This subject provides foundational knowledge and skill to introduce advanced practice nursing to the student. This subject will focus on a range of areas critical to the development of a nurse practitioner capable of providing high standards of clinically focused care and leading practice and service development: the Australian healthcare system and policy development, the burden of chronic disease and the social determinants of health, clinical leadership and an introduction to advanced health assessment skills.

This subject is designed to meet the needs of nurses and other clinically-based health professionals seeking further education in identifying, appraising and utilising research as an evidential base for their daily practice. The subject aims to facilitate the development of skills and knowledge that will allow participants to incorporate evidence based practice into clinical decision making.

This subject extends the students' knowledge of the fundamental pharmacological principles of medication management, which can be adopted and utilized in the advanced practice setting. Students will use the foundational knowledge of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and therapeutics, in order to critically analyze how medications affect physiological, biochemical and pathophysiological processes.

With a greater appreciation of the action of drugs on body processes, students will be able to determine which medications should be administered to particular patients in order to ensure therapeutic effects are optimized and adverse effects are minimized. Students will articulate the key pharmacological characteristics of drug classes, as well as be able to derive and understand the specific nuances of individual drugs.

This focus will ensure that students use critical thinking and problem solving abilities to facilitate them to prescribe, administer, monitor and evaluate medications in a rational and effective manner. Please note that this subject is conducted through the Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics.

This subject builds on the content covered in the first year of the program and has been designed to help prepare the student for advanced practice nursing. This subject will place emphasis on expanding the student’s health assessment skills to include the judicious use of diagnostic investigations, the ability to synthesis individual health data and to develop sophisticated clinical decision-making capacity.

This subject addresses the application of pharmacokinetics and dynamics to clinical practice and introduces students to regulation and governance of prescribing, therapeutic planning across the life span, medication safety and risk and error management. This subjects includes practical application of this knowledge in class and clinical practice and includes IPP* hours.

* Integrated professional practice (IPP)

The aim of this subject is to support the student completing this program to transition to endorsement and advanced practice nursing. This subject will focus on developing the knowledge and skills to; support the student to prepare an application for endorsement, maintain professional development following endorsement and function as a role model, mentor and clinical supervisor. This subject is also an opportunity for the student to draw on the content addressed in other subjects and expand their scope of practice.