NRSG372 - Principles of Nursing: Chronic Illness and Disability

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

NRSG267 Integrating Practice 4 AND NRSG264 Integrating Practice 3

Unit rationale, description and aim

The Registered nurse plays an important role in the interprofessional team in provision of care for people with long-term chronic illness and disability.

NRSG372 Principles of nursing: Chronic illness and disability, is required by students to assist them to achieve knowledge and skills in relation to chronic illness, disability and evidence-based practices to enable safe, effective and culturally sensitive care, including educating clients and supporting them to manage themselves long-term.

Case studies, informed by current priorities for chronic health in Australia, will enable students to explore the common diseases and disabilities across the life span to support the provision of holistic, evidence-based care. This unit builds on previous knowledge acquisition from second year units, to develop a comprehensive knowledge of the role of the registered nurse in facilitating patient-centred care for persons with chronic illness and/or disability will be examined in relation to a variety of settings and patient journeys.

The aim of this unit is to assist students to critically analyse the impact of chronic illness and/or disability on the person, family and community.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

NMBA REGISTERED NURSE STANDARDS FOR PRACTICE

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia’s Registered Nurse Standards for Practice developed in this unit are:

Content

Topics will include:

Principles of chronic illness and disability

• Global overview of chronic illness and disability
• Chronic illness and disability in an Australian context
• Differentiation of key terms: Chronic illness, Chronic disease, long term conditions, disability and co-morbidity 
• Trajectory of illness:
• Range of settings and continuum of care inclusive of: community and primary care, and tertiary care environment with discharge considerations.
• Impact of chronic illness and/or disability on person, family and community
• Physical
• Psychosocial
• Cultural
• Spiritual
• Lifespan

Therapeutic use of professional relationships

• Nurses role in restorative practice
• Collaboration
• Partnerships
• Relationships
• Building capacity and resilience in the person, their family and carer
• Self-reflection
• Professional communication
• Therapeutic use of self and communication strategies
• Active listening skills
• Motivational Interviewing
• Teaching skills

Principles for Practice

• Pathophysiology of selected chronic illnesses and disability (those identified as National Health Care Priorities or relating to National Health Care Priorities)
• Patient-centred care and person-centred goal setting
• Role of the nurse in: 
• assessment
• planning
• evaluation of care
• coordination of care
• Role of the interprofessional teams and multi-sectorial partnerships
• Models of care for management of chronic illness and/or disability
• Chronic condition self-management
• NDIS
• Legal and ethical issues
• Chronic pain management
• Common therapeutic approaches
• Pharmacological
• Non-pharmacological
• Complimentary therapies and alternative medicines
• Issues of Sexuality 

Optimising function

• Self-management
• Promoting independence
• Restorative practices
• Educational resources for health promotion and prevention
• eHealth mediation and management of chronic disease
• Telehealth and the management of chronic conditions in rural communities
• Rehabilitation and habilitation

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

Modes of delivery in this unit include lectures, seminars, tutorials, online activities and self-directed study. Consistent with adult learning principles, the teaching and learning strategies used within these modes of delivery will provide students with foundational knowledge and skills relevant to professional nursing practice. This strategy will also support students in meeting the aim, learning outcomes and graduate attributes of the unit and the broader course learning outcomes. Learning and teaching strategies will reflect respect for the individual as an independent learner. Students will be expected to take responsibility for their learning and to participate actively with peers.  

Students exiting university need significant life-long learning skills to deliver sound, ongoing, evidence-based graduate practice as a member of the professional workforce. To embed life-long learning skills students must demonstrate increasing reflective capacity to identify what is being done well and what requires additional work in progressing toward the required learning outcomes. Located in the third year of the programme, this theory unit includes some face-to-face teaching hours and an increased online component of learning. Online recorded lectures are utilised to convey content and central principles, while tutorials provide an opportunity to consolidate students’ understanding of content through collaboration and discussion. Tutorials deliver interactive and student-driven learning sessions to extend the community of learners, and increase their self-reliance, critical reflection and debate. Online materials provide students with the opportunity to undertake directed, self-motivated study and continue to transition to independent study and life-long learning. 

Assessment strategy and rationale

A range of assessment items consistent with University assessment requirements and policy will be used to ensure students achieve the unit learning outcomes and attain the graduate attributes.

Third year sees students continue their transition towards independent learning. In this unit, there are two 50% assessment items, therefore the importance of each item is high in terms of achievement of unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes. The written assignment uses a case study to engage students with chronic illness and disability and to demonstrate an understanding of the identification and prioritisation of issues of care,– critical skills required by the registered nurse. The health promotion resource reinforces the need for discharge and community education as well as the long-term care of an individual and community. Skills necessary for graduate practice include an understanding that the role of a nurse can extend beyond the immediate care they provide into the long-term management of individuals following their move away from health facility management. 

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2018). Australia’s health 2018. www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/7c42913d-295f-4bc9-9c24-4e44eff4a04a/aihw-aus-221.pdf

Bullock, S. & Hales, M. (2019). Principles of pathophysiology (2nd ed.). Pearson.

Bullock, S., & Manias, E. (2017). Fundamentals of pharmacology  (8th ed.). Pearson. Chang,

Chang, E., & Johnson, A. (Eds.). (2017). Living with chronic illness and disability: Principles for nursing practice (3rd ed.). Elsevier.

Holland, K., Jenkins, J., Solomon, J., & Whittam, S. (2019). Applying the Roper-Logan-Tierney Model in practice-E-Book. Elsevier

Larsen, P. D., & Lubkin, I. M. (2019). Chronic illness: Impact and intervention (10th ed.). Jones and Bartlett.

Levett-Jones, T. (2017). Clinical Reasoning: Learning to think like a nurse. Pearson.

Tiziani, A. P.(2021). Harvard's nursing guide to drugs (11th ed.). Elsevier.

World Health Organization. (2015). Non communicable diseases. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/health-topics/noncommunicable-diseases#tab=tab_1