Unit Outline

CSA724 is a self-directed, fully on-line unit, that explores a variety of disease states and their management, using a series of patient cases linked to assignment-based questions, to enable you to enhance your knowledge in the area of clinical pharmacy and pharmaceutical care. This unit covers the medication management and clinical pharmacy issues in infectious diseases.

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	Create a search strategy to collate evidence-based research in infectious disease.
2	Critically appraise evidence in infectious diseases pharmacotherapy.
3	Optimise antimicrobial therapy and stewardship strategies by integrating evidence, clinical guidelines, and patient-specific factors.
4	Communicate pharmacotherapeutic concepts to a range of audiences.

Requisites


REQUISITE TYPE	REQUISITES
Concurrent Pre-requisite	CSA721 or CSA731

Alterations as a result of student feedback

In response to the feedback from previous student cohort, changes have been made which may include adjustments to assessments and alignment of some of the timelines. As always, the teaching team will greatly appreciate your feedback both informally during the delivery of the unit in 2026, and formally through the University of Tasmania’s Unit Survey following your completion of the unit.

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:	Critique of latest evidence	Week 4	20 %	LO1, LO2
Assessment Task 2:	Clinical Management Plan & Opinion	Week 8	30 %	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
Assessment Task 3:	Quality Improvement Project Presentation	Week 13	50 %	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4

Assessment details

Assessment Task 1: Critique of latest evidence

Task Description:

You will be presented with a practice-based current concept on new antibiotics, stewardship strategies, resistance data You will then critique using evidence being in the pharmacist role covering, study summary, strengths/limitations, practice implications and a practice stance.

Task Length:

1000 words

Due Date:

Week 4

Weight:

20 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Utilising your search strategy to identify relevant evidence-based literature.	LO1
2	Critically appraise the evidence.	LO2

Assessment Task 2: Clinical Management Plan & Opinion

Task Description:

Assignment 2 involves answering clinical questions related to a detailed clinical case. Through this activity, you will also discuss your opinion on the given scenario based on current evidence in the literature.

Task Length:

2000 words

Due Date:

Week 8

Weight:

30 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Create a search strategy to identify relevant evidence-based literature to answer the clinical scenario.	LO1
2	Evaluate the quality of evidence to construct a response to the clinical problem.	LO2
3	Apply pharmacotherapeutic evidence and clinical judgement to provide a patient centred approach to management.	LO3
4	Communicate your recommendations using appropriate medical terminology and language.	LO4

Assessment Task 3: Quality Improvement Project Presentation

Task Description:

Assignment 3involves preparing and delivering a presentation to clinical and non-clinical audiences on a given clinical topic using PowerPoint slides. You will select one of several clinical topics related to pharmacy practice of infectious diseases. You will present a quality improvement project drawn from your practice. You must justify your project with appropriate evidence. To do this activity well, you will need a lot of preparation, research, facts and figures, data collection, data synthesis and collaboration with colleagues for their opinions. You will present this and your performance will be assessed on your ability to answer questions about your quality improvement project.
This is a hurdle task.

Task Length:

Up to 10 minutes presentation followed by 10 minutes examiner/peer question and answers.

Due Date:

Week 13

Weight:

50 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Curate suitable literature to support your quality improvement project	LO1
2	Critically evaluate the literature to support your quality improve project design.	LO2
3	Apply pharmacotherapeutic knowledge and professional clinical reasoning to support your quality improvement project.	LO3
4	Communicate clinical ideas to clinical and non-clinical audiences.	LO4

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 any 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.

Required Resources

Required reading materials