Overview
This unit aims to develop your knowledge and understanding of point of care ultrasound (PoCUS) to provide information to assist patient management. To enrol in this unit you must be a graduate of a science or health / medical course. To successfully complete all assessments, you must be able to undertake ultrasound scans in a clinical environment with appropriate supervision. You will use PoCUS to identify anatomical structures and rule out pathology. You will learn transducer manipulation techniques and skills to optimise ultrasound images for documentation.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Co-requisite:MEDS20009 Science and Instrumentation of Ultrasound
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 3 - 2019
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Residential Schools
This unit has a Compulsory Residential School for distance mode students and the details are:
Click here to see your Residential School Timetable.
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a pass/fail (non-graded) unit. To pass the unit, you must pass all of the individual assessment tasks shown in the table above.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback – Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Feedback from students at residential school.
Zoom tutorials.
The students enjoyed the interaction of the zoom tutorials Tutorial format will be continued due to the demands of the shift working students.
Feedback from Student unit evaluation.
Residential schools.
Current residential school format will remain unchanged as the students find the practical aspect of the course essential for the practical aspect of the unit.
Feedback from Student unit evaluation.
Pearl and pitfall discussions.
Students have suggested more videos of pearls and pitfalls. Consider recording an additional series of scanning videos of practical scanning tips and tricks.
- Evaluate the benefits and limitations of using medical ultrasound for diagnosis in emergency or point of care (PoC) medicine
- Apply safe medical ultrasound techniques to generate optimised diagnostic images of regions of interest (ROI)
- Integrate diagnostic medical images into the clinical decision making process and patient management.
The International Federation for Emergency Medicine (IFEM) Point of care curriculum guidelines
3.3 Demonstration of how to generate and optimise an image- 2 and 3
3.4 Demonstration of good practice in point-of-care ultrasound- 1.2 and 3
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||
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1 | 2 | 3 | |
1 - Written Assessment - 0% | |||
2 - Portfolio - 0% |
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||
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1 | 2 | 3 | |
1 - Knowledge | |||
2 - Communication | |||
3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | |||
4 - Research | |||
5 - Self-management | |||
6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | |||
7 - Leadership | |||
8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures |
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
1 - Written Assessment - 0% | ||||||||
2 - Portfolio - 0% |
Textbooks
Manual of Emergency and Critical Care Ultrasound
Edition: 2nd (2011)
Authors: Vicki E. Noble & Bret P. Nelson
Cambridge University Press
New York New York , New York , United States of America
ISBN: 978-0-521-17091-8
Binding: eBook
Additional Textbook Information
The textbook is available online to assist you in your learning.
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
- Microphone and camera to attend the Zoom sessions
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Vancouver
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
r.boman@cqu.edu.au
k.sweeney@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Infection Control
Chapter
Course resources online.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Infection Control Quiz (Compulsory).
- To continue with this unit you must complete and pass the infection control quiz.
Module/Topic
Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA)
- Anatomy
- Disease process
- AAA ultrasound techniques
Chapter
Course resources online and chapter 5 of the textbook:
Noble V & E. & Nelson B. Manual of Emergency and Critical Care Ultrasound 2nd Ed. 2011.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Formative quiz.
Zoom Tutorial: Tuesday 19:00 AEST
(for students in other time zones please convert this to your local time)
Module/Topic
Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma (FAST)
- Anatomy
- Emergency ultrasound techniques
Chapter
Online lectures and reading material.
Textbook Reading -
- Chapter 2.
- Chapter 14
Events and Submissions/Topic
Formative quiz.
Zoom Tutorial: Tuesday 19:00 AEST
(for students in other time zones please convert this to your local time)
Module/Topic
Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)
- Anatomy
- Disease process
- DVT ultrasound technique
Chapter
Online lectures and reading material.
Textbook Reading - Chapter 8.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Formative quiz.
Compulsory Online Induction for your campus is required to be completed prior to Residential School.
Residential school: the specific days and campus sites will be staff and student location dependent. Contact the unit coordinator for further information as soon as you enrol. If you are enrolled in MEDS20009 the residential schools will be held contiguously if possible.
Module/Topic
Time for a break.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Renal Ultrasound
- Anatomy
- Disease process
- Renal ultrasound technique
Chapter
Online lectures and reading material.
Textbook Reading - Chapter 6
Events and Submissions/Topic
Formative quiz.
Module/Topic
Gallbladder Ultrasound
- Anatomy
- Disease process
- Gallbladder ultrasound technique
Chapter
Online lectures and reading material.
Textbook Reading - Chapter 7
Events and Submissions/Topic
Formative quiz.
CQU campuses are closed from 25th December 2019 to 1st January 2020
Module/Topic
Gallbladder Ultrasound continued
- Anatomy
- Disease process
- Gallbladder ultrasound technique
Chapter
Online lectures and reading material.
Textbook Reading - Chapter 7
Events and Submissions/Topic
CQU campuses are closed from 25th December 2019 to 1st January 2020
Module/Topic
First trimester Ultrasound
- Ultrasound recognition of first trimester
- First trimester ultrasound technique
Chapter
Online lectures and reading material.
Textbook Reading - Chapter 4
Events and Submissions/Topic
Formative quiz.
Module/Topic
Lung Ultrasound
- Anatomy
- Disease process
- Lung ultrasound technique
Chapter
Online lectures and reading material.
Textbook Reading: Chapter 9
Events and Submissions/Topic
Formative quiz.
Zoom Tutorial: Tuesday 19:00 AEST
(for students in other time zones please convert this to your local time)
Module/Topic
Ocular Ultrasound
- Anatomy
- Disease process
- Orbit ultrasound technique
Chapter
Online lectures and reading material.
Textbook Reading: Chapter 10
Events and Submissions/Topic
Formative quiz.
Zoom Tutorial: Tuesday 19:00 AEST
(for students in other time zones please convert this to your local time)
Module/Topic
Residential school
Chapter
Online lectures and preparation for residential school.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Zoom Tutorial: Tuesday 19:00 AEST
(for students in other time zones please convert this to your local time)
Residential school: location and dates will be aligned to our location and staff availability.
Four (4) summative competency assessments during residential school.
Practical Competency Assessments Due: Week 10 Friday (31 Jan 2020) 11:55 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Musculoskeletal Ultrasound
- Anatomy
- Trauma process
- MSK ultrasound technique overview
Chapter
Online lectures and reading material.
Textbook Reading - Chapter 11.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Portfolio
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Twelve (12) clinical cases due by Friday week 12.
Portfolio of clinical cases. Due: Week 12 Friday (14 Feb 2020) 11:55 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
The unit coordinators for MEDS20013 are Robyn Boman and Kathleen Sweeney. Both coordinators have extensive ultrasound knowledge.
The best way to contact Robyn is by email: r.boman@cqu.edu.au. Robyn's CQUniversity phone number is (02) 9324 5057.
The best way to contact Kathleen is by email: k.sweeney@cqu.edu.au. Kathleen's CQUniversity number is (02) 9324 5093.
Please contact us via email whenever possible.
The online zoom tutorials are an opportunity to ask questions, gain feedback and join in discussions concerning theoretical concepts and completion of assessment tasks.
Access to the internet is required to undertake this unit, as unit materials, tutorials and updates will be provided via Moodle, email and Zoom tutorials. It is important to check your student email regularly as updates about the unit will be sent from the unit coordinators via email.
1 Written Assessment
In your professional clinical life you come across difficult decisions making. Ultrasound is a modality that aids your clinical decision making as it is readily available, cheap, accessible and portable, with good diagnostic accuracy. However, it is operator dependent and a high level of training to use this technology is of paramount importance.
There are two competency assessments:
Assessment 1.
There is one (1) infection control online quiz. The quiz will be open in Week 1 Monday at 09:00 AEST and close on Week 1 Friday 2019 at 17:00 AEST.
The questions are a mixture of short answer, matching, drag and drop, and true/false.
Learners must obtain 100% marks in this quiz to PASS this assessment.
Multiple attempts are allowed. A Fail grade in this assessment will result in a Fail grade for the unit.
Assessment 2.
You will attempt the following four regions of interest. You must PASS these regions of interest to acquire COMPETENCY to meet the minimum requirements to pass this assessment.
- Abdominal aorta ultrasound assessment
- Deep venous system of a leg ultrasound assessment
- Focused ultrasound assessment for trauma
- Lung ultrasound assessment
The assessment criteria and standards for the attainment of competency are outlined in documents available on the unit Moodle site and will be demonstrated and practiced during the first residential school.
The residential school skills labs will be delivered in weeks 4 and 10. Practical assessment of competency skills will take place at the second compulsory residential school.
Please note the following excerpt from the University Assessment of Coursework Procedures:
'...students who fail a single assessment task in a pass-fail unit, or who fail a pass-fail component of a graded unit will be deemed to have failed that unit'
(https://staffnet.cqu.edu.au/tools-resources/policies/Documents/Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework) (current version - from Term 1, 2018).pdf)
Non-attendance will need to be supported by a Medical Certificate or equivalent.
A Pass/ Fail grade will be given.
A Fail grade in this assessment will result in a Fail grade for the unit.
Week 10 Friday (31 Jan 2020) 11:55 pm AEST
The assessments will occur during the second residential school in Week 10.
Exam Week Friday (21 Feb 2020)
Feedback will be provided at residential school
For the online quiz of infection control module, the answers will be tabulated as correct or incorrect by computer system.
A PASS grade for the summative assessments of any region will be based on competency criteria developed at CQU by experienced clinical sonographers.
Detailed competency criteria documents are provided on the unit Moodle site.
- Evaluate the benefits and limitations of using medical ultrasound for diagnosis in emergency or point of care (PoC) medicine
- Apply safe medical ultrasound techniques to generate optimised diagnostic images of regions of interest (ROI)
- Integrate diagnostic medical images into the clinical decision making process and patient management.
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Self-management
- Ethical and Professional Responsibility
2 Portfolio
Ultrasound is a practical health profession, hence practical experience is vital to being able to develop the skills required to acquire and optimise an image. The clinical portfolio serves as a record of the experience that students have obtained during the unit.
You will collect twelve (12) sets of documentation for an ultrasound study either done by yourself in clinical practice or acquired during the first residential school in week 4.
Each set of documents will contain:
- Ultrasound images
- Your report from ultrasound imaging and further medical imaging if available
- Self evaluation of imaging
- Self reflections which are informed by the literature
- Each set of documents should be uploaded as 12 separate word documents. (Not PDF)
- NO video files of any sort should be uploaded.
Week 12 Friday (14 Feb 2020) 11:55 pm AEST
Exam Week Friday (21 Feb 2020)
By the second residential school, each student will have a minimum of twelve (12) cases in their portfolio. This will include a mix of cases to ensure exposure to a range of studies and enhance understanding the role of ultrasound in point of care patient management and its limitations.
The clinical portfolio will include a hard copy of the portfolio template which will have to be uploaded to Moodle as twelve (12) separate files. Please make sure that patient privacy is adhered to by de-identifying all images.
Each case should address the following:
- A brief demographic of patient
- Clinical context
- Description of the study performed and findings
- Most appropriate images
- Critique of the images
- Self reflection - what have you done well or could improve upon
- Evaluate the benefits and limitations of using medical ultrasound for diagnosis in emergency or point of care (PoC) medicine
- Apply safe medical ultrasound techniques to generate optimised diagnostic images of regions of interest (ROI)
- Integrate diagnostic medical images into the clinical decision making process and patient management.
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Research
- Self-management
- Ethical and Professional Responsibility
- Leadership
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.