Objectives

In this assessment, you are required to describe and discuss the presentation and management of a case you have encountered whilst on a placement. You will then discuss the clinical presentation specific to the case and how it relates to contemporary pre-hospital care in Australia. Finally you will reflect upon the case and how it has influenced your approach to patient care and any lessons you have taken away from the experience.

Your chosen case must reflect one of the conditions specifically covered in this unit.

Requirements

This assessment builds on the knowledge and experiences you have gained over your progress throughout the entire Paramedic Science course.

You will describe the methods by which you undertake a clinical examination and obtain an accurate medical history from a patient. You will then use this information to formulate a working diagnosis and initiate appropriate interventions.

You will be required to research and define a medical condition encountered in the pre-hospital environment. With this knowledge you will gain an understanding of clinical management within the context of pre-hospital care as a component of an integrated healthcare continuum.

Finally you will reflect upon your own practice as a novice clinician to learn and grow from your experiences in preparation to transition from an undergraduate student to a graduate paramedic.

Submission

Please write your assessment using the following style and format, and then upload it into the PMSC13010 Moodle page using the Assessment 1 – Written Assessment link in the Assessment tab.

Presentation

The document should be formatted on A4 International Standard paper with margins of 2.54cm. Line spacing should be set to 1.5 and font size set to 12 point.

Only submissions in Microsoft Word format, .doc or .docx, will be accepted.

Format

Cover Page

A cover page must be included for this assessment, in the following format:

• Assessment number and name
• Unit number and name (PMSC13010 Consolidated Paramedic Practice)
• Your name
• Student number
• Word count
• Assessment due date (If you have an approved extension this needs to be noted here)

In this section you will describe the case you have selected using the following format:

Called To: What specifically were you called to i.e. dispatch code and information given.

General Information: Crew mix (CCP, ACP, GPIP), Time of day.

On Arrival: What did you see on arrival at the scene? Initial scene appraisal. Where was the patient? What was their presenting posture? What was their initial appearance? Were there any family/bystanders?

Patient Complaining Of: What specifically was the patient complaining of?

Patient Narrative: What did the patient tell you? Why did they call the ambulance? Pertinent and non-pertinent history, symptoms they described, current medications, medical history, allergies. Anything else of importance or interest?

On Examination: What did you find? Include observations (be specific, list the components of the Perfusion Status Assessment, Neurological Assessment, Respiratory Status Assessment, ECG etc), signs and symptoms you discovered. Include pertinent and non-pertinent signs, symptoms and observations, Head-to-Toes examination.

Provisional Diagnosis: What did you thinks was wrong with this patient and why? Link your provisional diagnosis to all the information you gathered from the above sections.

Differential Diagnosis: Was consideration given to any other potential conditions? Could it have been something else?

Patient Management: What did you do for the patient? List all interventions performed, don’t forget the basics like posture and reassurance. Outline why you performed these interventions and any effects they had on the patient, link to pathophysiology of the condition and mechanism of the intervention.

Clinical Presentation

In this section you will describe the medical condition discovered from the provisional diagnosis of your patient. You must include the following information:

Definition: Provide a working definition for the condition/disease process you have chosen.

Pathophysiology: What is going on in this condition? Start with the specific system involved then explore systematic effects.

Epidemiology: What is the profile of this condition in Australia? Who does it generally effect i.e. age, sex, race, socio-economic status? What is the relevance to pre-hospital care?

Aetiology: Why does this condition occur? Risk factors i.e. genetics, lifestyle, diet etc?

Diagnosis: How is this condition diagnosed in-hospital? Did it reflect your provisional diagnosis? Can our diagnosis in the pre-hospital environment change/improve?

Treatment: What is the acute in-hospital management for this condition? Does it reflect your management? How does pre-hospital management impact this?

Reflection

In the final section, you should reflect upon you chosen case and lessons learnt from this experience.

What made you choose this specific case, what stood out for you? How did you feel about interacting with the patient? Were they co-operative? Were there any other factor that affected your assessment or interactions?

How confident were you in undertaking assessments and formulating a provisional diagnosis?

Did you undertake any of the interventions and/or management? If yes; how did you feel about it, were you successful? If no; why not? Was it a confidence issue? Was the patient time critical?

Has this case changed the way you approach similar presentations? Did the case presentation match you expectations from your prior knowledge of the condition?

Did you receive any feedback from your mentors? Did this feedback aid in your learning?

Students who have previously completed this unit and successfully passed this assessment can apply for a credit of this assessment task through the unit coordinator

The online quiz will incorporate multiple choice questions, short and medium length answer responses and case studies to assess your theoretical knowledge of topics covered throughout the unit.

You maybe assessed on any topic covered in this unit, including review material.

Anatomy and pathophysiology of any disease process, incorporating presentation (signs and symptoms) and appropriate pre-hospital management maybe assessed.

The assessment aligns with the learning outcomes for this unit, as described in the Unit Profile.

Students are required to complete this assessment prior to attendance to residential school, no prior credit will be offered for this assessment task.

This is a timed quiz with a pass mark of 75%.

One (1) additional attempt/resit will be offered if you are unable to achieve a pass mark on the first attempt.

You must complete the quiz in the allocated time. There will be no opportunity to save your answers and return to the quiz at a later time.

In the absence of an approved extension there will be no opportunity to complete this assessment after the due date.

Failure to achieve a pass mark on the additional attempt and/or non-submission will result in a fail for this assessment. No opportunity for a supplementary assessment will be offered.

Students are required to complete this assessment prior to attendance to residential school, no prior credit will be offered for this assessment task.

For this assessment students will be required to attend a compulsory residential school.

There will be a total of three (3) assessment tasks throughout the compulsory residential school. These tasks are designed to test your theoretical knowledge in combination with your clinical assessment and patient management skills. All assessment tasks align with the learning outcomes for this unit, as described in the Unit Profile.

The assessment tasks will be in the following formats: One (1) Viva Voce and two (2) Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE).

Viva Voce

The Viva Voce is a verbal or "interview style" assessment. You will have 20 minutes to answer a series of questions to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the material covered throughout the unit. You may be assessed on anatomy and pathopysiology of any disease process covered throughout the unit. You may also be asked to describe the pre-hospital presentation, including signs and symptoms, in combination with the appropriate pre-hospital management of any disease process described throughout the unit.

Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE)

The two (2) OSCEs will take the format of a structured scenario where you will be allocated 20 minutes to complete each OSCE. The OSCE is designed to assess your knowledge and understanding of the material covered throughout the unit in a structured practical environment. Furthermore the OSCE will assess your ability to perform a thorough and accurate patient assessment and history, and use this information to to formulate a provisional diagnosis. In combination with your patient assessment and provisional diagnosis you will implement appropriate and timely interventions, procedures and/or skills. Your ability to communicate effectively and overall scene management will also be assessed. Finally you will be required to demonstrate your ability to give a patient handover to a senior clinician (i.e. CCP).

You must achieve a pass mark on each individual assessment task to be awarded an overall pass for the residential school.

The pass mark for each individual assessment task is 75%.

The inability to achieve a pass mark for two (2) or more individual tasks will result in an automatic fail for this assessment.

One (1) additional attempt/resit will be offered if two (2) individual tasks have been completed successfully.

Critical Errors

Critical errors in this unit will be classed as anything, by act or omission, that causes immediate harm or the potential to cause harm, to yourself, partner, patient or bystanders or any procedure that is performed outside your scope of practice. During any form of assessment, if any of the following are witnessed the assessment will immediately cease, and no marks will be given for that assessment. Furthermore, any critical error discovered on review or moderation will also result in no marks being given for that particular assessment:

· Unsafe defibrillation

· Incorrect joules delivered during defibrillation

· Defibrillation of a non-shockable rhythm

· Failure to recognise a cardiac arrest (>1minute)

· Failure to shock a shockable rhythm in a timely manner (<2 minutes)

· Failure to perform a complete drug check

· Incorrect sharps disposal or unsafe practice with a sharp

· Performing a skill or procedure, or administering an incorrect drug/drug dosage outside your scope of practice

· Any grossly unsafe practice, as determined by the assessing academic.

If you do not understand any of the above, please do not hesitate to clarify with your unit coordinator.