Advanced Health Assessment, Diagnostics and Investigations

Course aim

Students will demonstrate advanced knowledge and skills in holistic health assessment, differential diagnosis and initiation of client treatment plans relevant to the nurse practitioner scope of practice.

Course content

Nursing assessment frameworks, primary health care principles and contexts, collaborating with clients and their families in the assessment process, advanced holistic client history, physical examination, psycho-social and cultural assessment, data sources relevant to determinants of health, evidence based practice, scope of nurse practitioner practice, applying ethical principles in advanced and complex client assessment, differentiating normal and abnormal parameters of assessment data, documenting and communicating holistic client assessments to the health care team, selecting & ordering appropriate diagnostic tests & investigation, relevant to scope of practice and client context; legal, ethical and economic responsibilities in using diagnostic investigations, collaborating with clients, their families & the health care team, models of diagnostic reasoning, applying history and examination data and results of tests and investigations to inform diagnostic reasoning, formulating differential diagnoses drawing on assessment data and knowledge of anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology, making complex clinical decisions in predictable and unpredictable situations, formulating client treatment plans based on assessment data and clinical diagnoses collaborating with clients and their families in developing treatment plans, documenting and communicating treatment plans to the health care team, boundaries of nurse practitioner scope of practice, referral to other health professionals – systems, processes and formats, collaborating with clients and their families regarding referrals, health informatics and health technologies.

Textbook(s)

Talley N & O'Connor S 2018, Clinical Examination: A guide to specialty examinations, 8th Edition, volume 2, Elsevier Australia, Chatswood, Australia

Talley N & O'Connor S 2018, Clinical Examination: A systematic guide to physical diagnosis, 8th edition, volume 1, Elsevier Australia, Chatswood, Australia

Jarvis C, Forbes H & Watt E 2016, Jarvis's Physical Examination and Health Assessment, Australian and New Zealand Edition, 2e, Elsevier Australia, Chatswood, Australia

Prerequisite(s)

Corequisite(s)

Nil

Teaching method

Note: These components may or may not be scheduled in every study period. Please refer to the timetable for further details.

Assessment

Comprehensive clinical assessment 1, Comprehensive clinical assessment 2, e-portfolio

Fees

EFTSL*: 0.250
Commonwealth Supported program (Band 1)
To determine the fee for this course as part of a Commonwealth Supported program, go to:
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Fee-paying program for domestic and international students
International students and students undertaking this course as part of a postgraduate fee paying program must refer to the relevant program home page to determine the cost for undertaking this course.

Non-award enrolment
Non-award tuition fees are set by the university. To determine the cost of this course, go to:
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Not all courses are available on all of the above bases, and students must check to ensure that they are permitted to enrol in a particular course.

* Equivalent Full Time Study Load. Please note: all EFTSL values are published and calculated at ten decimal places. Values are displayed to three decimal places for ease of interpretation.