Nursing

The program aims to enhance the practice of experienced nurses in the areas of clinical practice, management or education.

Program objectives

On completion of the program, graduates will be able to:

• use research evidence to improve the quality of care delivered within their sphere of influence

• use contemporary leadership theory, including leadership styles to function as effective leaders in their chosen area of nursing or health care

• act as mentors for, and give support to, fellow nurses or other health care workers to enhance quality of care provision and embed principles of lifelong learning into their practice

• understand and implement ethical research principles and practices

• design and implement a research project or significant scholarly activity within a selected discipline area

• apply current research techniques and methodology in pursuit of specific research goals

• demonstrate competence in and appropriate use of language and literacy, including spelling, grammar, punctuation and bibliographic referencing

The program contains twelve units. There are six compulsory courses of one unit each and two units of electives for graduate diploma level. The four final units, as a capstone master’s level experience, develop the student’s research and project related skills.

Program completion requirements

To qualify for the award of Master of Nursing, a candidate must complete or be exempted from courses with a total value of twelve units within five years of first admission to the program, subject to the following.

Of the units counted to qualify for the award:

at least six units shall be for courses completed at USQ

nine units made up of the following courses:

• NUR8060 Health Policy Analysis and Review

• HSC8050 Research Methodology for the Human Sciences

• NUR8340 The Law and Health Care Practice

• NUR8550 Professional Studies 1

• HEA8302 Culture as a Determinant of Health

• ANP8003 Management in Health Care Practice

• HSC8060 Research Project Design

• HSC8070 Masters Project A

• HSC8080 Masters Project B

three units shall be for postgraduate (Level 5 or 8) courses, approved by the Program Coordinator or selected from the list of elective courses below.

Required time limits

Students have a maximum of 5 years to complete this program.

To be considered for entry, applicants must be Registered Nurses (You will need to provide a certified copy of your Current Annual Licence Certificate) holding a three-year Bachelor of Nursing from an Australian University or equivalent. While not mandatory, it would be beneficial and preferable to have clinical experience as a Registered Nurse. Some courses require students to be practising during enrolment. This recommendation exists because registered nurses should have consolidated their practice, and understand the context of that practice, prior to engaging in advanced education. A process of Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL) will be used to assess Registered Nurses, without Bachelor degrees, who wish to gain entry to the program on the basis of equivalent experience or qualifications. Applicants should contact the Program Coordinator if they wish to be assessed for admission on this basis.Registered Nurses who wish to gain entry to the program on the basis of equivalent experience or qualifications or who have not studied an appropriate research methods course may be required to complete the course NUR2300 Research Methods for Nursing before being admitted to the program. This course is available by external studies through Continuing Professional Education at USQ. English Language Requirements IELTS band: 6.5 TOEFL paper-based test score : 570 TOEFL iBT® test: 90