BEH3032 - Paramedic management of critical care specialty situations

Leader: TBA

Offered

Peninsula Second semester 2007 (Day)

Synopsis

The unit includes the paramedic management of patients with critical care conditions at the Advanced Life Support level. It will also introduce students to specialty situations, including rescue and the trapped patient, medical retrieval and inter-hospital transfers. The unit will be case-based, integrate material from the five themes and the underpinning biomedical, social and clinical sciences and will include clinical skills laboratory and simulation scenarios to develop the essential communication, assessment and management clinical skills and the clinical problem solving and decision-making competencies.

Objectives

By the completion of this unit, the student will be able to:

1. explain the evidence-base of the paramedic management of critical care specialty conditions;
2. demonstrate the application of the paramedic model of clinical competence in the simulated setting of patients with critical care specialty conditions;
3. describe the epidemiology, natural history, and pathology related to selected critical care specialty conditions;
4. describe the clinical highlights of the selected critical care specialty conditions commonly encountered by paramedics'
5. demonstrate the required standard in each of the core practical skills expected at the basic and advanced life support level relating to the assessment and care of patients with selected critical care specialty conditions;
6. explain the pharmacology of relevant drugs included in the Paramedic Clinical Practice Guidelines for selected critical care specialty conditions;
7. using the model of paramedic clinical competence, demonstrate the ability to integrate the theoretical knowledge and clinical skills to the assessment and management of patients with selected critical care specialty conditions in 'real time' work simulation including clinical problem solving and clinical decision making, safety documentation, communication, and teamwork;
8. explain the range of potential behaviour of patients, their carers and bystanders in situations of critical care specialty events;
9. outline the underlying mechanism, pathology and principles of management of the trapped patient;
10. demonstrate the required skills to facilitate access to trapped patients and removal of trapped patients whilst maintaining appropriate clinical care and collaborating with emergency service co-workers; and
11. outline the structure of the states' medical retrieval systems and demonstrate the required clinical skills to participate in medical retrieval and/or inter-hospital transfers.

Assessment

Two-hour written examination: 50%
2000 word written assignments: 50%
Essential practical skills: pass/fail
Case simulation: pass/fail

Contact hours

Students will be required to spend 12 hours per week including contact time, clinical skills laboratory and scenarios, and private study. This equates to a minimum of 156 hours of student work required over the 13 week semester.

Prerequisites

BEH3011 and BEH3021, or NEH4001

Co-requisites

Must be enrolled in Bachelor of Emergency Health(Paramedic)