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.

FOR5006 - Traffic medicine

6 points, SCA Band 3, 0.125 EFTSL

Postgraduate - 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

Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine

Coordinator(s)

Associate Professor Morris Odell

Quota applies

This unit is quota restricted. Selection is on a first-in, first enrolled basis. For further information please contact the Postgraduate Course Administrator via email postgrad.courses@vifm.org or phone 03 9684 4115.

Offered

Southbank

Second semester 2016 (Online)

Synopsis

The aim of this unit is to present the medical issues applicable to road safety. The topics covered include the law and policing practices, driving skills and the impact of alcohol, other drugs and medical conditions on these skills, the effects of ageing on fitness to drive, interpretation of traffic injuries, the principles of traffic engineering and road trauma epidemiology.

Outcomes

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

Describe the history of road trauma and analyse the efficacy of counter measures introduced to combat the road toll;
Evaluate the relationship between road safety legislation and policing practices to traffic medicine and road safety;
Predict and evaluate the effects of a range of medical conditions upon driving skills with particular reference to licensing;
Outline the known effects of various blood levels of alcohol and other drugs upon driving skills, and how their likely effects apply to traffic medicine;
Identify road safety implications for ageing road users;
Interpret common injury patterns resulting from road trauma.

Assessment

4 x Essay assignments (3000 words total) (15% each)
Casebook/Workbook (1500 words) (15%)
Case presentation (15 minutes) (25%)

Chief examiner(s)

Associate Professor Morris Odell, Dr Richard Bassed

Off-campus attendance requirements

Compulsory 2 day workshop.

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

Forensic medicine

Prerequisites

This is a postgraduate course restricted to registered medical practitioners.

Additional information on this unit is available from the faculty at:

postgrad.courses@vifm.org