Unit rationale, description and aim
Patients in medical settings often present with complex, multisystem conditions that require nurses to apply advanced bioscience knowledge, evidence-based practice, and skilled clinical reasoning. Medical nurses play a central role in coordinating care, responding to comorbidities, and supporting the physical, psychosocial, and cultural needs of patients and their families. As healthcare delivery becomes more complex and patient acuity rises, nurses must be able to interpret clinical data, evaluate research evidence, and implement safe, person-centred interventions.
This unit equips students with the advanced knowledge and decision‑making skills needed to optimise outcomes for patients in diverse medical care environments, developing advanced capabilities for medical nursing practice across acute, chronic, and complex care presentations. Students will analyse the role and scope of the medical nurse and explore the wide-ranging impacts of illness and comorbidities on individuals and families. The unit focuses on evaluating evidence-based approaches to preventative, curative, palliative, and rehabilitative care within general medical settings. Through case analysis and applied clinical reasoning, students will design, justify, and evaluate holistic, person-centred care strategies that respond to variations in health status and changing clinical conditions.
The aim of this unit is to advance students’ knowledge, analytical capability, and clinical reasoning in medical nursing, enabling them to apply evidence-based and person-centred approaches that improve outcomes for people with complex medical conditions.
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 advanced knowledge of bioscience ...
Learning Outcome 01
Critically reflect on the role and scope of the sp...
Learning Outcome 02
Analyse the physical, psychosocial, and cultural i...
Learning Outcome 03
Analyse evidence-based approaches to preventative,...
Learning Outcome 04
Apply advanced clinical reasoning to design, justi...
Learning Outcome 05
Content
Topics will include:
- Professional Identity in Advanced Medical Nursing Practice
- Definition and clinical relevance of professional identity
- Role and scope of the specialist medical nurse
- Clinical decision making and accountability
- Professional standards and frameworks
- Family centred care and culturally responsive care
- Cardiovascular & Respiratory Health
- Cardiovascular screening, risk factors, and chest pain
- ECG interpretation and pharmacology
- Respiratory assessment: COPD, pneumonia, asthma
- Rehabilitation and chronic disease management
- Family involvement supports early intervention and long-term management
- Neurological Disorders
- Raised ICP
- Stroke: diagnosis, treatment, management
- Movement disorders: Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis
- Pain
- Legal and ethical issues
- Promotes shared decision-making and long-term care planning
- Gastrointestinal Conditions
- Gastrointestinal assessment
- Abdominal pain
- Gastric ulceration, duodenal ulceration, and GORD
- GIT infections
- Chronic GIT conditions: Inflammatory Bowel Disease & treatment options
- Obesity & malnutrition
- Improves quality of life and dietary management with family involvement
- Renal & Urological Disorders
- Intrarenal and postrenal AKI
- Acute Tubular Necrosis
- Pyelonephritis (acute & chronic)
- Myeloma kidney
- Polycystic and medullary cystic disease
- Urinary tract infection
- Urinary tract cancer
- Pelvo-ureteric junction obstruction
- Renal calculi
- Encourages family support in managing complex renal care
- Chronic Kidney Disease & Renal Replacement Therapy
- Diabetic nephropathy
- Glomerulonephritis
- Hypertension
- Renal Replacement Therapy
- Haemodialysis and Peritoneal dialysis
- Management of comorbidities
- Facilitates family adaptation to dialysis and chronic care routines
- Endocrine, Immune & Behavioural Disorders
- Diabetes Mellitus & chronic complications
- Metabolic Syndrome
- Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders
- Autoimmune diseases
- Coeliac disease
- Immunosuppressive therapies
- Aggression and illicit drug use
- Addresses psychosocial impacts and supports family-centred care
- Haematological & Solid Tumours
- Leukaemia: ALL, CLL, rare forms
- Lymphoma
- Myeloma
- Brain & CNS cancers
- Head & neck cancers
- Breast cancer: anatomy, diagnosis, treatment, surgery, therapies
- Prostate: BPH, TURP, cancer, radical prostatectomy, management
- Supports families through diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship
- Advanced Disease & Palliative Care
- Anorexia & Cachexia syndrome
- Paraneoplastic & non-paraneoplastic syndromes
- Non-islet cell tumour hypoglycaemia
- Renal failure
- Liver failure
- Principles of palliative care
- Promotes compassionate, culturally responsive care and prepares families for end-of-life support
Assessment strategy and rationale
To pass the unit, students must demonstrate achievement of every unit learning outcome and obtain a minimum mark of 50% in graded units.
The assessment strategy is designed to scaffold learning and progressively build students’ advanced knowledge and application of clinical and evidence-based practice with a focus on the care of patients with complex medical conditions and their families.
Through the undertaking of two assessment tasks, students will critically reflect their role as a specialist medical nurse in improving patient outcomes, apply advanced bioscientific knowledge of complex health conditions and demonstrate clinical reasoning while applying holistic care principle. The second assessment task requires students to independently produce original work that integrates advanced bioscience knowledge, evidence-based practice, and patient-centred clinical decision-making. Both assessment tasks promote analytical thinking, reflection, and evaluation of people-centred care.
Overview of assessments
Assessment Task 1: Digital Presentation The stud...
Assessment Task 1: Digital Presentation
The student will critically reflect on their role as a specialist medical nurse in improving patient outcomes across medical healthcare settings, demonstrating the ability to critically apply advanced bioscience knowledge and evaluate evidence-based practice to inform clinical decision-making.
30%
Assessment Task 2: Written Assignment Enables st...
Assessment Task 2: Written Assignment
Enables students to critically apply advanced knowledge and clinical reasoning through analysis and evaluation of the evidence-based, people-centred care provided to a case study patient with a complex medical condition and variation in health status and demonstrate critical reflection on their role as a specialist medical nurse.
70%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This unit equips specialist medical nurses with advanced bioscience knowledge, clinical reasoning, and evidence-based skills needed to deliver person-centred care to complex medical patients. By exploring the evolving role of the specialist nurse and the physical, psychosocial, and cultural impacts of illness, the unit prepares learners to make informed clinical decisions and optimise patient outcomes.
This unit is offered in online mode and uses an active and collaborative learning approach to support students to analyse and critically evaluate approaches to providing evidence-based, people-centred nursing care to medically complex patients. Students will engage in readings, reflections and online discussions and will have opportunities to collaborate with peers in an online environment. E-Learning and links to electronic readings will be provided to guide students’ reading and extend other aspects of online learning. Online learning in this unit will be supported by the provision of opportunities for students to attend online webinar sessions that allow synchronous exchange of information and facilitate responses to queries generated by students in relation to unit content.
The learning and teaching strategy used in this unit allows flexibility for students balancing study with professional commitments while ensuring they have expert academic guidance support to ensure meaningful engagement and progression. This approach fosters integration of theory and practice, preparing students to deliver safe, evidence-informed care as medical nursing specialists.