Outline

Overview

The main focus of this unit is on the social determinants of health through a critical analysis of the relationships between social factors (e. g, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, employment) and patterns of health and illness across the lifespan in contemporary Australia. The unit includes a module that introduces students to epidemiology, the study of causes and patterns of disease within defined populations. This unit is underpinned by the understanding that ideas and beliefs about health, illness and care are intrinsically connected to particular social and historical contexts. Some of these ideas and beliefs relevant to Australia today will be explored. The unit also introduces students to the study of cultural competence as it relates to health care in contemporary Australia.

Unit details and rules

Unit code	NURS5002
Academic unit	Nursing and Midwifery
Credit points	6
Prohibitions ?	None
Prerequisites ?	None
Corequisites ?	None
Assumed knowledge ?	None
Available to study abroad and exchange students	Yes

Teaching staff

Coordinator	Jo River, jo.river@sydney.edu.au

Type	Description	Weight	Due	Length
Tutorial quiz	Assessment 1: Two Online Multiple Choice Quiz 2 Quizzes, One Due Week 5, Sunday 29 March, One Due Week 8, Sunday 26 April	20%	Week 05 Closing date: 26 Apr 2020	30 minutes
Outcomes assessed:
Presentation	Assessment 2: Online Collaborative Challenge 1 due in Week 6, 1 due in Week 8. Peer Evaluation due in Week 12	25%	Week 06	One week time limit
Outcomes assessed:
Assignment	Assessment 3: Report Report	55%	Week 12 Due date: 24 May 2020 at 23:59	2000 words
Outcomes assessed:
= hurdle task ? = group assignment ?

Assessment summary

Assessment 1: Two Online Multiple Choice Quiz 20%

2 Quizzes, One Due Week 5, Sunday 29th March 11:59 pm, One Due Week 8, Sunday 26 April 11:59 pm. Further information is available in Canvas.

Assessment 2: Online Collaborative Challenge 25%

2 Online Collaborative Challenges. One due in Week 6, One due in Week 8. Peer Evaluation due in Week 12. Further information is available in Canvas.

Assessment 3: Report to the Minister of Health 55%

Write a report of 2000 words answering the Report Question – available in Canvas.

Assessment criteria

The University awards common result grades, set out in the Coursework Policy 2014 (Schedule 1).

As a general guide, a high distinction indicates work of an exceptional standard, a distinction a very high standard, a credit a good standard, and a pass an acceptable standard.

Result name	Mark range	Description
High distinction	85 - 100
Distinction	75 - 84
Credit	65 - 74
Pass	50 - 64
Fail	0 - 49	When you don’t meet the learning outcomes of the unit to a satisfactory standard.

For more information see sydney.edu.au/students/guide-to-grades.

For more information see guide to grades.

Late submission

In accordance with University policy, these penalties apply when written work is submitted after 11:59pm on the due date:

Deduction of 5% of the maximum mark for each calendar day after the due date.
After ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded.

This unit has an exception to the standard University policy or supplementary information has been provided by the unit coordinator. This information is displayed below:

Assessment 1 and 2 must be completed in class during allotted time. Extensions of time are not possible unless formal Special Consideration is obtained. Assessment 3: Where an assignment is submitted late without an approved extension, a late penalty will apply. For every calendar day up to and including ten calendar days after the due date a penalty of 5% of the maximum awardable marks will be applied to late work. For work submitted more than ten calendar days after the due date a mark of zero marks will be awarded.

Academic integrity

The Current Student website provides information on academic integrity and the resources available to all students. The University expects students and staff to act ethically and honestly and will treat all allegations of academic integrity breaches seriously.

We use similarity detection software to detect potential instances of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breach. If such matches indicate evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breaches, your teacher is required to report your work for further investigation.

You may only use artificial intelligence and writing assistance tools in assessment tasks if you are permitted to by your unit coordinator, and if you do use them, you must also acknowledge this in your work, either in a footnote or an acknowledgement section.

Studiosity is permitted for postgraduate units unless otherwise indicated by the unit coordinator. The use of this service must be acknowledged in your submission.

Learning support

Simple extensions

If you encounter a problem submitting your work on time, you may be able to apply for an extension of five calendar days through a simple extension.  The application process will be different depending on the type of assessment and extensions cannot be granted for some assessment types like exams.

Special consideration

If exceptional circumstances mean you can’t complete an assessment, you need consideration for a longer period of time, or if you have essential commitments which impact your performance in an assessment, you may be eligible for special consideration or special arrangements.

Special consideration applications will not be affected by a simple extension application.

Using AI responsibly

Co-created with students, AI in Education includes lots of helpful examples of how students use generative AI tools to support their learning. It explains how generative AI works, the different tools available and how to use them responsibly and productively.

Weekly schedule

WK	Topic	Learning activity
Week 01	1. Introduction to the unit of study; 2. Biomedical Discourse and other ways of understanding health and illness	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 02	1. Quantitative Research (Online) 2. Epidemiology - Face-to-face	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 02	Introduction to tutorial format and thinking about nursing care	Tutorial (2 hr)
Week 03	1. Social Determinants of Health 2. Social Models of Health Care	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 04	1. Socioeconomic status and Health 2. Culture and Health	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 04	InQuizative in-class quiz, considering concepts in health	Tutorial (2 hr)
Week 05	1. Gender and Health 2. Health of gender and sexually diverse populations (LGBTIQ+)	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 06	1. Ethnicity, Race and Health	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 06	Collaborative Team Challenge: Social Determinants and Epidemiology	Tutorial (2 hr)
Week 07	Place of Living: i. Climate Justice and Health ii. Refugee Health	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 08	Self-Directed Study Online	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 08	InQuizative: Quiz and Preparing Report	Tutorial (2 hr)
Week 09	1. Social Context of Death and Dying (Online) 2. Social Context in Nursing Practice - Face-to-face	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 10	Conclusion and Questions	Lecture (2 hr)

Attendance and class requirements

Attendance: Attendance at lecture/seminar and tutorial class sessions is a requirement of the unit of study and students who are absent without good cause may not be eligible to achieve a minimum grade of PASS. The Sydney Nursing School Resolutions specifically outline attendance requirements. Resolution 7.2 states that if students are absent without leave for more than 10% of classes in a particular unit of study in any one semester, the Dean may call upon them to show cause why they should not be deemed to have failed that unit of study.
Referencing: The Sydney Nursing School has adopted the American Psychological Association (APA) Referencing style, 6th Edition, 2010 as its official referencing style. This is an author-date style of referencing.

Study commitment

Typically, there is a minimum expectation of 1.5-2 hours of student effort per week per credit point for units of study offered over a full semester. For a 6 credit point unit, this equates to roughly 120-150 hours of student effort in total.

Required readings

Braveman, P., Egerter, S., & Williams, D. R. (2011). The Social Determinants of Health: Coming of Age. Annual Review of Public Health, 32(1), 381–398.

Barry, A-M., & Yuill, C. (2012). Gender and Health In Barry, A-M., & Yuill, C. (Eds.). Understanding the sociology of health: An introduction (Chapter 8:. pp. 129-144) (3rd Edn.). London, Sage.

Bissell, P., May, C., & Noyce, P. (2004). From compliance to concordance: Barriers to accomplishing a re-framed model of health care interactions. Social Science & Medicine, 58(4), 851-862.

Bodenheimer, T., Lorig, K., Holman, H., & Grumbach, K. (2002). Patient Self-management of Chronic Disease in Primary Care. JAMA, 288, 2469-2475.

Brooks, K. C. (2015). A Silent Curriculum. Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 313(19), 1909-1910.

Chaufan, C., Constantino, S., Davis, M. (2012) ‘It’s a full time job being poor’: Understanding barriers to diabetes prevention in immigrant communities in the USA. Critical Public Health. 22(2),147-158.

Denton A., Levett, C., Bradley, S. & Thomas, L. (2016). Death and dignity: Why voluntary euthanasia is a question of choice. Australian Nursing and Midwifery Journal, 24( 6), 18-23.

Donnelly, D., Cook, K., Van Ausdale, D., & Foley, L. (2005). White Privilege, Color Blindness and services to Battered Women, Violence Against Women, 11(1), 6-37.

Fredericks, B. (2009). Chapter 1: How the whiteness embedded in health services impacts on the health and well-being of Aboriginal peoples. In D. Riggs and B. Baird (Eds.). The Racial Politics of Bodies, Nations and Knowledges (pp: 11-27). Newcastle on Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Freund, P., McGuire, M., & Podhurst, L. (2003). Social construction of medical knowledge. In Freund, P. (Ed.), Health, illness and the social body: a critical sociology (4th edn.) (pp: 195-223). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

Gray, D. E. (2006). Theoretical Approaches to health and illness, In Gray, D. E. (Ed), Health Sociology: An Australian Perspective (pp: 28-35). Frenchs Forrest: Pearsons Education Australia.

Green, J. (2016). The art of medicine: Transgender: Why should we care? The Lancet, 388, 334-335.

Grove, N., Zwi, A. (2006). Our health and theirs: Forced migration, othering and public health. Social Science and Medicine. 62,1931-1942.

Honjo, K. (2004). Social epidemiology: Definition, history and research examples. Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, 9, 193-199.

Keleher, H. (2001). Why Primary Health Care Offers a More Comprehensive Approach to Tackling Health Inequities than Primary Care. Australian Journal of Primary Care, 7(2), 57-61.

Marmot, M. (2018, September 21). Health inequalities and the causes of the causes. Retrieved 18 January 2020, from The 2016 Boyer Lectures: First Australia and the Health Gap website: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bigideas/boyer-lecture-1/7806120

Mottram, A. (2011). Patients’ experiences of day surgery: a Parsonian analysis. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 67(1),140-148.

Nadal, K. L., Issa, M-A., Leon, J, Merko, V., Wideman, M, & Wong, Y. (2011). Sexual orientation microaggressions: “Death by a thousand cuts” for lesbian, gay and bisexual youth. Journal of LGBT Youth, 8(3), 234-259.

Omilion-Hodges, L., Manning, B., & Orbe, M. (2019). “Context Matters”: An Exploration of Young Adult Social Constructions of Meaning About Death and Dying. Health Communication, 34(2): 139-148

Williamson, M., & Harrison, L. (2010). Providing culturally appropriate care: A literature review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 47, 761-769.

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes are what students know, understand and are able to do on completion of a unit of study. They are aligned with the University's graduate qualities and are assessed as part of the curriculum.

Outcomes
Graduate qualities

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

LO1. critically reflect upon the main ideas and beliefs that have shaped contemporary discourses in health, illness and care, and the meaning of these for the provision of care, particularly nursing care
LO2. critically discuss the social and cultural underpinnings of contemporary Australian society, and the relationship between these and patterns of health and illness across the lifespan
LO3. develop a beginning understanding of quantitative research, particularly epidemiology
LO4. develop a beginning understanding of the ways in which nursing practice is informed by, and responds to, the culturally diverse nature of contemporary Australian society
LO5. search for, locate, use and critique the international literature that explores key concepts, research evidence and current debates related to this unit of study.

Graduate qualities

The graduate qualities are the qualities and skills that all University of Sydney graduates must demonstrate on successful completion of an award course. As a future Sydney graduate, the set of qualities have been designed to equip you for the contemporary world.

GQ1	Depth of disciplinary expertise Deep disciplinary expertise is the ability to integrate and rigorously apply knowledge, understanding and skills of a recognised discipline defined by scholarly activity, as well as familiarity with evolving practice of the discipline.
GQ2	Critical thinking and problem solving Critical thinking and problem solving are the questioning of ideas, evidence and assumptions in order to propose and evaluate hypotheses or alternative arguments before formulating a conclusion or a solution to an identified problem.
GQ3	Oral and written communication Effective communication, in both oral and written form, is the clear exchange of meaning in a manner that is appropriate to audience and context.
GQ4	Information and digital literacy Information and digital literacy is the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, manage, adapt, integrate, create and convey information using appropriate resources, tools and strategies.
GQ5	Inventiveness Generating novel ideas and solutions.
GQ6	Cultural competence Cultural Competence is the ability to actively, ethically, respectfully, and successfully engage across and between cultures. In the Australian context, this includes and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledge systems, and a mature understanding of contemporary issues.
GQ7	Interdisciplinary effectiveness Interdisciplinary effectiveness is the integration and synthesis of multiple viewpoints and practices, working effectively across disciplinary boundaries.
GQ8	Integrated professional, ethical, and personal identity An integrated professional, ethical and personal identity is understanding the interaction between one’s personal and professional selves in an ethical context.
GQ9	Influence Engaging others in a process, idea or vision.

Outcome map

Learning outcomes	Graduate qualities
Learning outcomes

Responding to student feedback

This section outlines changes made to this unit following staff and student reviews.

Unit has been updated to use active learning methods.

Additional information

Faculty of Medicine and Health Handbook

Disclaimer

The University reserves the right to amend units of study or no longer offer certain units, including where there are low enrolment numbers.

To help you understand common terms that we use at the University, we offer an online glossary.

Current students

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Attendance and class requirements

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Additional information

Additional information

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links

Media

Student links

About us

Connect

Current students

NURS5002: Social Contexts of Health

Semester 1, 2020 [Normal day] - Westmead, Sydney

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Attendance and class requirements

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Additional information

Additional information

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links

Media

Student links

About us

Connect