Short course
Urgent Care - Emergency Nursing: Essentials
Urgent Care Essentials provides nurses with the introductory knowledge required to work effectively with patients in the urgent care or emergency care setting during the first 6-12 months of practice.
What you will learn
Overview
Urgent Care and Emergency Care settings see patients of all ages, in an environment where clinical problems of all complexities can present to a health service. This course is designed to bridge the potential gap between commencement of employment and provision of a formal educational program to enable nurses to feel empowered and supported.
Designed For
This course is designed for nurses prior to, or who have been recently employed in an urgent care or emergency care setting and are yet to complete any specialty practice formal education. This course would also be useful as a refresher for nurses working or wishing to return to the urgent care or emergency environment.
Learning Outcomes
After completing the course, the student would be able to:
- Implement a structured approach to the initial assessment and management of an undiagnosed urgent care patient
- Apply new skills in ECG and ABG interpretation to identify rhythm and conduction abnormalities, and mismatch in ventilation and gas exchange
- Use a systems-based approach to assess and manage patients with undifferentiated abdominal pain, chest pain, respiratory distress, altered conscious state, the injured patient and the paediatric patient
- Outline contributing factors and apply a systematic approach to assessment and management of behaviours of concern
- Apply a systematic approach to the preparation for transfer of the complex patient
Course Units
Tutorial 1: Decision-making approach to the assessment and early management of illness and injury
Tutorial 2: Assessment and Management of Respiratory Emergencies
Tutorial 3: Arterial Blood Gases
Tutorial 4: Assessment and Management of Cardiac Emergencies
Tutorial 5: Rhythm Analysis and 12-Lead ECG Interpretation
Tutorial 6: Assessment and Management of the Altered Conscious State
Tutorial 7: Assessment and Management of Abdominal Pain
Tutorial 8: Principles of Trauma Management
Tutorial 9: Assessment and Management of the Unwell Child
Tutorial 10: Assessment and Management of Abdominal Pain
Tutorial 11: Assessment and Management of Patients Exhibiting Behaviours of Concern/ Introduction to Triage
Tutorial 12: Preparing for Transfer for the Complex Patient
Assessment
The assessment is submission of the five tutorial unit self-assessments and 10 case-based reflective exercises. A certificate is provided upon satisfactory completion of the course.
Delivery Mode
Course completion requires approximately 12 hours of e-learning. This course is delivered online, and students can study in their own time and location.
Course Director
Sarah Cornish
BNsg, GDipNP (Emerg), MN, PhD Candidate, FCENA
Sarah is an Emergency Nurse with over 20 years of clinical and teaching experience. Sarah has a passion for the delivery of evidence based clinical care and clinical education in the dynamic environment of the emergency department. Sarah's PhD thesis is exploring the invasive mechanical ventilation practices in Australian emergency departments, with a focus on preventing pulmonary complications. Sarah is also a Fellow of the College of Emergency Nursing Australasia.
Course Leaders
Prue Cambridge
CCRN, RN, BN, GradCert (Cardiac), MNurs (CritCare)
Prue Cambridge has been a Registered Nurse since 2005 with extensive clinical experience and educator roles across Intensive Care, High Dependency and Coronary Care specialities. Prue has a Graduate Certificate in Cardiac Nursing and a Master of Nursing in Critical Care. Since transitioning into academia at the University of Melbourne, Prue coordinates a number of subjects within the entry-to-practice Master of Nursing Science course, and the post graduate nursing specialty courses. Prue's professional interests include pathophysiology, critical care nursing and nursing student debriefing after critical events.
Dr Rebecca Jarden
RN, PhD, MN, BHSc(Nursing), BA, GradDip, Tertiary Teaching Cert.
Dr. Rebecca Jarden is a registered nurse with a strong clinical nursing background in intensive care, leading and supporting quality nursing care, and driving translational nurse wellbeing research. Rebecca is Senior Lecturer at The University of Melbourne, co-ordinating and teaching in the critical care specialty post-graduate programs, and Senior Nursing Research Fellow at Austin Health.
Melanie Turner
RN, M(Nurse Practitioner), PostGradDip (Child Heath), GradCert (PaedEmerg)
With 20 years of experience in paediatric emergency nursing, creating healthcare that is specific to our young people is a key focus for Melanie. Melanie has completed various nursing roles from education to management and advanced nursing practice within and outside of the emergency department. In 2015 Melanie completed a Master in Advanced Clinical Practice and became endorsed as a nurse practitioner, specialising in paediatric emergency. Melanie's career, which has been predominately at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne has recently expanded to working with the Emergency Care Institute (NSW) to create Emergency Protocols Initiating Care (EPIC) for nursing staff across the state. Additionally Melanie has worked with various universities writing and delivering paediatric content to undergraduate and post graduate students.
Michelle Robinson
RN, BSc, BNSc, PDACN, GradCert (HPE)
Michelle Robinson is a registered nurse with over 15 years of experience specialising in emergency nursing. She has worked in both clinical and education roles and is passionate about developing education programs for health care professionals and end of life care in the emergency department.
Kimberly Hitchens
'RN, BSc, BNSc, PDACN, GradCert (HPE)
Kim is a registered nurse who is passionate about research, education, and clinical practice. Kim’s broad research interests include health equity, Cultural Safety, First Nations Health, and sudden infant death. Kim has worked in a number of roles, including clinical nurse management roles and as a Lecturer in Nursing.
Dr Cathy Daniel
RPN, BPsychNurs, PGDipN(MtlHlth) MN, PhD, CMHN, GCertUniTeach.
Dr Cathy Daniel is a Senior Lecturer and the Coordinator of Post Graduate Mental Health Nursing at The University of Melbourne. Cathy has continued to work in a clinical role at The Royal Melbourne Hospital in Consultation Liaison Psychiatry and has over 30 years' experience in mental health nursing. Cathy has completed a Masters Research Degree in minimising mechanical restraint in acute health in 2010. In 2015 she completed a PhD at The University of Melbourne that explored how the how the risk of violence can be accurately identified at ED triage. Cathy is also a credentialled mental health nurse and is committed to supporting nurses to develop specialist mental health nursing practice and is passionate about reducing restrictive interventions and stigma for all people who access health care.
Fees
Course Fee:
The course is online, self-paced, and ready when you are — start anytime.
You will have access to all course materials for a full 12 months.
$528 AUD (inc GST)
Please contact Student Support if you have any enquiries
Groups of 20+
Discounted group rates are available for groups of 20 or more students.
For enquiries, please reach out to us at mobile-learning@unimelb.edu.au.
Course details
There are no set entry requirements for this course. See our Frequently Asked Questions
