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Unit of study_
NURS5073: Preventing Adverse Clinical Outcomes
2025 unit information
Patients admitted to hospital often have a change in their condition and can deteriorate, sometimes rapidly. This requires that registered nurses have the knowledge and skills to effectively assess and intervene in order to detect and prevent further deterioration. Such early detection and timely interventions may prevent the development of serious adverse events such as prolonged hospitalisation, an unexpected admission to a critical care unit, and even cardiac arrest and death. In this unit of study students will explore the role of organisational and patient emergency response systems designed to promote early detection of the deteriorating patient and consider how these systems impact on their nursing practice. Students will have the opportunity to further integrate knowledge with technical and nontechnical skills for assessing and managing the rapidly deteriorating patient. Specific consideration will be given to incorporating evidencebased principles when making judgements about patient care. The distinctiveness of each student's clinical practice is recognised and students will be expected to explore, in depth, an area of clinical practice relevant to their current work. Further to this, it is identified that registered nurses can be impacted by functioning in a carer role and this unit of study will review strategies for self-care in order to prevent adverse outcomes that may impact nurses’ ability to care effectively for their patients.
Unit details and rules
Managing faculty or University school:
Medicine and Health
| Study level | Postgraduate |
|---|---|
| Academic unit | Nursing and Midwifery |
| Credit points | 6 |
|
Prerequisites:
?
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None |
|---|---|
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Corequisites:
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None |
| Prohibitions:
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None |
| Assumed knowledge:
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None |
At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:
- LO1. demonstrate an understanding of the importance of technical and non-technical skills and their contributions to adverse patient outcomes
- LO2. (critically) appraise current guidelines related to immediate and ongoing care of the patient with deteriorating conditions
- LO3. demonstrate the ability to articulate and justify decisions that arise from assessment of the unstable or deteriorating patient, including consideration of risk management and ethical/legal considerations
- LO4. (critically) reflect on and situate personal knowledge and learning needs in the context of early assessment and early interventions of the deteriorating patient.
Unit availability
This section lists the session, attendance modes and locations the unit is available in. There is a unit outline for each of the unit availabilities, which gives you information about the unit including assessment details and a schedule of weekly activities.
The outline is published 2 weeks before the first day of teaching. You can look at previous outlines for a guide to the details of a unit.
| Session | MoA ? | Location | Outline ? |
|---|---|---|---|
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Semester 2 2025
|
Block mode | Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney |
Outline unavailable
|
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Modes of attendance (MoA)
This refers to the Mode of attendance (MoA) for the unit as it appears when you’re selecting your units in Sydney Student. Find more information about modes of attendance on our website.
