PHTY615 - Clinical Exercise for Health and Performance Across the Lifespan

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Unit rationale, description and aim

Physiotherapists have extensive knowledge of pathology of conditions and are well placed to assess and provide evidence-informed management for specific populations including those with chronic disease or co-morbidities and those who participate in sport and exercise for health and wellbeing.

Building on PHTY614 Advanced Principles of Human Movement for Exercise and Sports Performance and on previous knowledge and skills, in this unit students will review the latest evidence for the pathology, prevention and management of chronic disease. Students will focus on the development and implementation of evidence-informed physical activity programs, which may include specific exercise programs, and self-management of physical activity for optimal health, wellbeing and sports performance across the lifespan. Students will explore factors that impact on physical activity and inactivity or sedentary behaviours and on exercise and sports performance for specific populations, including Aboriginal and Torres Island Peoples and peoples of other Indigenous background and cultural identities, people with chronic disease, children, adolescent and the ageing athletes, the female athlete, the performing athlete and athletes with disabilities. Considerations and effects of exercising in extreme environments or sports and the tired athlete will also be explored. Through incorporating ~40 hours of professional practice experience, with supervision or mentoring and case reflections, students will implement knowledge and skills gained in this unit in real-life athletes/clients.

The aim of this unit is to provide students with advanced knowledge and skills to recognise factors that may impact on the health of specific populations, including people with chronic disease or co-morbidities and people who participate in sport and exercise for health and wellbeing, and to design and implement evidence-informed physical activity and exercise programs for optimizing health, wellbeing and sport performance for people of all ages, cultures, abilities and health status in a variety of environments.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Acquire and interpret information on the effects of sedentary behaviour, inactivity and physical activity, including exercise on health, wellbeing and sport performance for people with chronic disease or co-morbidities and people of all ages, cultures and abilities who participate in sport and exercise for health and wellbeing, in diverse environments (GA4, GA5, GA8, GA9)

LO2 - Critically analyse and synthesise advanced knowledge and skills for the assessment of health, wellbeing, sports and exercise performance for people of all ages, cultures, abilities and health status across diverse environments (GA4, GA5, GA6, GA7, GA8, GA9, GA10)

LO3 - Design strategies for delivering culturally safe and effective health care with respect to individual and cultural and linguistic diversity in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and peoples of other Indigenous background and culture (GA1, GA2, GA3, GA5)

LO4 - Design, implement, conduct and reflect on evidence-based physical activity and exercise programs for rehabilitation and to optimise health, wellbeing and sports performance for people of all ages, cultures, abilities and health status across diverse environments (GA1, GA2, GA3, GA4, GA5, GA6, GA7, GA8, GA9, GA10)

Graduate attributes

GA1 - demonstrate respect for the dignity of each individual and for human diversity

GA2 - recognise their responsibility to the common good, the environment and society 

GA3 - apply ethical perspectives in informed decision making

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA6 - solve problems in a variety of settings taking local and international perspectives into account

GA7 - work both autonomously and collaboratively 

GA8 - locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information 

GA9 - demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media 

GA10 - utilise information and communication and other relevant technologies effectively.

Content

Topics will include:

Exercise for optimising health, well-being, sports and performance that is:

1. incorporating physical activity, inactivity and sedentary behaviour: benefits, risks, guidelines, prescribing and motivating, enhancing self-management strategies for optimising health and psychological considerations.
2. for people with chronic disease and conditions (including long COVID, chronic pain, mental health, cancer, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular/ cardiorespiratory, neurological, orthopaedic, rheumatological, osteoporosis and osteoarthritis)
3. for Aboriginal and Torres Island Peoples and peoples of other Indigenous background and cultural identities 
4. for specific sporting populations including children, adolescents and the ageing athlete, the female athlete, athletes with disabilities, people exercising in extreme environments or sports and the tired athlete.

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

ACU Online

This unit uses an active learning approach to support students in the exploration of knowledge essential to the discipline. Active learning experiences provide students with opportunities to practice and apply their learning in their work environment. Students are provided with choice and variety in how they learn, with students encouraged to contribute to asynchronous discussions, and with the option to engage in supplementary synchronous learning opportunities when scheduled. Activities encourage students to bring their own examples to demonstrate understanding, application and engage constructively with their peers. Students receive regular and timely feedback on their learning, which includes information on their progress.

This unit is delivered online. The overall strategy is a constructive journey from content knowledge to understanding to application.

The unit combines online delivery, focused on content (e.g. readings, recorded lectures, discussion forums, tutorials, practicals) to develop knowledge and understanding, with a clinical component focused on application of skills. The learning activities assist students to develop an understanding of issues that impact on health, exercise, sports participation and performance for specific populations, including Aboriginal and Torres Island Peoples and peoples of other Indigenous background and cultural identities, people with chronic disease, children, adolescent and the ageing athlete, the female athlete, the performing athlete, athletes with disabilities, people exercising in extreme environments or sports and the tired athlete. Tutorials take an evidence-informed approach to explore and extend knowledge, understanding and skills incorporating clinical reasoning for assessment, development and implementation of physical activity and exercise programs for health, wellbeing and sports performance across the lifespan. In addition, this unit includes a substantial professional practice experience component (~40 hours) to extend clinical skills in assessing, designing, implementing, conducting and reflecting on evidence-based exercise programs. Through incorporating ~40 hours of clinical practice, with supervision or mentoring and case reflections, students will implement knowledge and skills gained in this unit with real-life athletes/clients, working as a health advocate and collaborative practitioner.

Throughout, the strategy that supports student learning will reflect respect for each individual as an independent learner. Students are expected to take responsibility for their learning and participate actively in all learning activities, including through the online environment.

Assessment strategy and rationale

In order to best enable the achievement of unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes, standards-based assessment is utilised, consistent with University assessment requirements. The assessment strategy in this unit has been designed to support work integrated learning as well as to assess it. The sequence of assessment tasks include:

• Assessment 1: A patient/athlete education task, to assess the student's ability to transfer knowledge of exercise principles for a patient with chronic disease or a complex condition, through development of information resources such as an infographic and an instructional video of physical activity or exercise program(s);
• Assessment 2: An oral presentation to evaluate student knowledge and critical thinking skills for assessing, selecting, interpreting, analysing, synthesising and communicating advanced physical activity and or exercise program(s) for a specific sporting population or environment, presenting to a multidisciplinary audience; and
• Assessment 3: A professional practice experience program that incorporates the graded hurdle component of documented logbook of required ~40 hours, which includes supervised practice, mentoring, case reflections to assess students' ability to critically analyse and apply knowledge, understanding, skills, clinical reasoning and reflective practice for assessment, development and implementation of evidence-based physical activity and exercise programs for health, wellbeing, sports and performance for people of all ages, cultures, abilities and health status, across diverse environments.

Students’ performance during the professional practice experience will be assessed by their university assigned supervisor.

Students must achieve a pass in the hurdle task and a cumulative grade of at least 50% across all assessments.

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Brukner, P., and Khan, K. (2017). Clinical sports medicine (5th ed.). Volume 1: Injuries. Sydney: McGraw-Hill.

Brukner, P. and Khan, K. (2019). Brukner and Khan's clinical sports medicine (5th ed.): Volume 2: The medicine of exercise. Sydney: McGraw-Hill.

Cameron, M., Selig, S., and Hemphill, D. (2011). Clinical exercise: A case-based approach. Churchill Livingstone

Coombes, J., and Skinner, T. (2021). ESSA’s Student Manual for Health, Exercise and Sport Assessment (2nd edition). Elsevier Australia.