Inherent Requirements

In some ECU courses, especially those offered by the Schools of Nursing & Midwifery and Education, students must meet what's called Inherent Requirements.

These are the essential components of a course or unit that demonstrate your abilities, knowledge and skills to achieve the core learning outcomes of those courses or units.

Inherent Requirements also form part of the entry requirements of a course. They must be met by all students.

For example, if you're applying for a course that leads to practice as a nurse and/or midwife, you should read the inherent requirements carefully to ensure you're able to meet them.

Inherent Requirements help to ensure the integrity of professions like teaching or nursing. They also ensure that the integrity of a course is maintained and preserves the university's learning, assessment and accreditation processes.

ECU's Inherent Requirement Categories

• Communication Skills

  Verbal Communication

  Conveying messages, knowledge, ideas, feelings or dialogue through speech in the English language.

  Non-Verbal Communication

  Communication other than speech that conveys meaning and provides additional information to the person or audience with whom you are communicating. Non-verbal communication includes but is not limited to gestures and facial expressions, as well as body posture, stance, touch, eye movements, eye contact and distance from the person or audience with whom you are communicating.

  Literacy and Written Communication

  Ability to produce English text to a standard that provides clear and coherent communication which is appropriate to the task.

• Cognitive Skills and Abilities

  Cognitive Skills

  The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through one's thoughts, experience and senses. It relates to a number of acquired skills that reflect an individual's ability to think including:

  • verbal abilities;
  • spatial abilities;
  • concentration and memory;
  • perception, processing (includes information and feedback) and reasoning;
  • analysing, synthesising and applying knowledge;
  • planning and organising; and
  • flexible thinking and problem solving.

  Numeracy

  The ability to understand, interpret and correctly apply numerical concepts in a range of contexts.

• Sensory Abilities

  Visual Sensory Ability

  The extent to which a person can see including:

  • accuracy of vision;
  • eye movement;
  • focus;
  • eye teaming;
  • peripheral awareness; and
  • eye/hand coordination.

  Auditory and Aural Ability

  The extent to which a person can hear, use their sense of hearing, and respond to auditory or aural cues.

  [In the performance disciplines this may also encompass the ability to identify pitches, intervals, melody, chords, rhythms, solfèges, and other basic elements of music, solely by hearing.]

  Tactile Sensory Ability

  The sense of touch including:

  • light touch;
  • deep pressure;
  • texture;
  • temperature;
  • vibration; and
  • pain.
• Strength and Mobility

  Gross Motor Skills

  The use of large muscle groups that coordinate body movements for activities such as walking, lifting, pushing, pulling and maintaining balance.

  Fine Motor Skills

  The ability to undertake precise coordinated movements of the hands for activities such as writing, playing music and/or manipulating small objects.

• Other

  Sustainable Performance

  The ability to undertake one or multiple tasks to a set standard over a pre-determined period of time. This could include physical performance such as standing for a period of time, or cognitive (mental) performance such as concentrating for a particular length of time.

  Behavioural Adaptability

  The ability to work constructively, either independently or in a group setting, in a diverse and changing academic environment, whilst maintaining conduct that is acceptable and appropriate to the situation or environment.

  Relational and Interpersonal Skills

  Personal skills required to interact appropriately with others with the aim of building and maintaining healthy, productive relationships to produce the required outcomes.

  Ethical

  Acting in ways consistent with the recognised values of society and avoiding activities that do harm. At ECU this includes adherence to the Student Code of Conduct.

  Legal

  Acting in ways consistent with:

  • the University (rules, code of conduct, policies and procedures),
  • the Standards of practice as required by the professional body which accredits or recognises the course; and
  • the law.

Acknowledgements

ECU has referenced the work of Western Sydney University in the development of its Inherent Requirement Framework.