Course Coordinator:Nicholas Ralph (nralph@usc.edu.au) School:School of Health - Nursing
Online |
Online | You can do this course without coming onto campus, unless your program has specified a mandatory onsite requirement. |
Please go to unisc.edu.au for up to date information on the
teaching sessions and campuses where this course is usually offered.
Internationally, there is a movement to create age-friendly health systems. The goal is to create a healthcare environment that ensures older adults experience quality care and are satisfied with the care they receive. This course will focus on the 4Ms framework to examine and enable implementation ‘What Matters’, ‘Medication’, ‘Mentation’, and ‘Mobility’. You will critically analyse how ‘What Matters’, ‘Medication’, ‘Mentation’ and ‘Mobility’ operate as interdependent domains that must be considered together rather than as separate clinical checklists when translated into practice.
| Activity | Hours | Beginning Week | Frequency |
| Online | |||
| Online – Online self-directed study | 3hrs | Week 1 | 10 times |
Module 1 – Age-Friendly Systems and the Australian Context (Week 1)
Introduction to Age-Friendly Health systems and the 4Ms framework
Regulatory framework for health and aged care systems
Gerontological nursing competencies and interprofessional practice in age-friendly care
Iatrogenic factors impacting health outcomes for older people
Module 2 – What Matters (Week 2-3)
Person-directed care (Week 2)
Application of ‘What Matters’ into practice (Week 3)
Module 3 – Medication (Weeks 4–5)
Polypharmacy and deprescribing in older adults (Week 4)
Application of ‘Medication’ into practice (Week 5)
Module 4 – Mentation (Weeks 6–7)
Prevent, identify, treat, and manage dementia, depression, and delirium across care settings (Week 6)
Application of ‘Mentation’ into practice (Week 7)
Module 5 – Mobility (Week 8-9)
Benefits of staying active to maintain functional ability (Week 8)
Application of ‘Mobility’ into practice (Week 9)
Module 6 – Integration, Implementation and Leadership (Week 10)
Implementation science: CFIR as the primary framework for translating the 4Ms into practice across organisations and systems; facilitators and barriers to 4Ms adoption; RE-AIM as a comparative evaluation framework
Quality improvement methodology: PDSA cycles, logic models, clinical audit and EHR-based measurement
Leading age-friendly change: stakeholder engagement, clinician buy-in and sustainability
Equity, access and cultural safety in age-friendly care (including rural, remote and First Nations considerations)
This course is online and asynchronously delivered and weeks are an indicative learning pace only
700 Level (Specialised)
12 units
| Course Learning Outcomes On successful completion of this course, you should be able to... | Graduate Qualities Completing these tasks successfully will contribute to you becoming... | |
| 1 | Critically analyse the 4Ms framework and the evidence supporting age-friendly care, including the interdependence of What Matters, Medication, Mentation and Mobility. | Creative and critical thinker |
| 2 | Evaluate contemporary Australian policy, regulation and quality frameworks relevant to the care of older adults, and assess their alignment with 4Ms-based practice. | Ethical |
| 3 | Apply the 4Ms framework to develop person-centred, goal-concordant care responses for older adults in complex and unfamiliar practice contexts. | Empowered |
| 4 | Design an evidence-informed service improvement or practice change using quality improvement methodology, including implementation planning, measurement and evaluation. | Creative and critical thinker |
| 5 | Integrate principles of equity, cultural safety and person-centred ethics in age-friendly care decisions and proposals. | Ethical |
| 6 | Communicate scholarly analysis and practice recommendations using advanced academic writing conventions and ethical use of sources including AI-generated content. | Ethical |
Refer to the UniSC Glossary of terms for definitions of “pre-requisites, co-requisites and anti-requisites”.
Enrolled in any postgraduate program
Not applicable
Not applicable
Foundational understanding of clinical assessment, evidence-based practice and person-centred care is assumed. Familiarity with the Australian healthcare system is expected.
Not applicable
Standard Grading (GRD)
| High Distinction (HD), Distinction (DN), Credit (CR), Pass (PS), Fail (FL). |
Early assessment and formative feedback will be provided through submission of task 1 outlining a practice issue focus and direction for the task 2 report.
| Delivery mode | Task No. | Assessment Product | Individual or Group | Weighting % | What is the duration / length? | When should I submit? | Where should I submit it? |
| Online | 1 | Written Piece | Individual | 20% | 1000 words |
Week 4 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
| Online | 2 | Report | Individual | 40% | 2,000 words (not including references or appendices) |
Week 8 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
| Online | 3 | Case Study | Individual | 40% | 2,000 words |
Exam Period | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
| Online - Assessment Task 1:4Ms Practice Analysis | |||||||
| Goal: | The purpose of this task is to identify and analyse a specific age-friendly practice issue, service gap or quality concern relevant to one or more of the 4Ms in a real or realistic clinical setting and develop a direction for your Task 2 report. Due at the end of Week 4, this task builds on Modules 1–2 and the opening of Module 3. |
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| Product: | Written Piece | ||||||
| Authorship Statement: | |||||||
| Format: | Using a provided template, you will identify the setting and target population, the specific 4Ms domain(s) involved, alignment with the Australian regulatory context (Aged Care Act, Quality Standards, quality indicators), preliminary evidence supporting the issue, and an initial direction for the practice change or improvement you intend to develop in Assessment 3. |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Organisation, Information literacy |
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| Online - Assessment Task 2:Evidence Synthesis and Critical Appraisal | |||||||||||||||||||
| Goal: | The purpose of this task is to critically appraise and synthesise the evidence base for one component of the 4Ms framework or for the interaction between two or more Ms, and evaluate its application in the Australian context. |
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| Product: | Report | ||||||||||||||||||
| Authorship Statement: | |||||||||||||||||||
| Format: | You will select a focused topic within the 4Ms (e.g., deprescribing in residential aged care, delirium prevention bundled interventions, goal-concordant advance care planning, early mobilisation programs). You will use a provided report template to critically appraise the quality and applicability of the evidence, analyse relevant Australian policy and regulatory requirements, identify gaps or tensions between evidence and current practice, and present recommendations for practice. Your audience is management and leaders in aged care and/or healthcare services. |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Organisation, Information literacy |
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| Online - Assessment Task 3:Case Study | |||||||||||||||||||
| Goal: | The purpose of this task is to analyse a complex older person case or critical practice scenario through all four Ms, and design a feasible, evidence-informed service improvement or practice change proposal. |
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| Product: | Case Study | ||||||||||||||||||
| Authorship Statement: | |||||||||||||||||||
| Format: | You will be provided with (or may negotiate) a case study involving an older adult with intersecting 4Ms concerns. Your submission will be presented in essay style for an audience of clinical leaders, service managers and governance committees. You will analyse the case through all four Ms to demonstrate their interdependence, then develop a service improvement proposal focused on one primary M. Your proposal will draw on the evidence base appraised in Assessment 2, include an implementation plan using CFIR as the organising framework, address measurement, evaluation and sustainability, and consider equity, cultural safety and access. |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Problem solving, Organisation, Information literacy |
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A 12-unit course will have total of 150 learning hours which will include directed study hours (including online if required), self-directed learning and completion of assessable tasks. Student workload is calculated at 12.5 learning hours per one unit.
Please note: Course information, including specific information of recommended readings, learning activities, resources, weekly readings, etc. are available on the course Canvas site– Please log in as soon as possible.
You need regular access to the resource(s) below. Many texts are available as ebooks through the Library at no additional cost.
| Required? | Author | Year | Title | Edition | Publisher |
| Required | Institute for Healthcare Improvement | 2020 | Age-Friendly Health Systems: Guide to Using the 4Ms in the Care of Older Adults | n/a | IHI |
Not applicable
Academic integrity is the ethical standard of university participation. It ensures that students graduate as a result of proving they are competent in their discipline. This is integral in maintaining the value of academic qualifications. Each industry has expectations and standards of the skills and knowledge within that discipline and these are reflected in assessment.
Academic integrity means that you do not engage in any activity that is considered to be academic fraud; including plagiarism, collusion or outsourcing any part of any assessment item to any other person. You are expected to be honest and ethical by completing all work yourself and indicating in your work which ideas and information were developed by you and which were taken from others. You cannot provide your assessment work to others. You are also expected to provide evidence of wide and critical reading, usually by using appropriate academic references.
In order to minimise incidents of academic fraud, this course may require that some of its assessment tasks, when submitted to Canvas, are electronically checked through Turnitin. This software allows for text comparisons to be made between your submitted assessment item and all other work to which Turnitin has access.
Eligibility for Supplementary Assessment
Your eligibility for supplementary assessment in a course is dependent of the following conditions applying:
(a) The final mark is in the percentage range 47% to 49.4%; and
(b) The course is graded using the Standard Grading scale
Late submissions may be penalised up to and including the following maximum percentage of the assessment task’s identified value, with weekdays and weekends included in the calculation of days late:
(a) One day: deduct 5%;
(b) Two days: deduct 10%;
(c) Three days: deduct 20%;
(d) Four days: deduct 40%;
(e) Five days: deduct 60%;
(f) Six days: deduct 80%;
(g) Seven days: A result of zero is awarded for the assessment task.
The following penalties will apply for a late submission for an online examination:
Less than 15 minutes: No penalty
From 15 minutes to 30 minutes: 20% penalty
More than 30 minutes: 100% penalty
For more information on Academic Learning & Teaching categories including:
For more information, visit https://www.usc.edu.au/explore/policies-and-procedures#academic-learning-and-teaching
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