% |
| 3. On-campus Activity | 0% |
| 4. Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) | 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 2 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 41.67% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 27.66% 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: Feedback from students
Students would like more time in practical sessions to practice clinical skills.
It is recommended that practical sessions be reviewed to build in more practice time of clinical skills into the weekly case studies.
Time was allocated in practical sessions for students to practice clinical skills, and students were encouraged to practice while working through case studies.
Source: Verbal feedback from students
Students would like answers to clinical reasoning and questions for cases studies to assist with revision.
It is recommended that post-clinical reasoning case answer sheets are provided for students to review.
Along with verbal discussions of clinical reasoning case studies, students were provided with some answer sheets to review.
Source: SUTE and verbal feedback from students
Students requested practice test questions for Mid and End-Term tests to assist in preparing for assessments.
It is recommended that practice test questions be developed and made available to students.
In Progress
Source: Verbal feedback from students
Students felt that the number of clinical reasoning case studies was too high in some practical sessions.
It is recommended that the volume of clinical reasoning case studies be reviewed to allow for more time in class to talk through the cases and practice clinical skills.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Discuss the pathological processes, the symptomatology, clinical course, medical and pharmacological management and prognosis in patients with cardiorespiratory conditions
- Develop, implement and evaluate evidence-based assessment and treatment for patients with cardiorespiratory conditions, through acute to chronic conditions
- Explain how biological, social, and psychological factors inform a physiotherapy intervention plan for patients with cardiorespiratory conditions
- Relate the role of physiotherapy to the management of cardiorespiratory conditions and pathologies using both an inter-professional and patient-centred approach
- 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 Physiotherapy Practice Thresholds in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - In-class Test(s) | • | ||||
| 2 - In-class Test(s) | • | • | • | • | |
| 3 - On-campus Activity | • | ||||
| 4 - Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) | • | • | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | • | • | |
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • | • | |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | • | • | |
| 5 - Team Work | • | • | • | • | • |
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | • | • | • | • | • |
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | • | • | • | • |
| 10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | • | ||||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |