PMSC13001 - Mental Health for Paramedics

General Information

Unit Synopsis

Within your role as a paramedic, you will encounter consumers experiencing many differing forms of mental health challenges that affect their presentation and recovery. During this unit, you will develop communication skills (including the ability to actively listen to consumer and family stories), recognise alterations in mental health as well as gain knowledge of therapeutic options and referral pathways available to assist consumers.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 3
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 2
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Pre-Requisites:

  • PMSC12002 Clinical Paramedic Practice 1
  • PMSC12001 Procedures and Skills in Paramedic Care

Please note: Any student who has not successfully completed a PMSC residential school within the preceding 12 months or undertaken a clinical placement unit, 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).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School Compulsory Residential School
View Unit Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 3 - 2024

Term 1 - 2025 Profile
Mixed Mode
Term 2 - 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. Presentation 30%
2. Written Assessment 30%
3. On-campus Activity 40%

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 30.13% 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 unit report
Feedback
Was a good unit with concise and clear learning objectives. Students were glad it was noted mental health is such a large field, however the unit was able to simplify and stick to relevant aspects for the role of a paramedic.
Recommendation
Continue to set clear learning objectives.
Action Taken
The unit was redesigned to keep a consistent layout of lecture materials. The material is presented in a format that introduces the condition/topic, gives an understanding of the fundamental information and then examples of the patient. The students are given specific tips/tools to help treat patients that they may encounter in real life experiences.
Source: SUTE unit report
Feedback
The workbook was quite confusing and students felt as though there was a lack of guidance for it.
Recommendation
The workbook was a new style of assessment for this unit. A redesign and collaboration with Learning and Teaching staff will occur in 2024 to assist in the redevelopment.
Action Taken
The workbook was changed to a case study that highlights a common presentation that students will encounter. The case study had a criterion that gave specific information in what was to be discussed with values.
Source: SUTE unit report
Feedback
Students loved being able to work with real people. The actors where exceptional. Students found this unit really interesting and loved the abilities of the actors and their resilience in such difficult scenes.
Recommendation
The unit should continue using actors to simulate real life cases.
Action Taken
Actors will continue to be utilised for residential school and connections looking to be made in the townsville campus.
Source: SUTE unit report
Feedback
The residential school was outstanding. It was the first res school students felt they were taught to do the job, instead of taught to pass the OSCE.
Recommendation
Residential schools should continue to use actors and run in a way that allows students to train in a way that is the same as in standard practice.
Action Taken
Residential schools have increased the amount of information given to campuses to ensure that there is a consistent standard being used.
Source: SUTE unit report
Feedback
Students found content sometimes repeated topics that were briefly covered in earlier weeks.
Recommendation
Weekly lectures to be reviewed and redone to go into more depth and to reduce the repetiveness. Additional 'real world' content will continue to be used and added to in 2024.
Action Taken
Topics were simplified and made into single presentations to ensure content was not discussed more than once when no necessary. Some content will be discussed to ensure that concepts are understood.
Source: Student and Unit Teaching Evaluation
Feedback
Poster presentation marking criteria was unclear and difficult to understand what was required in that section at times.
Recommendation
Poster presentation marking guide will be reviewed and improved to ensure that the response required is clear. More criterions will be included to make the assessment requirements clear.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student and Unit Teaching Evaluation
Feedback
Students enjoyed the residential school with the actor involvement and realistic scenarios. Students also enjoyed the structure and clear expectations of residential school.
Recommendation
Residential schools will continue to be presented in a realistic way with actor involvement where there is availability. Residential school will continue to keep a structure and provide information on the requirements for the assessments.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student and Unit Teaching Evaluation
Feedback
Students enjoyed the content delivered throughout the weeks but at times could be discussed more concisely.
Recommendation
Some lectures will be recorded again to ensure that the delivery is more concise. Some content was filmed during staff sickness and will be executed better for next delivery.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student and Unit Teaching Evaluation
Feedback
Students felt the tools and guidance given to them were helpful for their development and made the content easy to understand.
Recommendation
Tools and guidance will continue to be given to students while looking for other teaching methods that will allow more students to understand the necessary concepts.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Self reflection
Feedback
The Moodle site at times was not clear and needed extra clarification.
Recommendation
The Moodle site will be reviewed and updated to make sure that all information is clear for the student.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Assess, compare and treat different presentations of consumers experiencing mental health challenges
  2. Plan and deliver a range of evidence-based therapeutic options (using an individual and culturally specific context) to assist consumers experiencing mental health challenges
  3. Evaluate and explain mental health related legislation within the context of paramedicine
  4. Engage in interpersonal communication, ethical, and professional behaviours while collaborating with multiple agencies to the standards expected of a paramedic.

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, 1.1.8, 1.1.9, 1.1.10, 1.1.11 1.2.2, 1.2.3, 1.2.5 1.3.1, 1.3.2, 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, 2.1.4, 2.1.5, 2.1.6, 2.1.7, 2.1.82.2.1, 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, 3.1.2 3.2.1 3.2.2, 3.2.3, 3.2.4, 3.2.5, 3.2.63.3.1, 3.3.2, 3.3.3 3.4.3 LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
Domain 4: The safety and risk management practitioner 4.1.1, 4.1.2, 4.1.3, 4.1.4, 4.1.5 4.2.1, 4.2.2, 4.2.3, 4.2.4 4.3.1, 4.3.2, 4.3.3 4.4.4 4.5.2, 4.5.3 4.6.5 4.7.7, 4.7.9 LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
Domain 5: The paramedicine practitioner 5.1.2, 5.1.3, 5.1.4, 5.1.5 5.2.15.2.2, 5.2.3, 5.2.4, 5.2.5 5.3.1, 5.3.3, 5.3.4, 5.3.5, 5.3.6 5.4.1, 5.4.2, 5.4.3, 5.4.5, 5.4.6 5.6.1, 5.6.2, 5.6.3, 5.6.4 LO1, LO2, LO3
 
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 LO1, LO2
Medication Safety LO1, LO2
Comprehensive Care LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
Communicating for Safety LO1, LO2, LO4
Recognising and Responding to Acute Deterioration LO1, LO2

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Presentation • •
2 - Written Assessment • •
3 - On-campus Activity • • • •
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 • • •
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