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HLTH 1047: First Peoples' Health

Assessment tasks

In Assessment 1, you are required to write a reflective essay that reflects on your personal experience or situation, as well as one sub-topic of the course. The essay aims to provide useful insights that can help you enhance your future practice in a positive way.

For Assessment 2,  you will produce a poster that addresses ONE (1) of the selected targets below identified by the Closing the Gap Report 2023 - 2024 and supported by the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2021-2031. A post template is provided on the Assessment 2 page.

This page will help you through the process from understanding your task, searching for relevant information, writing your assignment, and referencing correctly.

Please refer to your LearnOnline course site for assessment instructions.

Understand your task

View the Student Engagement Unit's Academic Skills website for help planning your assignment and making sense of the assignment and instruction words.

  • Assignments at uni help you show your understanding of different ideas and perspectives.
  • The main purpose of an essay is to convince the reader of your position on an issue.
  • You should use academic sources to support your argument.
  • Look at your assignment task for:
    • content words: these tell you what to write.
    • instruction words: these tell you how to do the task.
    • focus words: these help you identify the limits of the task.
  • Do some background reading to familiarise yourself with the topic.
  • Find academic sources from the Library Catalogue or databases to find more information.
  • Remember to record the referencing details for any good resources you find.
  • Essays have a general structure including:
    • an introduction
      This contains background information, your position, and an overview of the organisation of the essay.
    • body paragraphs
      These focus on one main idea per paragraph and contain a topic sentence, supporting sentences with evidence and examples, and a concluding sentence.
    • a conclusion
      This should summarise the main points of your essay and restate your position.
    • a reference list
      This is where you include the citations for all the references you used in your essay.
  • Writing is never a linear process. You will need to write drafts, do extra readings, and edit your essay.


You may find it useful to make a mind map to organise your thoughts about the topic:

Reflective practice

Reflecting on what you have learnt or experienced at university or in a clinical setting is an important part of reflective practice. It can help you approach a similar situation in the future with more skill and confidence. 

 

If you're not familiar with reflective writing as an assignment task, the video and resources below may assist you to understand what is required.

Plan your search

Start by identifying the concepts (main ideas) from your assignment topic prior to searching. 

Then consider alternative words for these concepts which, together with the concept term, become your searchable keywords.

Have a look at the example question below to see how to start preparing your search strategy:

 

 Topic: Becoming a culturally safe nurse/midwife

 

    Alternative terms
Concept 1 Cultural awareness

Cultural competence

Cultural sensitivity
Concept 2 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Indigenous Australians
First Peoples'
First Nations
Concept 3 Nursing/midwifery 

Nursing

Midwifery

 

This concept breakdown for Assessment 1, part A can be easily modified for part B and Assessment 2 by swapping out the first concept for your subtopic.

 

You can use quotation marks (“ “) to find an exact match, e.g. “cultural awareness”

Combine your terms to form your search strategy (you'll type this in the search box):

  • combine all the search terms for the same concept using OR
    This will search for any of the words included
  • combine different concepts using AND
    This will search for at least one word from each line

 

Search strategy:

"cultural awareness" OR "cultural competence" OR "cultural sensitivity"

AND

"Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander" OR " Indigenous Australians" OR "First Peoples'" OR "First Nations"

AND

nursing

*if you are studying midwifery, swap out the term "nursing" for "midwifery"

This strategy doesn't show every possible search term, just a few examples.

Start your search

You can search for information using a range of tools, including the Library Collection and databases, Google Scholar, and internet search engines. Choose the sources that are best suited to your need.

Select the plus symbols below to learn more about different search options.

Basic search
This is the default option when searching in the Library Collection.

1. Add in one keyword for each concept, combining them with AND.
    Note: Searching for more general terms will find more results. 
2. Select Search.
3. Swap your keywords with your alterative terms to see different results.

 

Example basic search in Library Collection search bar

 

 

Advanced search
If you would like to do a more comprehensive search, use the Advanced search.

1. Put each concept on a new line
2. Add your alternative words, combining them with OR.
3. Select Search.

Example advanced search in Library Collection


Filters

Use the filters on the left to limit and refine your results.
You could try limiting to:

Tick box Peer-reviewed journals
Tick box Full text online
Tick box Resource types
Tick box Publication date range

Medline
Searching in Medline is different to searching in the Library Collection.

1. Type your first concept and alternative words into the search box.
2. Untick the box labeled Map to Subject Heading.

Example MEDLINE keyword search for one concept

3. Select Search.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 for your next concepts.
5. Tick the boxes next to each of your concept lines.
6. Select Combine with AND.

Example MEDLINE keywords search with three concepts to combine with AND

7. Scroll down to see your results.

*Note line 3 - sometimes you will need to use a broader term to bring in results. Using "nurs*" finds nursing, nurses, nurse etc.
 

Scopus
You can do a basic or advanced search, just like in the Library Collection.

1. Type all your keywords for your first concept into the search box.
2. Select the plus symbol to the right to add a line for your next concept.
3. Add all your keywords for your second concept into the search bar.
4. Repeat steps 2-3 until you have used all your concepts.
5. Select Search.

Example search in Scopus


More useful databases:

Google Scholar
You can search Google Scholar in the same way as a basic search on the Library homepage.

1. Access Google Scholar through the Library website

The Google Scholar tab from the UniSA Library homepage

2. Follow the instructions to link your session to UniSA

3. Use the basic search box like the Library Collection

4. Look for the PDF links or Fulltext at UniSA links to access the resource

Example search in Google Scholar search bar

Relevant websites

To find relevant websites that are recommended for your area of study, have a look at the Find evidence: government and organisation information tab in this guide.

You could also visit the following resources:

 

Google 
You can use Google to search for information from professional bodies, governments, and non-government organisations. This might include reports, clinical guidelines, professional standards, codes of conduct, and more.

Google has a number of useful search features that can make your searching more efficient:

LibKey Nomad

If you are looking for information on the internet, it's worth downloading LibKey Nomad. It's a browser extension for Chrome that will look for full text PDFs of journal articles from websites outside of the Library Collection. This is helpful when looking on pages such as Wikipedia, because you can easily access and read the articles from the reference list. Instructions to download LibKey Nomad are available here.

Extend your search

For a High Distinction, your assignment must use a comprehensive range of sources of evidence. Check the assignment marking rubric on the LearnOnline site for the full criteria. 

The Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet website is a great place to start.  They have a range of resources and reports which will be helpful for your assignment including:

You can also look at other resources available at Google Scholar.

Select appropriate references

You should critically evaluate all resources found to determine their appropriateness for your assignment. The video below explains more.

  • Having access to a lot of information can be overwhelming.
  • Evaluating information helps you decide what resources you should use.
  • One technique you can use is the CRAAP test.
  • Currency: How recent is the information? Does it suit your needs?
  • Relevance: Is the information relevant to your assignment?
  • Authority: Who wrote the information? Are they an expert?
  • Accuracy: Is the information accurate? Is it supported by evidence?
  • Purpose: Why was the resource created? Is there any bias?
  • You can use the CRAAP tool to think about these issues when evaluating your resources.

Write your assignment

View the Student Engagement Unit's Study Help website for help writing your assignment, or to make an appointment with SEU staff.

Creating your PowerPoint presentation

Once you have found the information for your assignment, you will need to create a presentation. There are a number of resources available to assist you in creating PowerPoint presentations, which can be accessed using the below links:

Finding images

The below video has information on how to find images you can use in your powerpoint presentation. 

It is important to remember if you do use any images in your presentation you will need to attribute them. 

Equipment and Software information

Powerpoint

Powerpoint 2019 can be found in all student computer pools on campus . You can also access PowerPoint at home as part of Office 365.

Borrow a laptop

If you do not have access to a camera there are laptops available for loan at all metropolitan Library campuses. These laptops have built in microphones and cameras and can be borrowed for a maximum for 4 days on a first come first serve basis. 

Study Rooms

If you need a quiet place to record your presentation we have study rooms available on each campus which can be booked through the student app or UniSA Library website. 

Correctly reference your sources

You must appropriately cite (‘acknowledge’) all references used in your assignment to avoid plagiarism.