Health Assessment and Decision Making
Overview
This unit provides opportunities for students to develop their knowledge and skills in the assessment of the health status of individuals across the lifespan, and to integrate their knowledge of normal processes and pathophysiology to nursing practice. Students will focus on factors that impact on mental and physical health assessment. At the completion of the unit students will be able to undertake a comprehensive subjective/objective systems assessment on an individual, and critically apply this knowledge to nursing practice.
Requisites
Rules
Prerequisite
Admission into BA-NUR - Bachelor of Nursing
and
Concurrent Prerequisite
BIO10004 Anatomy and Physiology
31-May-2026
31-May-2026
Learning outcomes
Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:
- Undertake a comprehensive health history and a systematic physical assessment to obtain data to inform decision making
- Analyse a person’s history across the lifespan including physical and psychosocial examination findings to determine physical and sensory capacities
- Integrate and apply knowledge of anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology as evidence from additional sources to inform decision-making
- Exhibit effective and culturally safe communication skills
- Recognise the role and scope of a registered nurse in the undertaking of a health assessment
Teaching methods
Hawthorn
| Activity Type | Activity | Total Hours | Number of Weeks | Hours Per Week | Venue Type and Activity Detail |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Online | Lecture | 12 | 12 weeks | 1 | asynchronous |
| On-campus | Class | 24 | 12 weeks | 2 | Clinical Learning Environment (CLE) |
| On-campus | Class | 16 | 8 weeks | 2 | Tutorial |
| Online | Learning activities | 24 | 12 weeks | 2 | Discussion boards, Readings, Group work |
| Unspecified Activities | Various | 74 | 12 weeks | 6.17 | Independent study, Assignment preparation, Revision |
| Total Hours: | 150 | Total Hours (per week): | 13.17 | ||
Assessment
| Type | Task | Weighting | ULO's |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assignment | Individual | 40% | 1,2,3,4,5 |
| Assessment | Individual | 30% | 1,2,4 |
| Oral Presentation | Individual | 30% | 1,2,4,5 |
Content
- Body systems evidence based framework for health assessment
- Culturally safe communication skills in history taking, assessment and examination
- Mental, psychosocial and physical health assessment skills and examination techniques
- Collection and analysis of data (subjective and objective)
- Problem solving and clinical reasoning
- Lifespan development
- Graduate Attribute – Communication Skills: Verbal communication
- Graduate Attribute – Digital Literacies: Information literacy
- Graduate Attribute – Digital Literacies: Technical lite
Study resources
Reading materials
A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.