Unit rationale, description and aim
Cardiac nursing involves the management of patients with complex cardiovascular conditions across diverse clinical and cultural contexts. Specialist cardiac nurses require advanced clinical expertise, critical thinking, and ethical decision-making to deliver culturally responsive, equitable, and people- and family-centred care. This unit prepares postgraduate nursing students to meet these challenges by integrating advanced knowledge with evidence-based practice.
Students will critically apply principles of interprofessional collaboration and shared decision-making to optimise outcomes for patients and families. They will evaluate complex ethical dilemmas, emerging evidence, and contemporary nursing practices to develop context-responsive solutions to challenges in cardiac care. Reflective practice is emphasised, enabling students to recognise the leadership role of the specialist cardiac nurse in advocating for safe, ethical care, upholding professional standards, and guiding evidence-based practice within complex clinical environments.
The aim of this unit is to equip students with the skills to integrate advanced cardiac nursing knowledge, ethical reasoning, and critical evaluation to provide high-quality, evidence-informed, people-centred care. On completion of the unit, graduates will be prepared to lead improvements in clinical practice, enhance patient outcomes, and contribute effectively to multidisciplinary healthcare teams in cardiac care.
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 Cardiac Nursing Practice
- Introduction to Advanced Practice Nursing (APN)
- Role of the specialist cardiac 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 Cardiac Nursing
- 5As of EBP
- Translating evidence into practice
- Barriers and enablers in integrating evidence into practice
- Critical appraisal
- Ethics and Clinical Governance in Cardiac Nursing
- Health professionals’ codes of professional conduct
- Health professionals’ codes of ethical conduct
- Ethical issues & ethical decision-making
- Safety, quality and harm minimisation (NSQHS Standards)
- Accreditation standards
- Risks of deterioration
- Aspects of resuscitation care (ARC Guidelines)
- Maintain cardiac conduction in emergency situations
- Optimising successful defibrillation
- Contemporary issues in defibrillation
- Cardioversion
- Post-resuscitation care: preserving cerebral function
- Therapeutic hypothermia after cardiac arrest
- Family witnessed arrest and CPR
- Cardiac Transplantation – Social, Ethical, and Family Considerations
- Donor-related issues and organ allocation processes
- Societal, religious, and family perspectives on heart donation
- Patient education, health literacy, and informed shared decision-making
- Quality of life post-transplant for patients and families
- End-of-Life Care and Bereavement in Cardiac Nursing
- Planning and preparing for death
- Commencing palliative care
- Final moments and bereavement support for families
- Psychosocial and ethical aspects of end-of-life care
- Moral distress among caregivers and staff
- Care for Diverse Populations
- Paediatric
- Older adults
- Obstetric
- Neurodiverse
- Gender diverse
- Cardiac Care in Primary and Rural/Remote Settings
- Principles of primary care in disease engagement
- Community engagement and chronic disease prevention strategies
- Access, equity and cultural safety
- Scope of practice and autonomy for nurses
- Leadership, Wellbeing and Self Care in Advanced Cardiac 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 cardiac 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 clinical 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 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 cardiac 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 engage with culturally safe, equitable, and people-centred care through structured online discussions and reflective activities. The unit highlights the specialist cardiac 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. 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.