CQUniversity Unit Profile.

For this task you must review contemporary literature to determine best practice management of a trauma presentation, and produce a report on your findings. 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:

• Airway management in trauma
• Burns management
• Electric shocks 
• Haemorrhage control
• Permissive hypotension
• Trauma resuscitation.

As these topics are quite broad you should focus more deeply on recent advances in one particular area of your topic, for example airway management in cases of maxillofacial trauma, or emergency preservation in trauma resuscitation. You may wish to focus on a specific subset of the general population, perhaps uncontrolled haemorrhage in geriatric patients.

Your report should cover the pathophysiology and clinical features of your chosen presentation, and clearly explain how the best-practice treatments work at the physiological level to manage the given condition. 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. At this level, undergraduate textbooks and public information websites should not be used as primary resources. 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 carefully read through the Task Description, Assessment Criteria, and Moodle assessment page to understand the nature and requirements of this task.

Content:

• Sections: Your report should contain at a minimum the following sections: Cover Page, Introduction, Report body, Conclusion, and Reference List. (You may add subsections to the body if you wish.)
• Topic: Your report should focus on one aspect of your choice of the 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, syntax, and spelling.
• Research: You must demonstrate critical appraisal of current best practice in trauma management by presenting recent literature and synthesising your findings into a coherent report.
• Citations & references: All statements must be correctly cited and referenced in APA 7th Edition style, using reference sources appropriate to the task level. 

Report formatting:

• Cover page: State the title of your paper, your name and student number, your course of study, this unit code and title, 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).
• Page numbers: Top right in the header, starting from the cover page.
• 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 title case; use APA style headings for any subheadings. 
• 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 7th Edition style; ensure that you use the Library guide for APA 7E 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; if you do not do this, your submission will be returned.
• 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.
• TurnitIn: All submissions are subject to TurnitIn scans, and all TurnitIn reports are scrutinised. All instances of plagiarism are reported to the Academic Misconduct Board for review. 
• Late submissions: Late submissions will be accepted, but penalties will accrue at 5% for every part or full calendar day past the due date.

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. Further information on the quiz questions will be provided in Moodle and during the term. 

Please ensure that you read directions within this Unit Profile and upon the Moodle page prior to undertaking this quiz.

• 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. 
• This is an INDIVIDUAL TASK and must not be collaboratively completed. Quiz submissions are scrutinised to identify instances of collusion between students, and all such instances are reported to the Academic Misconduct Board for review. 

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 the 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 Examinations (OSCE). These will comprise two twenty-minute scenarios assessing your overall management of trauma cases.

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.