Unit Outline

This unit is essential to your postgraduate journey towards advanced practice within your full scope of practice as a designated registered nurse prescriber. Building upon the foundational knowledge acquired in CSA524 Medication Principles for Advanced Nursing and Midwifery, this unit enhances your capability to prescribe within a clinical specialty.

Throughout this unit, you will engage in a critical analysis of current evidence-informed practices, employing advanced clinical reasoning to effectively and safely prescribe medicines in accordance with the Quality Use of Medicine framework. You will learn to apply pharmacological interventions ethically and appropriately, tailoring them to specific cohorts with consideration of person preferences and in culturally aware environments to ensure optimised therapeutic outcomes. You will explore how to communicate complex medication plans and roles effectively within healthcare teams and to individuals or their significant others, enhancing collaborative practice and patient safety in line with clinical governance arrangements and local legislative frameworks. This unit emphasises conducting comprehensive and systematic advanced medication assessments and prescribing using the principles of Quality Use of Medicines and demonstrating the Commonwealth of Australia (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) 2025 prescribing competency framework, within a collaborative environment, recognising shared responsibilities for prescribing in an interprofessional team.

You must be actively employed for at least 20 hours per week (0.5 FTE) in a clinical environment specific to your specialty.

Please note that after completion of the Nursing Advanced Practice Pathway within the Graduate Diploma of Advanced Nursing, to be eligible to apply for endorsement as a designated RN prescriber, you must have completed the equivalent of three years full-time post initial registration clinical experience (5,000 hours) within the past six years, from the date when the complete application seeking endorsement received by the NMBA.

Intended Learning Outcomes

As per the Assessment and Results Policy 1.3, your results will reflect your achievement against specified learning outcomes.

On completion of this unit, you will be able to:


1	Critically analyse current evidence-based knowledge and the principles of Quality Use of Medicine in the area of clinical specialty.
2	Critically integrate clinical reasoning to plan and implement person-centred pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments, ensuring cultural safety and inclusion within legislative and clinical governance frameworks.
3	Conduct comprehensive and systematic advanced health assessment within an area of specialty, which informs practising cultural safety, principles of inclusion and person-centred care.
4	Critically evaluate and synthesise evidence, guidelines, person needs, and shared decision-making principles to justify and review prescribing or deprescribing decisions that are safe, culturally appropriate, and person-centred.
5	Communicate professionally and contribute to a collaborative care model in prescribing medicines.

Requisites


REQUISITE TYPE	REQUISITES
Pre-requisite	CSA524 Medication Principles for Advanced Nursing and Midwifery

Alterations as a result of student feedback

This unit has been redeveloped for delivery in 2026, including updated content and revised assessment tasks.

How will I be Assessed?

For more detailed assessment information please see MyLO.

Assessment schedule


ASSESSMENT TASK #	ASSESSMENT TASK NAME	DATE DUE	WEIGHT	LINKS TO INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES
Assessment Task 1:	Online Quiz	Week 4	10 %	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5
Assessment Task 2:	Prescribing Portfolio	Week 9	40 %	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5
Assessment Task 3:	Interactive Oral Case Report and Reflection	Week 12	50 %	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5

Assessment details

Assessment Task 1: Online Quiz

Task Description:

This assessment comprises discrete activities that combine reflection on your personal and professional development in critical reasoning and problem-solving within the context of therapeutic medication management and the principles of Quality Use of Medicines.
Week Due:
Quiz 1 - Week 4
Quiz 2 - Week 7

Task Length:

Each quiz consists of 10 questions over 20 minutes (2 x 5%)

Due Date:

Week 4

Weight:

10 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Critically analyse the requirements for safe and effective therapeutic medication management informed by the principles of Quality Use of Medicine.	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5
2	Evaluate clinical priorities and therapeutic decisions based on information presented in the case studies.	LO1, LO2, LO4, LO5

Assessment Task 2: Prescribing Portfolio

Task Description:

This assessment task comprises three parts:

Part A: Clinical Support Person Agreement (Hurdle)
This agreement is to determine that the student has a suitable workplace for completing the requirements of the designated registered nurse prescriber course. This agreement also confirms the student’s employment and suitability of the workplace to undertake the RN prescribing course and complete the required assessments using patients in their workplace.

Part B: Clinical Case Report
For this part, you are required to develop a written clinical case report about a person for whom you have provided advanced care. Informed by the principles of Quality Use of Medicines, the report must include the rationale for selecting therapeutic agent(s), incorporating both pharmacological and non-pharmacological management strategies, as well as ongoing monitoring of therapeutic outcomes, education, and care plan within organisational contexts. Your case report should clearly describe the person’s preferences, adverse events, negative outcomes or opportunities to deprescribe and justify how you managed these in your care. You will demonstrate clinical reasoning skills supported by an evidence-based prescribing framework, local legislation and clinical governance arrangements, with consideration of other health professionals' contributions. You are required to reflect on how practising cultural safety, principles of inclusion and person-centred care, as well as your individual clinical governance arrangement, structured the care you provided.

Part C: Endorsement of Prescribing Competencies by Clinical Support Person (Authorised Health Practitioner) (Hurdle)

Parts A & C are listed as hurdles, which means they must be submitted and completed successfully to pass the unit; however, they do not contribute to the final mark for the unit.

Task Length:

1800 words + clinical portfolio

Due Date:

Week 9

Weight:

40 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Submit the Clinical Support Agreement according to the instructions. [Hurdle]	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5
2	Conduct a comprehensive patient assessment, demonstrating consideration of social and cultural dimensions of health and wellness.	LO1, LO3
3	Critically analyse and apply current evidence-informed knowledge and principles of Quality Use of Medicines to inform therapeutic decisions.	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
4	Justify recommendations of appropriate therapeutic agent(s) to a specific person within the area of specialty.	LO1, LO2, LO4, LO5
5	Develop an advanced care plan that incorporates both pharmacological and non-pharmacological management strategies, as well as ongoing monitoring of therapeutic outcomes within their area of specialty practice.	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
6	Communicate a clear and structured education plan.	LO4, LO5
7	Obtains endorsements from Authorised Health Practitioners assigned in Clinical Support Agreements in the expected rating. [Hurdle]	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5

Assessment Task 3: Interactive Oral Case Report and Reflection

Task Description:

This assessment requires you to provide advanced care and recommend therapeutic agent(s) for a simulated person in a synchronous virtual setting.
This presentation should include a comprehensive and systematic advanced history and assessment, prescribing within QUM frameworks.
You are required to reflect on how practising cultural safety, principles of inclusion and person-centred care, as well as your individual prescribing arrangement, structured the care you provide. Following this, an authorised prescriber will lead a structured debrief using targeted questioning to clarify decision-making and explore the rationale for prescribing decisions. This process is designed to encourage critical reflection and deepen clinical reasoning relating to the scenario.

Task Length:

30 minutes (15 minutes presentation and 15 minutes for facilitated debrief, questioning, and reflection) + Written reflection 500 words.

Due Date:

Week 12

Weight:

50 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Conduct a comprehensive and systematic history and physical assessment for the simulated person within the specialty area, applying the QUM framework.	LO1, LO3
2	Deliver a quality presentation justifying your recommendation for the prescribed medication(s) regime (or deprescribing), showing effective clinical reasoning, interdisciplinary collaborative care model and alignment with local clinical governance.	LO2, LO4, LO5
3	Reflect critically on the integration of cultural safety, inclusion and person-centred care in advanced practice.	LO4, LO5
4	Communicate case findings, clinical decisions and care recommendations clearly, professionally and collaboratively.	LO5

How your final result is determined

To pass this unit, you need to demonstrate your attainment of each of the Intended Learning Outcomes, achieve a final unit grade of 50% or greater and pass all Hurdle Tasks.

Academic progress review

The results for this unit may be included in a review of your academic progress. For information about progress reviews and what they mean for all students, see Academic Progress Review in the Student Portal.

Submission of assignments

Where practicable, assignments should be submitted to an assignment submission folder in MYLO. You must submit assignments by the due date or receive a penalty (unless an extension of time has been approved by the Unit Coordinator). Students submitting any assignment in hard copy, or because of a practicum finalisation, must attach a student cover sheet and signed declaration for the submission to be accepted for marking.

Academic integrity

Academic integrity is about acting responsibly, honestly, ethically, and collegially when using, producing, and communicating information with other students and staff members.

In written work, you must correctly reference the work of others to maintain academic integrity. To find out the referencing style for this unit, see the assessment information in the MyLO site, or contact your teaching staff. For more detail about Academic Integrity, see Important Guidelines & Support.

Requests for extensions

If you are unable to submit an assessment task by the due date, you should apply for an extension.

A request for an extension should first be discussed with your Unit Coordinator or teaching support team where possible. A request for an extension must be submitted by the assessment due date, except where you can provide evidence it was not possible to do so. Typically, an application for an extension will be supported by documentary evidence: however, where it is not possible for you to provide evidence please contact your Unit Coordinator.

The Unit Coordinator must notify you of the outcome of an extension request within 3 working days of receiving the request.

Late penalties

Assignments submitted after the deadline will receive a late penalty of 5% of the original available mark for each calendar day (or part day) that the assignment is late. Late submissions will not be accepted more than 10 calendar days after the due date, or after assignments have been returned to other students on a scheduled date, whichever occurs first. Further information on Late Penalties can be found on the Assessments and Results Procedure.