PMSC12004 - Advanced Electrophysiology and Coronary Care

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit will enable you to complete a detailed clinical assessment of cardiac patients, focusing on the use of 12-lead electrocardiographs (ECGs) as a diagnostic tool in pre-hospital care. You will study electrophysiology, pharmacology and pathophysiology to form provisional diagnoses, and implement treatment in a range of cardiovascular conditions. Practical coronary care skills such as defibrillation and 12 lead ECG acquisition will be taught in this unit. Problem-based case management and clinical interventions are practiced via simulation during practical sessions. This will allow you to contextualise your knowledge of coronary care in preparation for professional paramedic practice.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 2
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 2
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Pre-requisites:

  • PMSC12001 Procedures & Skills in Paramedic Care
  • PMSC11004 Paramedic Medical Emergencies 1
  • BMSC11011 Human Anatomy and Physiology 2 or BMSC11002 Human Body Systems 2

Please note: Any student who has not successfully completed a PMSC residential school within the preceding 12 months must complete a PMSC12001 Procedures & Skills refresher. This ensures currency with all contemporary skills and procedures in line with industry standards and professional capabilities.

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).

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Residential School Compulsory Residential School
View Unit Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 3 - 2024

Term 1 - 2025 Profile
Mixed Mode

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).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Online Test 10%
2. Practical Assessment 60%
3. Online Test 30%

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

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 1 - 2024 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 95.74% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 28.31% response rate.

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.

Source: SUTE
Feedback
The online quiz ECG required scrolling to see and they needed more time to complete the quiz.
Recommendation
Re-format online quiz ECGs so the student doesn't need to scroll to see the whole ECG.
Action Taken
This remains difficult to achieve as often ECGs are used from real patient tracings. I have a couple of ECG online platforms that have generated rhythms which are higher quality which are used frequently, especially for assessments.
Source: SUTE
Feedback
Multiple staff providing lectures was confusing and lacked consistency
Recommendation
Some lectures will need to be re done to provide lecturer consistency and limit confusion
Action Taken
I re-wrote and recorded most of the lecturers for Electrophysiology as I wanted consistency in how a challenging subject was taught. This also assisted in the scaffolding approach to the content that I took. This was received well by students who expressed their satisfaction at having new, up-to-date and relevant content produced throughout the semester.
Source: SUTE
Feedback
Provide more practices quizzes
Recommendation
Add multiple practice quizzes and case studies throughout the weekly content.
Action Taken
I created practice quizzes for the first five weeks of the semester where the key focus was on ECGs. Several other quizzes were produced including a final practice exam that mirror the timeframe and level of expectation necessary for students to be successful.
Source: SUTE
Feedback
The content was too heavy in the beginning weeks
Recommendation
The residential schools will be moved to later in the term which will allow the content to be spread across the term better.
Action Taken
Restructuring the content doesn't change the complexity but the restructure enabled greater focus on the challenging concepts without adding in any other information on treatment, management, etc.
Source: SUTE
Feedback
I strongly recommend that the training ambulance is bought out each week for residential schools as it is a great learning resource.
Recommendation
Set the use of the ambulances across the three campuses as a standard scenario format moving forward.
Action Taken
The training ambulance was used throughout residential school for students to undertake simulations in an environment that is commonplace to paramedics.
Source: SUTE
Feedback
Students reported satisfaction with the clear and concise manner of the course content.
Recommendation
Continue to produce content with the same style of presentation to ensure the material is accessible and straightforward for all students.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: SUTE
Feedback
Students complained about not having enough hands-on experience at residential school.
Recommendation
Ensure teacher student ratios are 1:6 to ensure the students have plenty of hands-on practice.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: SUTE
Feedback
Students felt like they didn't get to showcase their ECG interpretation skills in the exam to their best ability due to short timeframe.
Recommendation
Review the ECG exam and adjust the times accordingly to allow more time for students to undertake the exam.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: SUTE
Feedback
Some students felt they didn't have adequate exposure to some of the assessable scenarios during residential school.
Recommendation
Implement greater structure into the residential school, to ensure all students are exposed to the same scenarios themes to ensure preparation for the assessment task
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: SUTE
Feedback
Students asked for videos as an example of expected level of simulation to use for preparation prior to attending residential schools.
Recommendation
Provide exemplar videos of common cardiac presentations for students to use as part of their preparation for residential school.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Apply evidence-based knowledge of pathophysiology to identify and differentiate between a broad range of cardiovascular conditions
  2. Accurately interpret ECGs and diagnose coronary conditions including dysrhythmias and acute coronary syndromes
  3. Integrate comprehensive knowledge of current evidence-based practice to articulate and undertake appropriate clinical assessments, skills and interventions in the management of cardiovascular conditions
  4. Incorporate the principles of safe, professional, cultural safety and ethical practice as it relates to paramedicine.

It is a requirement of the Paramedicine Board of Australia that units align with the AHPRA professional capabilities for registered paramedics. These are broken down into five (5) domains. Below aligns the proposed learning outcomes with these domains. In addition, the learning outcomes have also been aligned with the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards.
 
 
 
 
Professional Capabilities for a registered Paramedic
 
 
 
 
The Paramedicine Board of Australia is responsible for assessing, consulting on and setting the standards for paramedics practicing in Australia. These standards and relevant domains are articulated in the Professional capabilities for registered paramedics document. The learning outcomes of the unit are matched to the relevant capabilities
 
 
 
 
 
Standard/Attribute/Criteria Learning Outcome
Domain 1: The professional and ethical practitioner 1.1.1, 1.1.3, 1.1.5, 1.1.6, 1.1.9, 1.1.10, 1.1.11,1.2.1, 1.2.2, 1.2.4, 1.2.5, 1.2.6, 1.3.1, 1.3.2, 1.3.3, 1.4.1, 1.4.2 LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
Domain 2: The communicator and collaborator 2.1.1, 2.1.2, 2.1.3, 2.1.42.2.1, 2.2.2, 2.2.3, 2.2.4, 2.2.5, 2.2.6 LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
Domain 3: The evidence-based practitioner 3.1.1, 3.1.23.2.1, 3.2.2, 3.2.3, 3.2.4, 3.2.5, 3.2.5 3.3.1, 3.3.2, 3.3.3, 3.3.4, 3.4.4 LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
Domain 4: The safety and risk management practitioner 4.1.1, 4.1.2, 4.1.34.2.1,4.2.2, 4.2.3, 4.2.4 4.3.1, 4.3.2, 4.3.3 4.5.2, 4.5.3 4.6.6, 4.7.2, 4.7.4, 4.7.8 LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
Domain 5: The paramedicine practitioner 5.1.15.2.1, 5.2.2, 5.2.3, 5.2.4, 5.2.5 5.3.1, 5.3.2, 5.3.3, 5.3.4, 5.3.5, 5.3.6 5.4.1, 5.4.2, 5.4.4, 5.4.5, 5.4.6, 5.6.1, 5.6.2, 5.6.3, 5.6.4 LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
 
National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards
 
 
 
 
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care Standards developed in this unit are:
 
 
 
Standard Learning Outcomes
Partnering with Consumers LO2, LO3, LO4
Preventing and Controlling Infections LO3, LO4
Medication Safety LO3, LO4
Comprehensive Care LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
Communicating for Safety LO3, LO4
Recognising and Responding to Acute Deterioration LO3, LO4

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Online Test • •
2 - Practical Assessment • • •
3 - Online Test • • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
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 • •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10