Course Title: Health Care Education and Practice in Australia

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Health Care Education and Practice in Australia

Credit Points: 12.00

Course Code	Campus	Career	School	Learning Mode	Teaching Period(s)
NURS2111	Bundoora Campus	Undergraduate	150H Health Sciences	Face-to-Face	Sem 1 2006, Sem 2 2006, Sem 1 2007, Sem 2 2007

Course Coordinator: Aruna Akkireddi

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 99257452

Course Coordinator Email: aruna.akkireddi@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: Building 201, Level 4, room 16

Course Coordinator Availability: Email and telephone

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

International students

New  to Australia

New to tertiary education

Course Description

This course has been developed for international students who are new to study in Australia and who expect to be working or undertaking clinical practical experience within the Australian Health Care System. The course will introduce international students in the first or second year of their program of study, to three broad knowledge areas. Firstly, study in Australia: expectations of teaching and learning in Australia and specifically at RMIT University will be addressed. Secondly, the structure of the Australian Health Care System and Australian Health Care services will be introduced and explained. Thirdly, students will be exposed to fundamental operating factors and processes that underpin provision of care within the Australian Health Care System such as general patient/client management systems; Universal Precautions for Infection Control, broad Occupational Health and Safety requirements. Students will be introduced to the structure, function and expectations of Australian Health Care and health care services so that they may be able to understand and work within Australian Health Care settings.

Key areas:
¨Health Care Education in Australia
¨Health care and health care services in Australia
¨Scientific fundamentals for Health Care practice

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

This means that you will learn to:
•assess own knowledge base and scope of capability
•assess the learning needs of self and clients.
•apply health care research methods to the identification and solving of problems / issues relating to health care practice
•perform health care procedures in accordance with recognised standards of practice.
•practice health care procedures in accordance with the profession’s code of ethics.
•contribute to the maintenance of a safe, secure health care environment.
•participate as a member of a community of critical and scholarly review.

On completion of this course, the student will be able to
•demonstrate accessing information and resources that are required to study at RMIT,
•develop effective study skills (written and verbal)
•demonstrate assessment and intervention skills required as a health professional.
•explore ethical and legal issues relevant to health care practice

Overview of Learning Activities

Students in this course need to acquire significant amounts of new information and new concepts concerning health care education and practice in Australia. Learning activities need to include opportunities to access and organise this new information. This may be provided by lectures, online learning resources or a reading and research program which might be individual or collective. Students will also need opportunities to discuss the more complex concepts and to develop the skills necessary to devise plans for care. Discussion groups, tutorials, self managed student learning groups, peer mentoring or coaching might be considered. Case studies and critical analysis of existing care plans may be useful.
The students need to learn how to perform health care assessments and health care practice. This might be achieved in laboratory sessions and applied to real world contexts if possible. Simulations and role plays may be effective.

Overview of Learning Resources

The learning resources that are commended for this course are varied.

Overview of Assessment

To measure knowledge and skills acquisition, assessment of the content of this course will include submission of activities, a case study and theoretical examination