Master of Nursing Practice

This course is not offered in 2021.

Course Aims

The aims of this course are to build on the existing generic skills of students who have already completed an AQF Level 7 or equivalent Bachelor level degree and who wish to become Registered Nurses with the Australian Health Practitioner Registration Agency. The focus will be on giving these students the necessary, discipline specific knowledge and skills required to become a competent, beginning level, professional Registered Nurses in a variety of settings and to provide evidence-based, creative, sensitive and responsible nursing care to the clients with whom they work. The course also aims to produce graduates who appreciate the value of life-long learning and who have a firm foundation for further study at postgraduate levels.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to: provide safe, thoughtful, creative, responsive and evidence-based nursing care at a beginning practitioner level; analyse and evaluate assessment findings to apply advanced critical thinking and the appropriate knowledge and skills to the provision of nursing care to people in a variety of health care settings; demonstrate an appreciation and respect of the rights of individual people to make choices regarding their own health and the care they receive; demonstrate support, facilitative skills and advocacy for vulnerable people who are unable to make or implement choices for themselves by virtue of their condition; exhibit an understanding of nurses' roles in the provision of primary health care and generate and implement education strategies for health and health promotion; demonstrate the ability to apply advanced nursing knowledge and skills to act as a change agent within the health care system; and maintain and extend their nursing knowledge and skills by a process of experiential learning, reading and research.

Graduate Attributes

Knowledge of a Discipline Students build on existing knowledge and progressively develop a sound knowledge of the discipline of nursing in preparation for their roles as professional nurses through participation in online and face-to-face learning activities and clinical practice. Knowledge of the discipline will be assessed through written assignments, online tests, examinations, assessment of clinical skills in the clinical laboratory and clinical practice competence assessment on clinical placements. Students will engage in learning activities in which global perspectives of nursing practice will be discussed and debated. They will be expected to show their understanding of the global nature of nursing in written assessments and demonstrate this understanding on assessed clinical placements. Communication Skills Students will be taught and build on existing knowledge in the practise of relevant oral, written and non-verbal communication skills in all the units of this course. Assessment of communication skills will occur through written assignments and through assessment of clinical competence in practice. Problem Solving Students will be taught and build on existing problem-solving skills as they engage with issues of clinical governance and practise development in online, face-to-face and clinical practice activities. Their ability to solve problems is assessed across all assessment tasks in the course. Information Literacy Existing knowledge of information literacy is built on, practised and assessed through the assignment tasks attached to each unit of the course. Students are taught advanced research skills and how to access and assess relevant information from a variety of online and paper based information sources. Ethical Conduct and Social Responsibility Students learn about and develop the capacity to make ethically sound, morally just and socially responsible decisions in all the nursing units of this course. They apply this knowledge specifically to patient advocacy, safety and quality issues. They are assessed on this knowledge across all assessment tasks and apply it in practice while on assessed clinical placements. Lifelong Learning Students are required to set ongoing learning objectives at each stage of the course and as they prepare to transition to practise and to progressively refine their plan for continuing professional development in their nursing career. These approaches to lifelong learning will be assessed in the student's professional portfolios and in practise on clinical placements. Independence and Collaboration Students are taught theories of team dynamics and teamwork as they relate to a range of health care settings in all nursing units of this course. They participate as members of a health care team where they will develop and refine their skills, understanding and ability to work effectively, both independently and as part of a health care team during their assessed clinical placements.