Illness Experience and Nursing Care
NURS5006
The ways in which individual people subjectively experience illness and care, particularly nursing care, is the focus of this unit of study. The unit firstly examines theories that inform understandings of what it means to be human, including theories of early childhood development. The unit also introduces students to qualitative research methodologies that are used to explore illness experiences. Many different illness experiences are then examined. Attention is drawn to such factors as emotions arising in illness, issues of self identity, embodiment, and social attitudes to illness and disability. With this knowledge about illness experiences in mind, the nurse-patient relationship is then critically examined. From within a communication-based framework, students focus on ideas about therapeutic listening and use of self as well as the concept of knowledge transfer as it is relevant to nurse-patient interactions. Students also engage with contemporary debates about the nature of nurse-patient interactions and relationships today and explore the ways in which these might vary in different health care settings, and with people from different cultural backgrounds, including Indigenous people.
Unit of study details
Unit of study level: Postgraduate
Credit points: 6
Commencing semesters: 2
Further unit of study information
Unit of study handbook: NURS5006
Costs and scholarships information: Costs and Scholarships
Final dates to withdraw from units of study: Census Dates
Available for study abroad and exchange: Yes