Unit description
Introduces students to the diverse field of complementary medicine, its community usage, its role in health care and society. Legal and ethical issues including regulation of the medicines and practitioners are examined. Includes an overview of the major complementary medicine modalities. Adopts a student-focused strategy aimed at allowing students to critically explore the topic while providing them with basic knowledge of the discipline.
Unit content
Topic 1: Defining complementary medicine
Topic 2: Patterns of complementary medicine use and why people use complementary medicine
Topic 3: Complementary medicine and mainstream healthcare
Topic 4: Regulation of complementary medicines and of complementary medicine practitioners
Topic 5: Efficacy and safety of complementary medicine
Topic 6: Scientific evidence base for complementary medicine
Topic 7: Introduction to the major complementary medicine modalities:
- Naturopathy
- nutritional medicine
- herbal medicine
- homeopathy
- tactile therapies (massage)
- Traditional Chinese Medicine (incl. acupuncture)
Learning outcomes
Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.
Learning outcomes and graduate attributes
| On completion of this unit, students should be able to: | GA1 | GA2 | GA3 | GA4 | GA5 | GA6 | GA7 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | describe the characteristics of complementary medicine and compare and contrast it with mainstream medicine | Intellectual rigour | ||||||
| 2 | profile patterns of complementary use and identify reasons why people use complementary medicine in general and within allied health fields | Intellectual rigour | ||||||
| 3 | outline and discuss the regulation, legal and ethical issues of pertaining to complementary medicines and complementary medicine practitioners | Ethical practice | ||||||
| 4 | critically evaluate the issues of evidence, safety and efficacy in relation to complementary medicine | Ethical practice | ||||||
| 5 | analyse the characteristics of major complementary medicine modalities and their potential role in health care with application and integration into current practice. | Communication and social skills | ||||||
Prescribed texts
Session 1
- No prescribed texts.
Teaching and assessment
Online
| Teaching method |
| Tutorial online 2 hours (3 weeks) |
| Structured online learning 2 hours (12 weeks) |
| Assessment | |
| Discussion board | 20% |
| Report | 30% |
| Modality Profile | 50% |
Fee information
Domestic
Commonwealth Supported courses
For information regarding Student Contribution Amounts please visit the Student Contribution Amounts.
Commencing 2015 Commonwealth Supported only. Student contribution band: 2
Fee paying courses
For POSTGRADUATE or UNDERGRADUATE full fee paying courses please check Domestic Postgraduate Fees OR Domestic Undergraduate Fees
International
Please check the international course and fee list to determine the relevant fees.