Unit rationale, description and aim
Australia’s ageing population presents increasingly complex health, ethical, and social challenges that require advanced gerontological nursing expertise. This unit equips students with the specialised knowledge and critical capabilities needed to deliver culturally responsive, equitable, and people-centred care to older adults in diverse settings. Grounded in contemporary evidence and best practice, the unit responds to the growing demand for nurses who can lead collaborative, ethically sound, and responsive care in gerontological contexts.
Students will critically examine principles of interprofessional collaboration and shared decision-making to optimise patient and family experiences across the continuum of ageing. They will evaluate complex ethical issues, emerging evidence, and current nursing practices to develop context-appropriate solutions that address healthcare challenges in ageing populations. The unit also fosters reflective practice, emphasising the leadership role of the specialist gerontological nurse in advancing evidence-based care, upholding professional standards, and advocating for safe, ethical practice in complex clinical environments.
The aim of this unit is to enable students to integrate advanced gerontological knowledge, critical reflection, and ethical reasoning to lead and deliver high-quality, responsive, and evidence-based care for older adults.
Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.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.
Critically apply principles of interprofessional c...
Learning Outcome 01
Critically evaluate complex ethical problems, info...
Learning Outcome 02
Critically examine and justify the leadership role...
Learning Outcome 03
Critically evaluate and apply evidence to inform c...
Learning Outcome 04
Content
Topics will include:
- Key Concepts in Advanced Gerontological Nursing Practice
- Introduction to Advanced Practice Nursing (APN)
- Role of the specialist gerontological nurse
- Professional identity, standards, and development
- Translating evidence into practice collaboration (IPE), communication, and shared decision-making (SDM)
- Family centred care and culturally responsive care
- Key Concepts in Evidence-Based Practice in Gerontological Nursing
- 5As of EBP
- Translating evidence into practice
- Barriers and enablers in integrating evidence into practice
- Critical appraisal
- Understanding Changed Behaviours and Perceptions of Older Persons
- Changed behaviours and perceptions of ageing
- Therapeutic communication and language sensitivity
- Expectations, judgment, and societal norms
- Improving self-identity and minimising vulnerability
- Care negotiations and advocacy for consent
- Neurodiversity and gender diversity care
- Ethical Practice in Gerontological Nursing
- Health professionals’ codes of professional conduct
- Health professionals’ codes of ethical conduct
- Code of Conduct for Aged Care
- Ethics, ethical issues and ethical decision-making in gerontological nursing practice
- Ethical principles
- Elder abuse
- Consent and cognitive decline
- End of life decisions
- Use of restraints
- Resource allocation
- Truth telling
- Cultural safety
- Voluntary assisted dying
- Clinical Governance & Aged Care Quality Standards
- New Aged Care Act 2024
- Rights, responsibilities and risks in Aged Care Settings
- Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards
- Reportable incidents and SIRs
- Clinical governance
- Antimicrobial stewardship
- Infection, prevention & control
- Dealing with infectious outbreaks
- Medication management
- Wound management /pressure injuries
- Restrictive practices
- Falls
- Patient deterioration and resuscitation
- End of life Care, Palliative Care & Bereavement in Gerontological Nursing
- Ethical, physical, psychological and psychosocial impacts
- People/family centred care
- Culturally responsive care for linguistically diverse patients
- Moral distress among caregivers and staff
- End of life care and decisions
- Surgical Care in Primary Care and Rural/Remote settings
- Principles of primary care and community engagement
- Preventive health and chronic disease management
- Access, equity and cultural safety
- Scope of practice and autonomy in rural nursing
- Leadership, Wellbeing and Self Care in Gerontological Nursing Practice
- Leadership and mentorship in APN roles
- Clinical decision-making and autonomy
- Recognising burnout and compassion fatigue
- Impact on clinical decision-making and patient safety
- Strategies for resilience, peer support, and reflective practice
Assessment strategy and rationale
The assessment strategy uses two scaffolded written assignments to develop advanced clinical reasoning, interprofessional collaboration and shared decision‑making, ethical analysis, leadership, and evidence‑based practice in gerontological nursing. Assessment Task 1 introduces critical analysis through an ethical dilemma, requiring students to apply collaborative and shared decision‑making principles to deliver culturally responsive, people‑ and family‑centred care. This task strengthens high‑level ethical reasoning and the ability to inform context‑responsive solutions to complex care needs.
The second assessment task requires students to provide a comprehensive case analysis that integrates advanced knowledge, critical evaluation of evidence, and justification of leadership actions in complex gerontological contexts. Students apply research to inform context‑responsive, evidence‑based interventions and articulate the advanced clinical nurse’s role in advocating for safe, ethical practice.
The scaffolded approach reflects AQF Level 8 expectations by emphasising synthesis of theory and practice, autonomy in clinical decision‑making, and scholarly engagement with complex healthcare challenges. To pass the unit, students must demonstrate achievement of every unit learning outcome and obtain a minimum mark of 50% in graded units.
Overview of assessments
Assessment Task 1: Written Assignment This asses...
Assessment Task 1: Written Assignment
This assessment involves analysing a real-world gerontological case with an ethical dilemma. Critically examine clinical practices, ethical principles, and interprofessional collaboration. Evaluate the shared decision-making process and whether culturally safe, equitable, people- and family-centred outcomes were achieved.
30%
Assessment Task 2: Written Assignment This wri...
Assessment Task 2:
Written Assignment
This written case study involves analysing the care of a complex gerontological patient with a variation in health status. It assesses the ability to critically evaluate literature, analyse and justify the advanced practice nurse’s role in harm minimisation, quality and safety, propose evidence-based, culturally responsive interventions aligned with people-centred care and shared decision-making.
70%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This online unit adopts active learning strategies to support students in developing advanced clinical reasoning, ethical decision-making, and evidence-based practice. Learning activities are designed to reflect the complexity of real-world healthcare environments, including primary care and rural/remote contexts, where adaptability and autonomy are essential. Students will demonstrate knowledge of culturally responsive, equitable, and people-centred care principles through structured online discussions and reflective activities.
The unit highlights the specialist gerontological nurse’s role in interprofessional collaboration, risk assessment, harm mitigation, and leadership in evidence-informed practice, aligned with the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards, New Aged Care Act 2024 and Strengthed Aged Care Quality Standards. The flexible delivery model ensures accessibility for working professionals while providing expert academic support. Collaborative online discussions foster shared learning, professional networking, and the development of a forward-thinking, people-centred nursing practice.