This unit aims to introduce the beginning nurse to primary health care across the lifespan and its application to nursing contexts on regional, national and international levels. The unit applies the areas of primary health, epidemiology and population health, inter-professional practice and primary health care designed to address the health care priorities of specific populations. The health of populations will be examined, including the influence of political, environmental, geographic and economic factors within Australia and at regional, national and global levels.
The unit explores the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, other cultures and people of diversity and the evolution of how different groups become disadvantaged, based on ethnicity and citizenship status, and diversity including gender, sexuality and class. The unit takes a person-centred care approach addressing legal and ethical codes of conduct and the role of advocacy in nursing practice. The unit introduces the student to a number of communication approaches, and seeks to illustrate the application of digital health and telehealth as methods of communication and ways of reducing the tyranny of distance in health care.
On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
The assessment tasks link the learning outcomes and graduate capabilities. In the first assessment students will undertake a test related to unit content in Weeks 1 and 2. The second assessment is an individual case study provided to students to critique best-practice evidence on health priorities and health promotion for diverse communities to inform provision of holistic person-centred nursing care. In the final summative assessment, students work in groups to produce a poster investigating the social aspects of health issues, promotion and education of, and the challenges inherent in, the provision of appropriate health care to diverse and disadvantaged populations.
Relevant readings will be made available on VU Collaborate.
This unit is studied as part of the following course(s):