This unit of study focuses on the advanced clinical abilities required for nursing assessment of patients, families and communities in the 21st century. Students will learn how to undertake advanced assessment of a patient's condition based on physical and psycho-social determinants of health and wellbeing. Students will be instructed in processes for analysis of this data to facilitate insightful informed nursing practice decisions. From the individual to community levels of the wider socio-economic context students will study emerging patterns of disease and how this impacts on their role as nurses.

The field of clinical and patient education is addressed in the context of the healthcare environment with emphasis on continuing changes in technologies, information and evidence bases for practice. The unit involves a study of the literature on the nature of learned and performed skills and what impact they may have on the delivery of effective education in clinical settings. The unit also explores the role of the registered nurse in relation to patient education, staff education and student supervision.

Students undertake advanced work on an area of practice, or a particular practice in nursing. The project will involve three stages: first, conducting an integrative review of the available research literature; second, commencing a draft manuscript addressing specified elements, and third, composing the final written journal manuscript. This project will be highly valuable to currently practising nurses whose professional responsibilities and interests may include clinical leadership or practice enhancement and/or the use of evidence in practice.

This unit of study provides a forum for registered nurses to enhance their knowledge and skills of nursing management and to develop a framework for their implementation. The structure of the course will enable participants to explore and critique issues surrounding management and clinical governance in the context of health care provision, organisational climate and culture, quality and safety, clinical and professional leadership and financial responsibility. This unit of study utilises a better practice (continuity of care/quality/cost/utilisation and health outcomes) framework.

This unit of study builds on the tenet throughout this course that research is integral to all aspects of nursing theory, education, application and practice. Nursing research and its application in practice will be the focus of examination and critique. A critical analysis of various modes of inquiry will be used to investigate aspects of nursing practice and relevant nursing issues. A variety of perspectives, methodologies and methods that constitute modes of inquiry will be included. This unit will assist students to develop research knowledge that will assist them to critique the literature relevant to their practice and determine its value for practice (viz-a-viz evidence based nursing or evidence based practice). As well the unit will begin to prepare them for future research activities. Opportunities will be provided to experience the inquiry process with reference to clinically related situations or to areas that have an implication for nurses and their practice.

This unit of study is designed to provide students with the opportunity to consolidate and extend their knowledge and skills in relation to the therapeutic applications of drugs based on their underlying pharmacology. Students will review fundamental definitions of pharmacological terms, including drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion and review the basic principles of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic drug handling. The major focus of this unit is on the pharmacological aspects of medical therapy in various populations, including neonatal/paediatric, adult and geriatric patients. Students will learn how to apply specific pharmacological knowledge in the clinical management of special patient groups. A problem-based leaning approach is used in tutorials conducted within this unit of study in a quality of care / safe medication administration framework.

This unit of study examines the historical background to, and current debates surrounding, how nurses have established their knowledge and practice. In addition to examining the historical records in relation to nursing as a discrete area of knowledge and practice in health care, this unit of study analyses and critiques current trends, ethical considerations, and discourses in nursing and how they impact on understandings of the nature of nursing knowledge and contemporary practice(s).

This unit of study explores the legal and ethical dimensions in health and social care, with a particular focus on nursing. This module will enable students to gain a critical understanding and applied appreciation of health-related law and ethics, whilst exploring its application and affect on nursing practice. Topics covered in this unit include government regulation of health care, including resource-allocation and professional practice, as well as legal issues relating to professional liability (consent, negligence, confidentiality and autonomy). This unit of study also considers traditional and contemporary ethical theory, moral decision making, articulating moral arguments, critiquing arguments, and exploring values in ethical decision-making. In doing so, this unit of study also explores the values held by professionals, as the concepts of rights and responsibilities increasingly impact on professional nursing practice.