units

BEH2131

Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

18 September 2017 19 April 2024

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This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2016 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

Monash University

6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

Undergraduate - Unit

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Faculty

Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

Organisational Unit

Department of Community Emergency Health and Paramedic Practice

Coordinator(s)

Mr Damien Dambrosi

Offered

Peninsula

  • First semester 2016 (Day)

Synopsis

This unit continues to develop the role of the paramedic as a clinician by extending clinical examination and decision making skills that were introduced in previous clinical units. The unit covers commonly encountered chronic, acute, and life threatening cardiovascular problems across the lifespan. The unit will be both theory, and case based. It will include clinical skills laboratories and simulation to develop essential clinical skills, clinical problem solving and decision making competencies. This will be supported by a significant theoretical component including pathophysiology and ECG interpretation. The scope of the unit includes the development of skills needed to provide general health care as well as care at an advanced life support level.

Outcomes

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

  1. Describe the epidemiology, population health, pathophysiology, and clinical manifestations of acute and chronic cardiovascular conditions commonly encountered in paramedic practice across the lifespan;
  2. Interpret electrocardiograms for a normal patient and those experiencing cardiovascular abnormalities including dysrhythmias and acute coronary syndromes;
  3. Systematically assess a patient experiencing a cardiovascular emergency and associate the assessment with cardiovascular disease pathology;
  4. Plan and implement appropriate and safe management for a patient experiencing a cardiovascular emergency and accurately document and communicate the care provided;
  5. Identify drugs commonly used by advanced life support paramedics for the management of cardiovascular conditions. Discuss their actions and evaluate the appropriateness of their use in differing circumstances during a cardiovascular emergency;
  6. Discuss the diagnostic reasoning, clinical problem solving and clinical decision making processes that determine the care of patients with cardiovascular conditions in order to evaluate and justify management.

Assessment

3 x In-semester MCQ tests (30 minutes each) (30%)
Written assignment (2,000 words) (20%)
Exam (MCQ and short answer questions) (2 hours) (50%) (Hurdle)
Practical exam (20 minutes) (Pass / Fail) (Hurdle)

Workload requirements

6 hours per week involving lectures, tutorials, simulation, clinical laboratory and small group exercises.

See also Unit timetable information

Chief examiner(s)

Mr Damien Dambrosi

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Emergency health

Prerequisites

BEH1102.

Co-requisites

Must be enrolled in courses 3445 or 3892.