Year
2024Credit points
10Campus offering
Prerequisites
NRSG524 Advanced Pathophysiology for Specialty Nursing Practice AND NRSG525 Evidence-based, Person-centred Family Care in Specialty Nursing Practice
Unit rationale, description and aim
Contemporary nursing practice embeds scientific evidence-based concepts for the promotion of positive health outcomes and application of care across a lifespan continuum. With an acute focus on quality assurance, harm mitigation, accountability, and patient satisfaction for the purpose of professional accreditation, the role of the specialist cardiac nurse encompasses a multifaceted approach to nursing care. The role of the specialist nurse encompasses evidence-based practice, ethical clinical considerations, person and family centred care, cultural safety and the ability to differentiate between the acute and chronic care trajectories of the healthcare consumer with a complex cardiac issue. This unit supports the acquisition of specialist cardiac knowledge and skills to ensure that nurses understand their role in continuing professional development, and the provision of safe and respectful specialist nursing care. This unit focuses on and extends the specialist nursing role and the significance of that role in the delivery of complex care in the specialist cardiac or coronary care setting. The aim of this unit is to support students to consolidate theory and practice through the analysis and evaluation of evidence-based, ethical specialist practice in the care of a patient with a complex cardiac condition.
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.
| Learning Outcome Number | Learning Outcome Description | Relevant Graduate Capabilities |
|---|---|---|
| LO1 | Assess the impact of cardiac disease while critically reflecting upon the key pathophysiological concepts that contribute to comorbidity and complex care needs | GC2, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC10, GC11, GC12 |
| LO2 | Explore the potential ethical, physical, psychological and psychosocial impacts experienced by patients with cardiac conditions, their families and carers | GC1, GC2, GC5, GC6, GC7, GC8, GC12 |
| LO3 | Differentiate between the acute and chronic care trajectories for patients with cardiac conditions and evaluate their influence on health and wellbeing | GC1, GC6, GC7, GC12 |
| LO4 | Reflect on the role of the specialist cardiac nurse in accordance with the Standards of Practice for Australian Cardiovascular Nursing | GC1, GC3 |
| LO5 | Assess the risk factors for patients with cardiac conditions, identify appraise and implement various assessment and strategies for harm mitigation to improve the quality of care | GC1, GC4, GC8, GC10, GC11 |
Content
Topics will include:
- Evidence-based practice (EBP)
- 5A’s of the EBP process
- Implications in specialist nursing practice
- Holistic health assessment of persons with complex cardiac problems:
- ECG interpretation/cardiac electrophysiology
- Diagnostics in cardiac care (CXR, Echo, TTE, TOE, Stress testing, Myocardial perfusion imaging)
- Subjective /objective assessment
- Holistic assessment integrating various dimensions (physical, psychosocial, emotional, spiritual)
- Impact of complex cardiac illness on patient
- Documentation and critical thinking
- Ethical practice:
- Accountability and advocacy in nursing practice
- Implications in specialist cardiac care
- Practice standards for Australian Cardiovascular Nurses
- Person- and family-centred care
- Ethical, physical, psychological and psychosocial impacts experienced by patients, their families and carers.
- Decision making process
- Needs of family members
- Role and expectations of the family
- Family-centred health promotion
- Prioritizing and planning care
- Evaluating care
- Cultural Competence
- knowledge and skills that support caring for people across different languages and cultures.
- Harm mitigation
- Risks of deterioration
- Aspects of resuscitation care (ARC Guidelines)
- Maintain cardiac conduction in emergency situations
- Optimizing successful defibrillation
- Contemporary issues in defibrillation
- Cardioversion
- Post-resuscitation care: preserving cerebral function
- Therapeutic hypothermia after cardiac arrest
- Family witnessed arrest and CPR
- EBP guidelines in the management of cardiac conditions (chest pain, heart failure)
- Role of the specialist cardiac nurse
- Importance of continuing professional development
- Leadership in the specialist cardiac care setting
- Mentorship in the specialist cardiac care setting
- Self-Care and care of others
- Strategies for maintenance of physical mental and emotional wellbeing of self and others
- Implications in specialist cardiac care setting (post cardiac arrest, burnout)
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
Teaching and learning strategies utilised in this unit will support students in meeting the aim and achieving the learning outcomes relevant to this unit as well as to the broader course learning outcomes. This unit is offered via the ACU Online platform and uses active learning to support students to reflect on key pathophysiological concepts that contribute to comorbidity and potential ethical, physical, psychological, and psychosocial impacts experienced by patients with complex cardiac conditions. Students will focus on their role as specialist cardiac nurses in assessing and managing complex cardiac conditions. This is in accordance with the Standards of Practice for Australian Cardiovascular Nurses with a focus on risk assessment and harm mitigation. In constructing specialist cardiac nursing knowledge and skill, students will evaluate care strategies that they will be able to apply within the specialist cardiac clinical setting. Students are required to complete online activities and assessments to demonstrate the application of knowledge. The learning and teaching strategy used in this unit allows flexibility for students while ensuring they have expert support. These modes of delivery assist students in linking knowledge, understanding and skills to the cardiac nursing context, and to develop shared meanings through online experiential reflections and discussions.
Assessment strategy and rationale
The assessment strategy in this unit encourages critical analysis that embodies leadership qualities in the specialist clinical setting. The deep level learning provides students with the opportunity to develop their capacity to interpret, translate, apply, and evaluate evidence-based nursing care related to the healthcare consumer requiring advanced cardiac care. Reflection is recognised as an attribute of an expert clinician and students further develop this skill by focusing on an ethical issue that arises in the specialist cardiac setting. Contemporary clinical practice requires the registered nurse to demonstrate the ability to deliver clinical care and understand the theoretical underpinnings which direct this care through continued professional development. This requirement exists because nurses are accountable for their actions and choices which may have severe adverse health consequences for healthcare consumers and/or communities. The literature review will allow students to demonstrate their ability to identify different levels of literature and evidence and apply the reading to demonstrate sound knowledge required to support safe and high-quality nursing care. Assessments in this unit encourage understanding of the complexity of professional roles and responsibilities expected within specialist cardiac nursing practice. The assessment tasks for this unit are designed to demonstrate students' achievement of each learning outcome.
Overview of assessments
| Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment Tasks | Weighting | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|
Assessment Task 1: Reflective Essay Enables students to reflect on an ethical issue in the specialist cardiac care setting. | 50% | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4 |
Assessment Task 2: Literature Review Enables students to locate, organise, analyse and synthesise information related to a complex cardiac condition. | 50% | LO2, LO3, LO5 |
Representative texts and references
Recommended text
Greenhalgh, T., Bidwell, J., Crisp, E., Lambros, A., & Warland, J. (2020). Understanding research methods for evidence-based practice in health (Second edition. ed.). John Wiley & Sons Australia.
Hoffmann, T., Bennett, S., & Del Mar, C. (2017). Evidence-based practice across the health professions (3rd ed.). Elsevier Australia.
Knights, K. M., Darroch, S., Rowland, A., & Bushell, M. (2023). Pharmacology for health professionals (6th edition. ed.). Elsevier Australia.
McCance, K. L., Huether, S. E., Brashers, V. L., & Rote, N. S. (2019). Pathophysiology: the biologic basis for disease in adults and children (Eighth edition ed.). Elsevier.
Patton, K. T., & Thibodeau, G. A. (2019). Anatomy & physiology (Adapted International edition. ed.). Elsevier.
Taylor, K., & Guerin, P. (2019). Health care and Indigenous Australians : cultural safety in practice (Third edition. ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.
Other recommended references
Recommendations for further texts will be made in the extended unit outline based on the specialty of the students enrolled in the unit.