Assessment task 3: Online modules – Part A & Part B
Students are required to complete three (3) online modules found on the LEO site. The online modules cover a range of content related to the clinical specialty practice of your choice. Each module has an activity attached which the students are required to complete. Your response to all three modules must be submitted as instructed below.
Due date: Friday 12th October 5.00pm
Weighting: Part A 35%, Part B 15% - (50%)
Length and/or format: Purpose: Part A 1200 Words, Part B 500 Words - (1700 words)
Online module tasks are designed to enable students to demonstrate understanding of the specialty practice environment in terms of roles and responsibilities, rights, communication processes and the meaning of illness for patients. The modules include the critical analysis of an issue of safety, confidentiality and a reflection on personal perceptions and meanings of health, illness, dying and death to consolidate learning about the specialty practice environment.
REFERENCING
Part A (1, 8), Part B (7)
Part A: Students should compile their answers to online modules 1 & 2 into a single document and submit into the appropriate Turnitin drop box located in the assessment block on the LEO site.
Part B: Students submit their response to module 3 into the appropriate Turnitin drop box located in the assessment block on the LEO site.
Assignments will be marked online and students will be notified via LEO when results and feedback are available.
Further information pertaining to the case study can be found in the assessment block on LEO and in the APPENDIX of this unit outline. Please refer to the criterion reference rubric.
This unit requires you to use the American Psychological Association (APA) referencing system. See the ‘Academic referencing’ page of the Student Portal 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, available from the website.
Online Module One
Roles and Responsibiity
The roles and the responsibilities (scope of practice) of the registered nurse are defined by the Nursing & Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) in consultation with industry and other governing nursing bodies. The NMBA also have definitions pertaining to nurse practitioners and advanced practice nurses.
The following will help you establish a basis for your reflection and enable you to complete the activity:
Fact Sheet: Advanced nursing practice and specialty areas within nursing
Shields (2013) discusses the role of the nurse in a reflective personal essay that makes for interesting reading on how nursing is viewed and where Australian nursing fits in the global scene. It makes for a good introduction to the elective and to the module. Please read this article: Shields, L. (2013). A personal essay on the role of the nurse. Contemporary Nurse: A Journal for the Australian Nursing Profession, 43(2), 213-218.
Having read the above resources it is time to explore what you know and understand about the role of the specialty nurse within your clinical practice area. Consider what you already know in relation to the NMBA standards of practice for registered nurses (2016). If all registered nurses need to meet these standards then what more is expected of someone with specialty experience?
To explore the role of the specialist nurse in the area of your elected specialty:
• Locate, read and reflect on the standards that guide the practice of nurses in your specialty area (these can often be found on the relevant specialty association webpage) - this is important!!
• Find the job description for a clinical nurse in your specialty area and read it.
• Identify the characteristics of the role that are beyond the generic description of the role of a registered nurse, that is, identify what makes the person a specialist in the area.
• What is the difference between a clinical nurse specialist (CNS), advanced nursing practice and advanced practice nursing?
• If possible speak to a nurse who currently practices in a specialty area. Ask him/her how they acquired the knowledge and skills that makes a specialist in the area. You might ask them about what facilitators and barriers they dealt with in the course of developing their specialty knowledge.
Write down some key messages you learned from these activities.
Online Module One
Physical and emotional safety
Staying safe physically is important and discussed frequently. Nurses are very aware of issues such as manual handling competencies and workplace health and safety issues, but perhaps not as aware of emotional safety issues. We will explore both in this section, but place it in the local context, by examining the environment you are working in.
To get you thinking, explore the Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation website on Workplace Health & Safety and Workers Compensation.
The next reading is an systematic review looking at stress in the Australian nursing workforce.
Lim, J., Bogossian, F., & Ahern, K. (2010). Stress and coping in Australian nurses: a systematic review. International Nursing Review, 57(1), 22-31. doi:10.1111/j.1466-7657.2009.00765.x
Next, compare the findings of the more recent study, to those of the systematic review by Lim, Bogossian and Ahern (2010):
Gifkins, J., Loudoun, R., & Johnston, A. (2017). Comping strategies and social support needs of experienced and inexperienced nurses performing shiftwork. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 73(12), 3079-3089. 10.1111/jan.13374
This final link discusses the concept of 'burnout', and although the focus is on medical burnout, the author makes some important and relevant points that can be applied to nursing (updated 2015).
Exploring safety issues in your specialty area:
• If you can, talk to a nurse/ medical practitioner from your chosen specialty and ask them what safety issue, whether physical or emotional, concerns them the most. If you are not on placement yet, engage with some of your tutors/ lecturers who may have experience teaching or practicing in these areas;
• Find one primary research article from the past 5 years that examines this issue in an Australian nursing context (if possible), read it and document a brief summary of the findings;
• In your summary mention one strategy identified from your reading that will help you to keep yourself safe from this risk.
Online Module One
Legal Obligations
As you will be well aware by now, nursing is subject to a number of legal and ethical imperatives. We operate under a nursing code of conduct and a specific act of parliament. These codes and laws are designed to protect patients and clients, but also nurses. The profession of the nurse is protected by law, and the title of nurse cannot be used without proper qualification and registration by an accredited authority.
But nurses also operate under other legal requirements: mandatory reporting of suspected child or elder abuse.
Here is a link to the mandatory reporting requirements for suspected child abuse in the different states and as you can see it is not consistent across states either. http://www.aifs.gov.au/cfca/pubs/factsheets/a141787/
And here is another link to an article exploring issues of financial abuse of older adults in residential aged care.
Tilse, C., & Wilson, J. (2013). Recognising and responding to financial abuse in residential aged care. The Journal of Adult Protection, 15(3), 141-152. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JAP-11-2012-0025
There may be specific legal obligations associated with your specialty area of practice.
• Talk to experienced nursing staff, lecturers or tutors about legal obligations specifically related to your chosen specialty. It may not necessarily be mandatory reporting issues, but be related to other issues. Areas to explore may be confidentiality issues when a person is cognitively impaired or underage, has a positive HIV status and is sexually active, and so on. For this section you can think outside the square about legalities of what nurses can and cannot do.
• Identify one aspect of your legal obligations related to your specialty and write a short paragraph on how you would ensure you honour your legal obligations while working in this area.
Assessment task 3
Online Module Two
Module two looks specifically at the rights of patients/clients and in more depth the rights of carers in the process of treatment and recovery. It raises some questions about how the nursing profession views and deals with the rights of the carers and their need for information, particularly in the context of patients/clients who may lack insight in their care needs.
For your assessment: Write 600 words on your understanding of the dilemma of providing information to carers while considering the confidentiality concerns relating to the patient/client. Don't forget to consider the ethical implications in your consideration of the issues (ethical vs. legal dilemma for nurses). Ensure it is specifically related to the specialty area that you are/will be completing your placement in.
Submission - Part A: Your written answer should be clearly labelled with module 2 and placed in a single document (that will include module 1 written answer) and uploaded in the relevant drop box in assessment block (Assessment 3: Part A includes answers to module 1 AND 2).
Assessment task 3
Online Module Three
For your assessment:
Review, refine and reference your reflection from the activity for this module into a 500 word submission using the 5 R’s of reflection, as follows:
Reporting Provide a brief descriptive account of a situation/issue (i.e. the reflective trigger). What happened/what the situation/issue involved.
Responding Record your emotional/personal response to the situation/issue. Your observations, feelings and questions about the situation/issue.
Relating Report on your personal and theoretical understandings relevant to the situation/issue. Making connections between the situation/issue and your experience, skills, knowledge and understanding.
Reasoning Your explanation of the situation/issue. Explaining the situation/issue in terms of the significant factors, relevant theory and/or experience.
Reconstructing Drawing conclusions and developing a future action plan Your deeper level of understanding about the situation / issue that is used to reframe / reconstruct your future practice and further develop your understanding of professional practice
The information contained in the table above was adapted from Bain, J. D., Ballantyne, R., Mills, C. and Lester, N. C. (2002). Reflecting on practice: Student teachers' perspectives. Post Pressed, Flaxton, Qld.
Your reflection should consider:
• How this has changed your perspective or given you some insight into the meaning illness has for that person;
• How you relate to this and make meaning of your own experiences;
• Your own perceptions, morals and ethics.
NOTE: For this assessment, it is not appropriate for you to reflect on a personal experience you have had relating to death, dying or illness, rather you MUST select one of the articles you sourced from the activity on the previous page (i.e. on the previous page, from the perspective of the person being cared for, the person closest to them or the health professional - you need to source one of these yourself).
Submission: This paragraph should be clearly labelled module 3 and uploaded in the relevant drop box in assessment block on LEO (Assessment 3: Part B only includes module 3).