NSN439 Integrated Professional Practice 2 (Clinical Mastery and Leadership)

Unit Outline: Semester 2 2024, Online

Overview

This capstone unit extends previous learning to develop student's clinical capability and leadership in a specialty context. Progressively decreasing levels of clinical support is provided as you progress to mastery in assessment, diagnosis, management, appropriate use of clinical diagnostics and implementation of therapeutic interventions for consumers. This supervised and supported integrated professional practice experience develops mastery of knowledge and skills including leadership to meet nurse practitioner standards for practice (NMBA, 2021). During this final Integrated Professional Practice unit, you will continue to develop in the nurse practitioner role under the supervision of an appropriately qualified clinical support team and nurse academic. This unit builds on the knowledge and skills attained in NSN435 Integrated Professional Practice 1.

This is a designated unit which is essential to your course progression. Designated units include professional experience units, units requiring the development of particular skills, and units requiring demonstration of certain personal qualities. If you fail to achieve a satisfactory level of performance in a designated unit, you may be excluded from enrolment or will be put on academic probation. If you fail a designated unit twice within your course, you may be excluded. Supplementary assessment is not available on designated units.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:

1. Demonstrate advanced health knowledge and clinical practice skills to deliver a nurse practitioner health care service that is responsive to diverse, complex consumer needs
2. Demonstrate a systematic approach in undertaking holistic health assessments and apply diagnostic reasoning to inform management planning and perform pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapeutic interventions
3. Formulate service plans, outcomes and interventions using health informatics and technology in engaging with consumers and improving practice
4. Apply written and oral presentation skills to support intra/interdisciplinary professional development.

Content

Learning Approaches

This unit provides supervised and supported clinical practice experience to develop mastery in clinical practice and leadership. This integrated professional practice unit comprises a total of 170 hours of integrated professional practice in your usual health care setting.

During the professional placement, you will have the opportunity to consolidate team functioning skills, responsive practitioner capability through evaluating service provision and initiating ongoing quality improvements to meet consumer needs. You are expected to collaborate and manage direct consumer care under decreasing levels of supervision, across the semester. Your clinical support team will continue to conduct regular clinical practice reviews on your management of consumer cases and verify your clinical log. You will have an opportunity to demonstrate leadership capacity through the delivery of a professional educational event.

Feedback on Learning and Assessment

Assessment will be spaced throughout the semester to provide the opportunity for feedback on your learning at key points. You will receive formative verbal    and written feedback on your progress throughout the placement for this unit. A structured approach to assessment and marking will be applied to provide you with detailed feedback on your progress.

Assessment

Overview

There are three summative assessments to be completed in this unit. You must submit all assessment items to a satisfactory level and attend 100% of your integrated professional practice in order to achieve an overall pass grade for this unit.

Unit Grading Scheme

S (Satisfactory) / U (Unsatisfactory)

Assessment Tasks

Assessment: Professional development presentation

Identify a professional development learning opportunity, such as a priority health area, health technologies, trends in provision of care, or policy/practice change in your specialty area. You will prepare an educational session for colleagues in your work area and deliver this to a group of peers or at a professional organisation conference. You will seek written feedback from 3 individuals regarding the quality of the presentation, the content alignment to the aim and planned objectives. Feedback should include the perceived benefits for the attendees and consumers. The outcome of this assessment is final, it cannot be repeated.

Threshold Assessment:

You must submit all assessment items to a satisfactory level and attend 100% of your integrated professional practice in order to achieve an overall pass grade for this unit.

Assessment: Professional Practice Report

You will provide patient-centred care for a number of consumers applying the nurse practitioner standards for practice. You will use health informatics and technology to engage with consumers and communicate with other health professionals. You will submit a formative Integrated Professional Practice Assessment Report (IPPAR) detailing achievement of a range of knowledge, skills and practice learning activities that provide evidence of demonstrating the Nurse Practitioner Standards for Practice (NMBA, 2021). You will receive formative verbal and written feedback on your progress throughout the placement for this unit. You must demonstrate satisfactory achievement on each standard of the assessment tool. The outcome of this assessment is final, it cannot be repeated.

You are required to upload this report to ePortfolio along with your log of clinical hours including evidence of comprehensive health assessment, diagnosis, management, and implementation of therapeutic interventions. You will also upload evidence of your professional presentation and feedback.

Threshold Assessment:

You must submit all assessment items to a satisfactory level and attend 100% of your integrated professional practice in order to achieve an overall pass grade for this unit.

Assessment: Viva voce

You will undertake a comprehensive oral clinical examination (i.e. viva voce) that will be assessed by your Clinical Support Team and Unit Coordinator. The viva voce demonstrates whether your depth of knowledge and range of skills are commensurate with those of the nurse practitioner in your specialty area of practice.

If you are unsuccessful in your first Viva Voce attempt, you will have the opportunity to repeat this assessment within two weeks of the first attempt.

You are required to upload the completed Viva Voce CRA signed by your CST and QUT academic representative, along with your IPPAR, log of clinical hours and professional development presentation 

Threshold Assessment:

You must submit all assessment items to a satisfactory level and attend 100% of your integrated professional practice in order to achieve an overall pass grade for this unit.

Academic Integrity

Students are expected to engage in learning and assessment at QUT with honesty, transparency and fairness. Maintaining academic integrity means upholding these principles and demonstrating valuable professional capabilities based on ethical foundations.

Failure to maintain academic integrity can take many forms. It includes cheating in examinations, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, and submitting an assessment item completed by another person (e.g. contract cheating). It can also include providing your assessment to another entity, such as to a person or website.

You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.

Further details of QUT’s approach to academic integrity are outlined in the Academic integrity policy and the Student Code of Conduct. Breaching QUT’s Academic integrity policy is regarded as student misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.

Resources

Resource Materials

Prescribed text(s)

NMBA (2021). Nurse Practitioner Standards of Practice. Available from the AHPRA website NMBA Professional Standards

Talley, N., & O'Connor, S. (2021). Clinical examination: A systematic guide to physical diagnosis (9th ed.). Sydney: Churchill Livingston, Elsevier.

Recommended text(s)

Ball, J., Dains, J., Flynn, J.A., Solomon, B.S. & Stewart, R.W. (2023). Seidel's guide to physical examination (10th ed.). St Louis: Mosby.

Risk Assessment Statement

As a student undertaking this unit you are required to be working in your nominated clinical speciality area. As such, you will be exposed to risks encountered in the practice of nursing. Students undertaking workplace-based professional practice experience or clinical placement are required to follow the same health safety guidelines that apply to all staff in the workplace. In addition, measures to control exposure to risks include:

• Orientation to the health care agency
• Supervision by a clinical support team
• Appropriate theoretical and practical preparation.

Emergency procedures

All facilities require that their health workers become familiar with local emergency procedures. It is your responsibility to locate fire exits, emergency procedures and complete CPR drill and fire safety as required.

Health status and immunisation requirements

It is strongly recommended that you will:

• Endeavour at all times to maintain your personal health at a high level. Be fit to work and have had a reasonable rest period between shifts.
• Review your current immunisation status.
• Inform the Unit Coordinator, Course Coordinator or Clinical Support Team if you are aware of any personal condition, which may present a risk to yourself or consumers, other students, health care agency staff or the general public while undertaking professional practice experience or clinical placement.

The management of your health facility has the right to send you home if, in their opinion, it is unsafe for you to work that day.

Confidentiality

As a student in the clinical area, you must treat all information regarding clients and their families with the utmost confidentiality. Information that is documented as part of your learning experiences must preserve client anonymity and confidentiality. Classroom discussion should also adhere to these principles.

Course Learning Outcomes

NS90 Master of Nurse Practitioner

1. Demonstrate advanced health knowledge and clinical practice skills to deliver nurse practitioner services to diverse consumer populations
   Relates to: Viva voce
2. Apply advanced clinical inquiry and reasoning in assessing, diagnosing, implementing, and developing a holistic management plan in partnership with consumers
   Relates to: Professional Practice Report, Viva voce
3. Critique the application of influential communication and practice for effective professional relationships across the intra and interdisciplinary team
   Relates to: Professional development presentation, Professional Practice Report, Viva voce
4. Generate a scholarly piece of work that demonstrates an understanding of research methods, processes, and evidence-based practice
   Relates to: Professional development presentation
5. Embedded in nursing philosophy, engage in advocacy and leadership to influence ethical and culturally safe practice to optimise health systems and outcomes for consumers and communities.
   Relates to: Professional development presentation, Professional Practice Report, Viva voce