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PMSC13001 - Mental Health for Paramedics

General Information

Unit Synopsis

In this unit, you will evaluate individual patient presentations and related factors contributing to mental health conditions. You will learn how to formulate and apply evidence-based and safe treatment strategies for individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. While doing so, you will appraise and integrate mental health legislation and professional standards within the context of paramedicine. Additionally, you will explore how to communicate effectively with individuals experiencing mental health challenges, health care teams involved in mental health care, and the general public.

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, should consult with the Head of Course to discuss completing 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
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Unit Availabilities from Term 2 - 2025

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

This information will not be available until 8 weeks before term.
To see assessment details from an earlier availability, please search via a previous term.

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
This information will not be available until 8 weeks before term.
To see Learning Outcomes from an earlier availability, please search via a previous term.