Master of Advanced Nursing Practice

This subject enables students to examine factors influencing safety and quality of the healthcare system. Using safety and quality as a framework students will examine trends in critical incidents in healthcare that result in adverse outcomes for patients. The subject will also introduce students to emerging strategies in healthcare that seek to improve the safety and quality of patient care and to consider particular roles of nurses in leading these efforts at a clinical and organisational level.

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.

The subject considers contemporary issues related to professional practice and clinical leadership in advanced practice roles nursing.

The aim of this subject is to provide the student with the knowledge and skills to enable them to lead practice and service development in their area of specialty.

The core content of this subject will assist the student to understand the political, economic, professional, ethical, social and clinical influences on advanced practice nursing models. Students will critique different models of service delivery, governance structures, methods for evaluating and sustaining measurable outcomes in practice

The subject will also assist students to identify their own learning and development needs and, where necessary, negotiate access to a range of resources to enable them to meet their learning objectives.

The core content will prepare students to undertake a project that will facilitate the application of theory to their practice context. The focus of the project will be to develop the knowledge and skill required to lead service development and practice improvement as well as influence colleagues

Students will be required to develop a learning contract based on their individual learning needs which will be used to demonstrate development of an advanced practice role. The ANMC Competency Standards for Nurse Practitioners and where relevant, competency standards for advanced practitioners developed by specialty professional groups will be used to guide the learning contract development. Knowledge and skills developed should be described in the learning contract and demonstrated through the compilation of a practice portfolio that includes (but is not limited to) governance models, documentation of scope of practice and service evaluation strategies.

The subject is designed to support students to meet the ANMC Competency Standards for Nurse Practitioners (2006). This subject is a mandatory component of the Nurse Practitioner pathway of the Master of Advanced Nursing Practice.

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 supports the development of advanced practice knowledge in the quality use of medicines. It builds on knowledge developed in the subject Pharmacology for Health Professionals, which predominantly focuses on the mechanisms of action of medications, by exploring the clinical and social contexts for the safe use of medicines in speciality and advanced practice.

This subject is designed to provide the theoretical foundation for entry into specialist mental health nursing practice. Students will explore the legal, policy and ethical frameworks, within which mental health care is provided. Students will extend their understanding of bio-psycho-social factors, related to mental health and illness and to the nosology within diagnostic structures of psychiatry.

This subject provides a foundation for understanding the pathologic basis of disease across the lifespan.

It equips learners with the knowledge and skills required to explain assessment data and prioritise patient care in a specialty area of practice based on scientific principles.

Core pathophysiological concepts covered will include: cellular responses to stress; adaptation, injury and death; acute and chronic inflammation; tissue renewal and repair; infection; neoplasia; haemodynamic, genetic and immune system disorders and genetic predisposition to disease.

Using a case study based approach, learners will be provided with opportunities to apply their knowledge
in one or more of the following specialty areas of nursing practice.

• Paediatrics
• Paediatric Intensive Care
• Neonatal Intensive Care
• Critical Care
• Emergency Care
• Rural Critical Care
• Oncology and Palliative Care
• Cardiorespiratory
• Renal

This subject provides the learner with the skills and knowledge t provide and apply learning support systems in the clinical workplace. A variety of learning support models are explored and discussed including: mentorship, clinical teaching, clinical supervision and preceptorship. The major themes of the subject are the learning organisation, principles and practices of teaching, learning and assessing in the clinical practice with particular importance on providing learner feedback, the preceptor-preceptee relationship and creating a supportive learning environment.

This subject will provide students with the opportunity to expand their knowledge of medications used in psychiatry and to examine the role of the psychiatric nurse in psychopharmacological treatments. The subject allows students to develop clinical skills in relevant assessments and interventions for clients receiving psychiatric medication.

This subject aims to extend participants foundational knowledge to support the development of clinical skills and expertise related to consumer participation in treatment and consumer involvement in mental health service delivery and review. The subject focuses on current State and Commonwealth directives supporting consumer participation in treatment and in service reform activities; consumer rights, and explores models of care that can enhance the consumer's involvement in treatment. The subject would be relevant for healthcare practitioners from nursing and allied health disciplines interested in consumer perspectives and participation in health and health services.

The aim of this subject is to develop advanced health assessment skills in nursing that are relevant to the student’s area of clinical practice.

The subject provides the foundation for the development of health assessment knowledge and skills that are required in order to practice in an advanced practice nursing role.

The subject will explore diagnostic decision making processes taking into consideration factors that impact on health and health assessment outcomes, such as: age, gender, culture, socioeconomic status and life style.

Students will use a client focused approach to health assessment and apply a structured framework to guide health assessment. History taking, general examination skills, diagnostic testing and communication of assessment findings to the health care team and patient (written and verbal) will form the core content of the subject.

Students will have the option of selecting areas that are relevant to their own area of practice. These topics will include: cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological, cognitive and developmental, abdominal, alimentary and nutritional, genitourinary, musculoskeletal, integument and psychosocial assessment.

The subject will provide a number of strategies to assist the students in developing advanced health assessment skills. On campus tutorials and workshops, reading and resource material will be provided to assist students to develop the necessary knowledge and skills for advanced health examination and patient assessment. Students will use clinical mentors in their practice environment to support their learning, in particular the development of specialty assessment skills.

The subject is designed to support students in meeting the ANMC Competency Standards for Nurse Practitioners (2006).

This subject is a mandatory component of the Master of Advanced Nursing Practice Nurse Practitioner pathway.

This subject focuses on knowledge and clinical skill development for an expanded scope of practice in an area of specialty practice.

The core content of this subject will include defining scope of practice and advanced practice nursing roles.

An exploration of advanced practice, expansion of speciality practice, and the role of the nurse practitioner including the regulatory, professional, ethical and practical influences on scope of practice will be explored. In this context, students will consider the implications of mentorship, clinical supervision and clinical governance models before embarking on a project that expands their own scope of practice.

The core content will prepare students to undertake a project that will allow them to apply relevant theory related to advanced practice nursing to their own specialty context. The project will expand their current nursing knowledge and skills to an advanced practice level.

The focus of the project will be on developing the capacity to apply evidence to nursing assessment and management strategies, developing sophisticated assessment, problem-solving, planning and technical skills for client groups that are specific to their designated specialty. For those students undertaking the NP pathway, the contract will include the development of advanced diagnostic reasoning skills, including the use of relevant diagnostic tools. Project development, implementation and evaluation strategies for the treatment plans that address specific extensions to practice will be incorporated in the project. The assessment, investigation and treatment plans should be client focused (eg. culturally sensitive, socioeconomically relevant, sustainable and negotiated with the client and other members of the health care team.

With collegial support from a multidisciplinary team and the subject coordinator, students will develop a learning contract to articulate their project. The ANMC Competency Standards for Nurse Practitioners and where relevant competency standards for advanced practitioners issued by specialty professional groups will be used to guide the project aim, contract development and completion. Students will demonstrate achievement of knowledge and skills described in the contract through compilation of a practice portfolio.

This subject will assists students to develop the capacity to identify their own clinical learning and development needs and access a range of resources to enable them to meet their objectives.

This subject is designed to support students to meet the ANMC Competency Standards for Nurse Practitioners (2006).

This subject is a mandatory component of the Nurse Practitioner pathway of the Master of Advanced Nursing Practice.

The focus of this subject is to utilise an ecological approach to understand the importance of family relationships when assessing, planning, and implementing the health care needs of children. The effects of social disadvantage on the child and family will be explored with special emphasis on families of children with special needs.

This subject focuses on the role of the primary care nurse in providing patient centred care to individuals with diabetes, asthma, chronic obstructive airways disease, hypertension and heart failure. The course content includes the pathophysiology of these common conditions and the common pharmacological agents used in treatment. The Primary Care system in Australia is explained and the systems and evidence based management principles explored with a focus on working within a multidisciplinary framework.

This subject will explore the theory and practice of health promotion and illness prevention in primary care. It will discuss the social model of health that recognises that a range of social, cultural and economic factors influence people’s health and well-being. It will focus on weight, diet, and exercise as well as on smoking and other risk behaviours and their impact on health. It will also prepare students to undertake health assessments. Strategies for empowering individual patients and communities to maintain a healthy lifestyle will be explored.

This subject addresses the impact of significant milestones across the lifecycle on women’s well-being and sense of self. It includes issues from adolescence, the childbearing years and parenting, the middle years, menopause and after. It aims to engender knowledge of the issues that impact on women’s health including depression and other mood disorders, body image, sexuality, abuse, work and family and aspects of loss and grief.

This subject meets the curriculum content requirements of the National Immunisation Education Framework for Health Professionals. It focuses on the theory and practical components of adult and childhood immunisations and includes:
•an overview of the public health issues related to immunisation
•clinical issues relevant to nurses providing immunisation including vaccines included in the National Immunisation Program
•the storage and handling of vaccines including cold chain management
•regulatory requirements relating to the administration of vaccines by registered nurses.

In addition to this the content will include preventive aspects of travel health including social and environmental risks to the traveller.

This subject involves the theory and practice of sensitive women's health screening, including cervical, breast and bowel screening. Innovative teaching and learning techniques will be utilised with support from University academic staff and clinical preceptors (supervisors).