PMSC13011 is a capstone unit – assessing all the critical elements of knowledge and practice for a novice, safe clinician prior to graduation.

This assessment item will require you to complete a 1500 word assignment covering the assessment and management of a prehospital burns patient and critiquing this against current practices. You will draw on your knowledge to identify current best practice and compare this against current protocols employed by all Australian Ambulance Services.

Burns can be life-changing. The disfigurement, pain and loss of mobility can all have a significant effect on the patient’s quality of life. The increased burden is not only borne on the patient but also their relatives, friends and the health system.

Increasing survival rates, due largely with increased advancements in burn management can translate to increased morbidity rates and increasing incidence of mental health.

The Prehospital clinician is often the first contact the patient will have with the health system. It could be argued that prehospital burn management directly influences patient outcomes in relation to the extent of the injury and recovery time frames.

Objectives for this assessment are as follows-

1500 words (+/-10% deviation and does not include cover page, intext referencing and reference list). 

Identify, research and critically analyse current prehospital burns assessment and management in relation to best practice.

Students should provide a brief overview of burns, assessment and management in the prehospital field and critically analyse this against current literature.

Topics that you may wish to critique could include-

·         Assessing the percentage of burns – Are paramedics accurate?

·         Cooling the burns  - What are the risks of overcooling or undercooling?

·         Fluid resuscitation – Yes or No. Are formulas such as the Parkland formula relevant in the Prehospital setting?

·         Pain management

·         Minimising the risk of infection

You must achieve a pass mark of 50% in order to pass this assessment.

Please refer to the Moodle site for additional task information such as assignment marking rubric. 

This assessment task must be completed individually and you should not collaborate with any other student. For this assessment task, no late submissions will be accepted unless an extension has been approved. In the absence of an approved extension, there will be a late penalty of five percent per day applied if it is overdue. Therefore this assessment task must be completed by the due date.

This task will be completed electronically in a Word of PDF document and uploaded to Moodle using the drop box function via Turnitin.

PMSC13011 is a capstone unit – assessing all the critical elements of knowledge and practice for a novice, safe clinician prior to graduation. This assessment relates to learning outcomes 1, 3, and 5 and incorporates elements of learning across the whole paramedic degree course. Each section will aid your development of knowledge and the systematic approach required to effectively assess and manage patients suffering specific traumatic and environmental emergency injuries.

This will be an Online test which will need to be completed in Moodle. All directions will be clearly discussed on your Moodle page. Please ensure you take note of your quiz dates. It will open on Friday 5pm 31/01/20 and closing at 5pm on the 07/02/20. These will also be displayed on your Moodle page.

This assessment will consist of a mix of multiple choice, true/false and short answer questions and will be based around trauma and environmental emergencies.

The online test will allow only 1 attempt. It will need to be completed within the specified time displayed on your Moodle page and will need to be completed in a single sitting.

There will be a mixture of questions types including but not limited to:

* Short answer

* Multiple choice

* True/False

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 quiz or non-submission/attempt will result in a fail for this assessment. 

This quiz is an individual assessment task. You are not permitted to collaborate with other students whilst undertaking this assessment. Any attempt or evidence of collaboration will result in an Academic Misconduct investigation.

You are required to obtain 50% in order to pass this assessment item.

Please refer to the Moodle site for additional task information.

PMSC13011 is a capstone unit – assessing all the critical elements of knowledge and practice for a novice, safe clinician prior to graduation. This assessment relates to learning outcomes 1, 2, and 4 and incorporates elements of learning across the whole paramedic degree course. Each section will aid your development of knowledge and the systematic approach required to effectively assess and manage patients suffering specific traumatic and environmental emergency injuries.

For this assessment, students will be required to attend all 4 days of the compulsory residential school.

You will be assessed in an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) format throughout the compulsory residential school. In an OSCE, clinical skills are tested as well as theoretical knowledge. It is essential to learn correct clinical methods and then practice repeatedly until you perfect the methods whilst simultaneously developing an understanding of the underlying theory behind the methods used.

Each long case OSCE (two), will be worth 50% of the overall mark for this assessment.

The scoring tools for each station are validated and reliable and will be available to students via the Moodle page prior to attending Residential school.

Students must achieve 50% for each individual OSCE in order to pass the Residential school. You will have the opportunity to have a resit if you fail One (1) of the two (2) OSCE's, however, if you fail both you will have no opportunity for a resit. If you fail the Residential school you will fail the unit.

There will be a total of two (2) assessments each designed to assess knowledge and practical skills acquired during this course. The assessment tasks will consist of OSCE's. The format of the OSCE's will be CME (Case Management Exercises) which relates to the learning outcomes of this unit.

There will be two (2) long case CME's where students will be allocated 20 minutes to complete each assessment.

The long case CME will be in the format of a structured scenario looking at the following areas:

• Patient assessment and history taking
• Evidence gathering and patient treatment
• Implementation of interventions, procedures and skills
• Overall patient and scene management

Please refer to the Moodle site for additional task information such as assessment marking rubric. 

According to the Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health, "Critical" can be defined as Extremely important or essential.

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.