FACULTY OF HEALTH SCIENCES

School of Nursing, Midwifery and Paramedicine
Melbourne Campus
SEMESTER 2, 2014
NRSG367: Transition to Professional Practice
NRPL367: Transition to Professional Practice
NATIONAL UNIT OUTLINE
CREDIT POINTS: 10
PREREQUISITES / CO-REQUISITES / INCOMPATIBLES: Pre Foundation year units

Canberra: Peta Gale
Brisbane: Samantha Howard & Gillian Lewis
LECTURER-IN-CHARGE: Lecturer Name: Mary Huynh
Office Location: DMB, Level 4, Rm 4.21
Email: Mary.Huynh@acu.edu.au
Telephone: (03) 9953 3750
DESCRIPTION:
This unit is focussed on contemporary issues impacting on the transition from nursing student to
graduate registered nurse within various health care settings. Transition is seen as a
multidimensional and complex process. The key issues addressed relate to knowledge and
strategies in the areas of leadership, teamwork, clinical decision making, critical thinking,
advocacy and responding to change in the health care environment as related to technology and
models of care delivery. The unit extends and consolidates concepts from both foundation and
nursing practice units.
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MODE AND DURATION:
Mode/Attendance Pattern:
2 hour face to face resource session at beginning the intensive weeks, 2 hour face to face resource
session at the end of semester. Four (4) 1 hour webinar sessions and online LEO eModules are
completed throughout the semester.
Duration:
12 week-semester or equivalent as blended mode delivery
You should anticipate undertaking 150 hours of study for this unit, including class attendance,
readings and assignment preparation.
Unit Outline Resources:
The University provides a range of information and support for your studies. The Unit Outline
Resources web page (http://www.acu.edu.au/241467) links to all relevant Policies, Resources and
Support. See the end of this document for more information.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
1. Distinguish the transformation in skill acquisition from novice to expert;
2. Analyse the major theoretical foundations of leadership and teamwork skills in
professional practice (GA 4,7);
3. Explain clinical governance in relation to professional practice;
4. Apply communication theory, conflict resolution and negotiation skills to challenging
interactions and situations in professional practice (GA9);
5. Assess and effectively utilise information technology within health care contexts;
6. Apply the skills and attitudes of self-directed, reflective learning in setting and
meeting your current and future learning needs (GA 4,7,8);
7. Evaluate selected models of care in relation to the needs and safety of health care
consumers across the lifespan (GA8);
8. Synthesise evidence to support proposals for innovation and change to enhance
service;
9. Debate the legal and ethical implications of advocacy in professional practice (GA3).
NRPL367 Students Only
10. Articulate a personal philosophy of nursing
Each unit in your course contributes in some way to the development of the ACU Graduate
Attributes which you should demonstrate by the time you complete your course.
You can view the ACU Graduate Attributes for all courses by following the link to Graduate
Attributes (http://www.acu.edu.au/204356). All Australian universities have their expected
Graduate Attributes – ACU’s Graduate Attributes have a greater emphasis on ethical behaviour
and community responsibility than those of many other universities. All of your units will develop
some attributes.
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Your course is a professional program that requires development of particular attributes for
accreditation purposes. These are also included in the Learning Outcomes.
On successful completion of this unit, students will have developed their ability to:

Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia Competency Standards for the Registered Nurse
developed in this unit are:
There are five (5) key themes that link all the content in the online modules ensuring students have a
deeper understanding of the complexity of the issues addressed in each. These themes are;
leadership, collaborative care, evidence based practice, transition to practice, and information
technology. These themes align with the Nursing & Midwifery Board of Australia Competencies for
Registered Nurses.

CONTENT:
Topics will include:
1. Theoretical foundations of leadership and teamwork
 Communication theories
 Change management
 Conflict resolution
 Stress management culture and teamwork
 Managing anger, violence and aggression in the workplace
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2. Transformation in skill acquisition from novice to expert
 Reflecting on competence in nursing practice
 Time management, delegation, conflict resolution, teamwork/collaborative practice,
stress management, leadership skills
 Transferability of skills (information literacy, knowledge management)
3. Innovation and change
 Evidence-based practice
 Research and other forms of evidence
 Healthcare strategies
 Policy development
 Best practice guidelines
 Links to clinical governance
4. Information technology within health care
 Human issues
 Health and nursing informatics
 Transforming healthcare with technology
 Competency in information and communication technologies
CONTENT EXTENDED
1. Knowledge, characteristics and skills of critical thinking and clinical decision
making:
 Provisional nature of knowledge
 Use of initiative
 Critical thinking indicators
 Role of logic, intuition and creativity
2. Self-directed, reflective learning
 Engagement with continuing professional practice
3. Models of care
 Models of care across the lifespan
 Levels of health care consumer involvement
 Culture, ageing and social status
 Quality and patient safety
 Risk assessment and management
5. Legal and ethical issues
 Code of ethics
 Politics of healthcare
 Workforce issues
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STUDY SCHEDULE
For the most up-to-date information, please check your LEO unit and also note advice from your
lecturing and tutoring staff for changes to this schedule.

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Information related to the unit can be found in three (3) specific places. This unit outline, the
introductory information provided on LEO in the ‘My Site’ and ‘My unit’ block and the assessment
item instructions contained in ‘My Assessment’ block in LEO.
ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES:
REFERENCING
This unit requires you to use the APA referencing system.
See the ‘Academic referencing’ page from the Office of Student Success
(http://students.acu.edu.au/372091) for more details.
ACU POLICIES AND REGULATIONS
It is your responsibility to read and familiarise yourself with ACU policies and regulations, including
regulations on examinations; review and appeals; acceptable use of IT facilities; and conduct and
responsibilities. These are in the ACU Handbook, which is available in the Library or on the ACU
website at http://www.acu.edu.au/142401
The Unit Outline Resources page (http://students.acu.edu.au/241467) is a good starting point.
 Assessment Policy and Procedures
You must read the Assessment Policy and Assessment Procedures in the University Handbook: they
include rules on deadlines; penalties for late submission; extensions; and special consideration
(http://students.acu.edu.au/429796). If you have any queries on Assessment Policy, please see your
Lecturer in Charge.
Grading Descriptors for the unit are detailed in section 7 of the Academic Regulations (available at
http://students.acu.edu.au/430029).
 Academic integrity
You have the responsibility to submit only work which is your own, or which properly acknowledges the
thoughts, ideas, findings and/or work of others. The Framework for Academic Integrity and the
Academic Honesty Policy are available at http://students.acu.edu.au/343665. Please read them, and
note in particular that plagiarism, collusion and recycling of assignments are not acceptable. Penalties
for academic dishonesty can vary in severity, and can include being excluded from the course.
 Turnitin
The ‘Turnitin’ application (a text-matching tool) will be used in this unit, in order to enable:

While Turnitin can help in identifying problems with plagiarism, avoiding plagiarism is more important.
Information on avoiding plagiarism is available at http://students.acu.edu.au/49758.
For any assignment that has been created to allow submission through Turnitin (check the Assignment
submission details for each assessment task), you should submit your draft well in advance of the due
date (ideally, several days before) to ensure that you have time to work on any issues identified by
Turnitin. On the assignment due date, lecturers will have access to your final submission, and the
Turnitin Originality Report.
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OVERVIEW OF ASSESSMENTS:

In order to pass this unit, you are required to obtain a cumulative score of 50%. The assessment
tasks for this unit are designed for you to demonstrate your achievement of each learning outcome
OTHER UNIT INFORMATION:
It is your responsibility as a student to ensure that you have the prerequisites or co-requisites for a
particular unit. You may not enrol in this unit if you have previously passed, or are currently
enrolled in, any unit identified as incompatible with this unit. If you do not meet these
requirements, then you must see your Course Coordinator.
You should also become very familiar with the Student Tutorials in the Learning Management
System, since almost all ACU units now utilise eLearning (http://www.acu.edu.au/150935)
ONLINE WEBINAR TUTORIALS
Each module has an associated webinar tutorial were information pertaining to the content and
linkage to assessment task 2b will be presented. These discussions will provide clinical
relevance, allowing you to discuss your practical and theoretical experiences in a safe and open
environment. Information pertaining to the webinars can be found on LEO. To participate, please
ensure that you sound test your computer before each webinar and have a headset with a
microphone as outlined on page 13 of the unit outline.
TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES:
Teaching and learning strategies will include learner-centred web-based learning, case-based
learning, and reflective/critical thinking activities. Students will be expected to take responsibility
for their learning and to participate actively within group activities.
STUDENT FEEDBACK AND CHANGES TO UNIT:
This unit has been evaluated through the ‘Student Evaluation of Unit’ (SEU) online surveys. As a
result the following changes have been made to the unit; Module content format changed to
demonstrate consistency, additional webinars included to facilitate student discussion and
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questions outside scheduled webinars, collaborative online learning spaces altered to better reflect
a blended learning pedagogy and facilitate timely responses, assessment items changed to reflect
student feedback and evaluation outcomes of the redesign project. SEU surveys are usually
conducted at the end of the teaching period. Your practical and constructive feedback is valuable
to improve the quality of the unit. Please ensure you complete the SEU survey for the unit. You
can also provide feedback at other times to the unit lecturers, course coordinators and/or through
student representatives.
ALLOCATING FINAL RESULT GRADES: