Overview
This unit provides you with the physical examination skills and knowledge of pharmacology needed for functioning as a paramedic with a primary healthcare focus and the assessment of patients with chronic diseases and non-acute complaints. You will learn advanced physical examination techniques, clinical treatments and procedural skills for the diagnosis and continual management of a patient's medical care. Critical thinking and analysis focused on evidence-based medicine and best practice will be covered to integrate decision making and clinical judgement into the use of clinical procedures. Additionally, you will be introduced to concepts and decision making processes relevant to short term pharmacology treatments and review of in-home medications.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Pre-requisite: PMSC20012 Primary Healthcare 1
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 - 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 12-credit Postgraduate 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 Student feedback
Some elements of the residential school could have been better prepared
This was the first time the residential school had been run, so teething problems were expected. A review of all components of the residential school will be undertaken prior to the next offering to ensure the residential school sessions are well-prepared and run as smoothly as possible.
Feedback from Student feedback
One student indicated they would in future like to see (during the residential school) a practical session followed by a session in the hospital to see pathology & procedures
The residential school in this unit will continue in the same format for the time-being. The residential school is focused on orientating students to key skills, and acts as a precursor to a subsequent unit offering Work Integrated Learning, which exposes students to the scope of practice (including pathology & procedures) in a clinical setting.
- Demonstrate advanced clinical physical examination and assessment skills for the diagnosis of common chronic and low acuity disease states
- Determine an appropriate management plan for patient care
- Perform advanced clinical treatment including procedural skills in the management of common chronic and low acuity disease states
- Integrate pharmacology into patient care as required
- Assess a patient's medications to identify potential issues for referral to their primary healthcare provider.
A Graduate Diploma is now the standard requirement for many State ambulance services for advanced positions in the paramedic field. An emphasis has been placed on preferred candidates exceeding this requirement with a Masters degree for many new positions such as the Paramedic Practitioner.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 40% | |||||
| 2 - Practical Assessment - 40% | |||||
| 3 - Written Assessment - 20% | |||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 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 - 40% | ||||||||
| 2 - Practical Assessment - 40% | ||||||||
| 3 - Written Assessment - 20% | ||||||||
Textbooks
Murtagh's general practice - companion handbook
Edition: 6th (2015)
Authors: John E Murtagh
McGraw Hill Education
North Ryde North Ryde , NSW , Australia
ISBN: 9781743763131
Binding: Paperback
Additional Textbook Information
Online links to other relevant textbooks will be provided on the unit Moodle page.
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Harvard (author-date)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
k.shearer@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
General assessment & management 1
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Events and Submissions/Topic
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General assessment & management 2
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Events and Submissions/Topic
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Focused assessment & management - HEENT 1
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Focused assessment & management - HEENT 2
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Focused assessment & management - cardiac & respiratory
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Focused assessment & management - GIT/renal/endocrine
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Focused assessment & management - integumentary/musculoskeletal
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Events and Submissions/Topic
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Wound assessment & management
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Infection assessment & management & immunity/immunisation
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Events and Submissions/Topic
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Pharmacology - pain management
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
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Pharmacology - general
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Events and Submissions/Topic
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RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL
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Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Written Assessment
Task description
You are to select two (2) clinical cases that you have personally been involved in during your current clinical practice that have a primary care or low acuity perspective.
You are to write up, for each case, a comprehensive reflective case study, encompassing (but not limited to) the following components:
-
Background – age, gender, clinical & social history
- A review of patient presentation, including chief complaint
- Physical assessment findings
- Review of medications (prescribed & over-the-counter)
- Treatment offered at the time of your attendance
- Potential alternate assessment and/or treatment interventions
- Patient disposal (actual) versus potential alternate referral options (from a primary care/low acuity/expanded scope of practice viewpoint)
Suggested word count is 1500 & 2000 words per case study.
Week 8 Friday (13 Sept 2019) 11:45 pm AEST
Please save/upload your file in a Word format (.doc or .docx).
Week 10 Friday (27 Sept 2019)
Returned to students within 2 week turnaround.
Each reflective case study will be worth 20% of your overall mark for this unit.
Each reflective case study will be assessed on the following criteria:
Overall presentation
- Organisation of presentation/layout
- Writing mechanics
- Formatting
- Referencing
Content
- Thoroughness of history (background & patient presentation)
- Thoroughness of physical examination
- Discussion of current pharmacology
- Treatment administered
- Recommendations regarding potential assessment/treatment interventions
- Discussion of patient disposal
- Determine an appropriate management plan for patient care
- Integrate pharmacology into patient care as required
- Assess a patient's medications to identify potential issues for referral to their primary healthcare provider.
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Research
2 Practical Assessment
During the compulsory residential school for this unit, you will need to complete a practical assessment where you will be evaluated on your procedural and declarative knowledge of the various assessments, skills and pharmacology learnt throughout this unit. You will be assessed via a structured scenario involving comprehensive assessment and management of a patient presenting with a primary care or low acuity issue or issues.
Week 12 Friday (11 Oct 2019) 5:00 pm AEST
This assessment will occur during the residential school from the 8th - 12th October 2019.
Exam Week Friday (25 Oct 2019)
Feedback will be uploaded into the unit Moodle page within two weeks.
The practical assessment will be marked in accordance with the rubric provided on the unit Moodle page. In the event of a critical error or fail grade in your first attempt, you will be allowed a second attempt. A critical error or fail grade in the second attempt will result in a fail for this assessment.
If a critical error occurs during your assessment the assessment will immediately cease; no marks will be given resulting in a failed attempt. Critical errors in this assessment will be classed as any action or inaction which causes immediate harm to yourself, partner, patient or bystanders; failure to assess or address issues of primary survey; unsafe use of monitor/defibrillator; unsafe drug administration; unsafe work practices or incorrect treatment for patient presentation.
This assessment is worth 40% of the overall mark for this unit.
In the absence of an approved extension, there will be no opportunity to complete this assessment after the compulsory Residential School for this unit.
- Demonstrate advanced clinical physical examination and assessment skills for the diagnosis of common chronic and low acuity disease states
- Perform advanced clinical treatment including procedural skills in the management of common chronic and low acuity disease states
- Integrate pharmacology into patient care as required
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Self-management
3 Written Assessment
Following on from your practical assessment at residential school, you will be required to document a comprehensive case report (attendance record), outlining your patient assessment, management and discharge from your care. It should be written in an organised manner as though it is a document that you would send to the patient’s general practitioner (GP).
This case report should encompass (but not be limited to) the following components:
- Background – age, gender, clinical & social history
- A review of patient presentation, including chief complaint
- Physical assessment findings
- Review of medications (prescribed & over-the-counter)
- Treatment offered at the time of your attendance
- Patient discharge/disposal including referral options (from a primary care/low acuity/expanded scope of practice viewpoint)
The case report should be succinct and be of no more than 1500 words.
Review/Exam Week Friday (18 Oct 2019) 5:00 pm AEST
The final case report must be uploaded within one week of the conclusion of the residential school.
Exam Week Friday (25 Oct 2019)
Feedback will be uploaded into the unit Moodle page within one week.
The case report will be marked according to the rubric provided on the unit Moodle page.
The case report will be assessed on the following criteria:
Overall presentation
- Organisation of presentation/layout
- Writing mechanics
- Formatting
Content
- Thoroughness of history (background & patient presentation)
- Thoroughness of physical examination
- Discussion of current medications
- Details of assessment/treatment interventions
- Plan for patient disposal
This assessment is worth 20% of the overall mark for this unit.
- Demonstrate advanced clinical physical examination and assessment skills for the diagnosis of common chronic and low acuity disease states
- Determine an appropriate management plan for patient care
- Assess a patient's medications to identify potential issues for referral to their primary healthcare provider.
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
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.
What can you do to act with integrity?
