Modern Chinese Herbal Medicine & Practice

General Information
Duration 1 semester (14 teaching weeks)
Level Year 4, Semester 8
Unit Weighting Unit Credit Points: 10 credit points
Total Course Credit Points: 320 credit points
Student Workload Number of timetabled hours per week: 4
Number of personal study hours per week: 6
Total workload hours per week: 10
Prerequisites/ Corequisites PRI204 Research Methods
Academic Details
Description This unit aims to deepen and broaden their knowledge, understanding and familiarity with research methodologies and principles and their ethical application in practice. Additionally, students apply their knowledge through a research project in Chinese medicine.

The unit will extend the student’s knowledge and understanding of evidence-based research practice and provide controlled clinical practice opportunities to apply their knowledge of research theory, practice-research, and research data analysis and evaluation skills to the investigation of a specific TCM problem or issue. Emphasis throughout this unit will be focused on the ethical application of the principles of evidence-based research practice through the critique of research questionnaires, undertaking literature reviews, the critical evaluation of their own and others’ research proposals and the development of a research project in Chinese medicine.

The unit aims to instil in students a deep respect for and commitment to evidence-based research practice in Chinese medicine and to enhance and deepen their developing knowledge and understanding of best practice in research undertakings. This will be achieved through lecturers and assessment tasks that focus on advanced research methodologies, statistical measurement and ethical research practice in a clinical setting. Students will be able to evaluate and synthesise data on research principles and the clinical application of evidence-based practice in TCM drawing on their clinic experiences and supervised work with patients.

Learning outcomes Upon completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Describe the key concepts in evidence-based TCM practice and research and evaluate types of research methodologies and approaches that assist in addressing a range of research questions that arise in practice.
  2. Critically evaluate the application of evidence-based TCM research in practice based on selected case studies and examples.
  3. Explain the principles of TCM research and describe the processes required to conduct ethical research.
  4. Apply the knowledge learnt from the principles and standards of TCM research, skills for equipment operation and data processing to carry out research experiment, and evaluate and analyse research data on the activity of Chinese herbal medicine.
  5. Present a research report on a chosen Chinese medicine clinical issue drawing on clinical research practice and data.
Unit requirement To successfully complete the unit, students must: attend 80% of all the lectures and tutorial classes; attempt all assessment tasks including summative and formative assessments and achieve at least 50% of the total marks.
Assessment Assessment 1: Literature review (40%)

Assessment 2: Essay (40%)

Assessment 3: Research Report (20%)

Prescribed text * The prescribed and recommended readings are subject to annual review.

Aveyard H and Sharp P (2009). A Beginner’s Guide to Evidence Based Practice in Health and Social Care Professions. McGraw-Hill Education, Maidenhead, England: Open University Press.

Nagy S, Mills J, Waters D and Birks M (2010). Using Research in Healthcare Practice. Broadway NSW, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.

Recommended readings Polgar, S. and Thomas, S.A. (1999) Introduction to Research in the Health Sciences. Churchill Livingstone, Melbourne.

Colton,T. (1995) Statistics in Medicine. Little, Brown and Company. Boston.

Reigelman ,R.K.,Hirsch ,R.P.(1996). Studying a Study and Testing a Test: How to read the Health Science Literature. Little, Brown and Company.

Berglund, C.A. (2000) Health Research. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Domholdt, E. (2000) Physical Therapy Research. Philadelphia:WB Saunders.

Neuman, L.W. (2000) Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Needham Heights, MA: Allwin & Bacon

Lewith, G.T.; Jonas, W.B. & Walach, H. (2011) Clinical Research in Complementary Therapies: Principles, Problems and Solutions (2nd ed.), Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.

Glasziou, P. et al (2001) Systematic reviews in health care: A practical guide, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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