Overview
Traumatic injuries form a significant treatment burden on Australia’s health care system and are a major cause of death and disability across all demographics. Within this unit, you will develop an understanding of traditional and emerging approaches to treating those suffering traumatic injuries within a prehospital specific context. The number of natural and man-made disasters has risen dramatically over the last decade. Natural disasters, industrial accidents, terrorist attacks and pandemics represent major incidents, often involving multiple casualties; therefore a component of this unit will include emergency management. Upon successful completion, you will have a comprehensive understanding of trauma management, multiple casualty scene management and emergency management within a prehospital context.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Pre-requisites PMSC12001 - Procedures and Skills in Paramedic Care PMSC12002 - Clinical Paramedic Practice 1 PMSC13012 - Paramedic Medical Emergencies 3
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 2 - 2020
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 12-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 25 hours of study per week, making a total of 300 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University’s Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
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 Have Your Say
I hope in the future the leaders of the course split this subject. Environmental and wilderness medicine and trauma deserve separate subjects. These are 2 x very heavy subjects and deserve individual subject respect.
Environmental and Wilderness medicine have been removed from this unit and will now be placed in a new unit for 2020.
Feedback from Have Your Say
I believe that the residents school could have been in week 10 or 11. This would have allowed more weeks for preparation.
As always we will endeavour to have Residential schools as late in the term as possible to ensure students have time to prepare.
- Using a systematic approach, assess emergency environments for mechanisms of injury and predicted pattern of injuries
- Develop, evaluate and apply evidence based clinical management to the assessment, diagnosis and management of patients with traumatic conditions in the prehospital environment
- Compare and contrast the management of emergencies via air and ground transportation
- Apply the principles of emergency management to multi-casualty scenes in the prehospital context
- Identify emerging technology and procedures utilised within the prehospital setting for trauma related emergencies.
This proposed unit aligns to the graduate paramedic competency standards as defined by the professional organisation representing paramedics, Paramedics Australasia and the national body providing accreditation standards for competent paramedic practice and educational design, Council of Ambulance Authorities. Reference document can be found at:
http://www.caa.net.au/images/documents/accreditation_resources/Paramedic_Professional_Competency_Standards_V2.2_February_2013_PEPAS.pdf
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
1 - Written Assessment - 50% | |||||
2 - Online Test - 50% | |||||
3 - On-campus Activity - 0% |
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
1 - Communication | |||||
2 - Problem Solving | |||||
3 - Critical Thinking | |||||
4 - Information Literacy | |||||
5 - Team Work | |||||
6 - Information Technology Competence | |||||
7 - Cross Cultural Competence | |||||
8 - Ethical practice | |||||
9 - Social Innovation | |||||
10 - 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 | 9 | 10 | |
1 - Written Assessment - 50% | ||||||||||
2 - Online Test - 50% | ||||||||||
3 - On-campus Activity - 0% |
Textbooks
Textbook of Adult Emergency Medicine
5th Edition (2019)
Authors: Peter Cameron, Mark Little, Biswadev Mitra, Conor Deasy
Elsevier
ISBN: 978072952050
Binding: Hardcover
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing styles below:
- American Psychological Association 6th Edition (APA 6th edition)
- American Psychological Association 7th Edition (APA 7th edition)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
s.delport@cqu.edu.au
l.hurring@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
- Introduction to trauma management.
- Kinetics of trauma.
Chapter
Refer to eReading List in Moodle.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
- Head and traumatic brain injuries.
- Facial and dental trauma.
Chapter
Refer to eReading List in Moodle.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
- Neck and spinal trauma.
Chapter
Refer to eReading List in Moodle.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
- Thoracic trauma.
Chapter
Refer to eReading List in Moodle.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
- Abdominal trauma.
Chapter
Refer to eReading List in Moodle.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Mid-term break.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
- Pelvic, hip, and neck of femur injuries.
- Extremities trauma.
- Pain management.
Chapter
Refer to eReading List in Moodle.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
- Burns.
- Crush injuries.
- Compartment syndrome.
- Fluid resuscitation.
Chapter
Refer to eReading List in Moodle.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
- Hyperbaric trauma.
- Multi-systems trauma.
- Trauma resuscitation.
- Retrieval considerations in trauma.
Chapter
Refer to eReading List in Moodle.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
- Road traffic crash scene management.
- Multi-casualty management.
Chapter
Refer to eReading List in Moodle.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
- Review period.
Chapter
No further set readings during review period.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
- Review period.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Online Test opens on Monday morning.
Online Test Due: Week 11 Friday (2 Oct 2020) 11:59 pm AEST
Module/Topic
- Review period.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
You are required to attend a compulsory Residential School for this unit. You must nominate your preferred Residential School location through MyCQU, under My Timetable in the My Units tab. Numbers at Residential Schools are capped and a position at your preferred Residential School is not guaranteed. Geographical proximity to and/or previous attendance at a Residential School location does not guarantee placement at your preferred location. Attendance at Residential Schools is compulsory and you must attend 100% of Residential School days. If for any reason you cannot attend a day at Residential School you must immediately notify the Unit Coordinators and provide appropriate evidence, as per Assessment Policy and Procedure, to justify your absence. You will be responsible for making arrangements with the Unit Coordinators to make up for all missed learning and assessments.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated Government-mandated social distancing rules, the Residential School for this unit has been postponed and will be facilitated after Term Two at a later date. Further details about the residential school will be made available on Moodle and communicated directly to all students in due course.
1 Written Assessment
For this assessment task, you must review contemporary literature to synthesise a concise written report on best practice management of a trauma presentation. The purpose of this report is to contribute pre-reading material for a clinical learning session being held at your station, and your audience is therefore fellow qualified paramedics in your region.
Please choose one of the following topic choices:
- Permissive hypotension
- Burns management
- Haemorrhage control
- Trauma resuscitation.
As some of these topics are quite broad you should focus more deeply on recent advances in one particular area of your topic, for example cooling strategies for burns cases, or emergency preservation in trauma resuscitation. Your report should cover the pathophysiology of your chosen presentation, and clearly explain how the best-practice treatments work at the physiological level to treat the given condition. Where there have been recent advances in understanding or alterations to best-practice recommendation, rationalise these changes to previous treatment guidelines.
Since your audience comprises on-road paramedics, you should discuss not only the theoretical aspects of clinical best practice but also practical considerations in applying treatment recommendations to prehospital practice. For example, are your best practice findings different to current treatment guidelines in your State? If so, do you recommend adjustment to existing treatment guidelines, or the purchase of new equipment, or some other alternation to current approach? If you are unsure about or require advice on your chosen focus area please feel free to discuss this with one of your Unit Coordinators.
Content and structure:
In researching current best practice you should review peer-reviewed literature published within the last five years, and may also include papers and reports from relevant Government or medical authorities. Your report should be 2,000 words in total, with a clear logical structure comprising at a minimum the following sections:
- Cover page
- Introduction to your chosen topic
- Report body
- Conclusion
- Reference list.
The body of the report may vary as best suits your focus topic and research findings, so feel free to use subheadings as you please to internally structure the report body. You must write in a professional, academic style, and must use correct APA formatting for in-text citations, the reference list, and report layout. Please ensure that you read through the Task Description, Assessment Criteria, and Moodle assessment page for this assessment carefully to understand the nature and requirements of this task.
Week 5 Friday (14 Aug 2020) 11:59 pm AEST
As per assessment instructions
Week 8 Friday (11 Sept 2020)
3 weeks after date of submission
Content:
- Sections: Your report should contain at a minimum the following sections: Cover Page, Introduction, Report body, Conclusion, and Reference List.
- Topic: Your report should focus on one aspect of the four stipulated trauma presentations. This should not be a shallow summary of treatment guidelines but a deeper synthesis of recent literature on best-practice management.
- Style: This task requires writing at a professional standard, with information presented in a clear & logical sequence, and written in academic style with correct grammar and spelling.
- Research: You must demonstrate critical appraisal of current best practice in trauma management by presenting recent literature and synthesising your findings.
Report formatting:
- Cover page: State the title of your paper, your name and student number, this unit code, and the word count excluding title page, in-text citations, reference list and any appendices. Start these 1/3 down from the top, and make them horizontally centred.
- Margins: One-inch margins (2.54cm) on all sides (usually MS Word default margins).
- Alignment: Left margin alignment throughout; do NOT use justified margins.
- Body indentation: The first line of each paragraph of the report body is indented 3-5 characters.
- Font: Times New Roman or Arial font, size 12. Either is fine, but use just one font for the entire document.
- Spacing: Double spacing throughout the entire document; no extra returns after each paragraph or reference (this is why we have the indentations, headings, and hanging indents).
- Headings: Section headings are centred and bolded in sentence case; use the headings provided for each question within the content section of this assessment task.
- Content: All required subsections are present and completed as directed.
- Referencing: All sources must be cited and referenced appropriately throughout this task in correct APA style; ensure that you use the Library guide for APA style.
- Word count: 2,000 words +/-10%, excluding the cover page, in-text citations, the reference list and appendices. Calculate your word count minus exclusions prior to submission and include this on the cover page.
- File format: Submit your document in Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx).
Grading:
- Pass mark: You must achieve a pass mark of 50% in order to pass this assessment, and you must pass all assessment tasks to pass the unit.
- Grading rubric: Please refer to the Moodle site for additional task information such as assignment marking rubric.
- Late submissions: Late submissions will be accepted, but penalties will accrue at 5% for every calendar day past the due date.
- Using a systematic approach, assess emergency environments for mechanisms of injury and predicted pattern of injuries.
- Evaluate and initiate out of hospital treatment modalities for trauma and environmental related conditions.
- Compare and contrast the management of emergencies via air and ground transportation.
- Apply the principles of multi-casualty management within the out of hospital setting including traumatic, chemical, biological and radiological emergencies.
- Identify emerging technology and procedures utilised within the out of hospital setting.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Information Technology Competence
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
2 Online Test
For this assessment task you will complete a two-hour online quiz on the Moodle website. The quiz will assess your knowledge of the pathophysiology of trauma presentations, and your capacity to effectively manage trauma cases.
This quiz will comprise a mix of multiple-choice, true/false, and short answer questions related to the material in this unit.
Please ensure that you read directions within this Unit Profile and upon the Moodle page prior to undertaking this quiz.
Week 11 Friday (2 Oct 2020) 11:59 pm AEST
This online quiz will be open for five days.
Exam Week Friday (23 Oct 2020)
3 weeks after closing
- Please ensure that you read each question carefully and that you provide as much information as you can in your response.
- You will only be given one attempt for this quiz.
- Once started, do not press BACK on your browser or REFRESH the page at any time; your work will be lost as responses are not saved until the quiz is submitted or the allotted time expires.
- You will have a time limit of two hours (120 minutes) to complete the quiz.
- When your time limit expires, any open attempts are automatically submitted.
- When the due date expires, any open attempts are automatically submitted; you must therefore start the quiz at least two hours before that deadline, or you will not receive your full time period.
- This quiz is worth 50% of your overall mark.
- You must achieve a minimum pass mark of 50% to pass this assessment, and you must pass all assessment tasks to pass the unit.
- The quiz becomes available at 0000hrs on Monday, Week Eleven.
- The quiz closes at 2359hrs on Friday, Week Eleven.
- For this assessment task no late submissions will be accepted and the quiz will close and become unavailable after the due date and time.
- In the absence of an approved extension, there will be no opportunity to complete the task after this date.
- If you experience a technical issue you must notify the Unit Coordinators immediately.
- Using a systematic approach, assess emergency environments for mechanisms of injury and predicted pattern of injuries.
- Compare and contrast the management of emergencies via air and ground transportation.
- Identify emerging technology and procedures utilised within the out of hospital setting.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Information Technology Competence
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
3 On-campus Activity
During this residential school you will apply the knowledge and systematic approach required to effectively assess and manage trauma and multi-casualty emergencies. Due to the complexity of these cases and the depth of knowledge required to effectively triage and manage such emergencies, PMSC13011 is a capstone unit assessing all the critical elements of knowledge and practice prior to graduation. As all clinical practice is underpinned by foundational learning that preceded it, the assessments for this unit necessarily incorporate not only the content learnt this term, but all elements of learning across the whole paramedic degree course.
This assessment task is undertaken during the compulsory four day Residential School held at the end of term. During Residential School you will practice correct clinical methods and systematic approach to effectively manage trauma emergencies, and then undertake the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). These will comprise two twenty-minute scenarios assessing your management of trauma cases.
The practical assessment will take place during the Residential School, with dates to be announced in due course.
Results will be issued within 3 weeks of completion of the Residential School.
During the Residential School for this unit, you will complete two OSCE assessments in the form of structured scenarios. These scenarios will assess your:
- Patient assessment and history taking
- Evidence gathering and patient treatment
- Implementation of interventions, procedures and skills
- Overall patient and scene management
Grading details:
- Each scenario is twenty minutes long.
- The scoring tools for each scenario are validated and reliable and will be available to students via the Moodle page prior to attending Residential School.
- You must achieve 50% within each scenario to pass that scenario.
- If you commit a Critical Error you will immediately fail that scenario; please see below for explication of this term.
- You must pass both scenarios to pass the Residential School.
- You will have one resit available to you in total; resits shall be conducted at the end of the Residential School.
- As you have only one resit available you will immediately fail the Residential School if you fail both scenarios.
- Full details of grading for these scenarios will be provided on the Moodle page; please ensure you read all information in this Unit Profile and upon Moodle prior to Residential School.
Critical errors:
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 are classed as any act, by action or omission, that causes immediate harm or the potential to cause harm, to yourself, partner, patient or bystanders. This includes any intervention or clinical 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 Coordinators.
- Using a systematic approach, assess emergency environments for mechanisms of injury and predicted pattern of injuries.
- Evaluate and initiate out of hospital treatment modalities for trauma and environmental related conditions.
- Apply the principles of multi-casualty management within the out of hospital setting including traumatic, chemical, biological and radiological emergencies.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Team Work
- Information Technology Competence
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
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.