Unit Synopsis
In this unit, you will develop essential knowledge and clinical skills required to recognise, diagnose and manage patients experiencing acute and life-threatening medical conditions. This unit integrates pathophysiology, patient assessment, and clinical history-taking to support the formulation of provisional diagnoses and the implementation of treatment plans. An emphasis is placed on procedural competence, including the indications, contraindications of core paramedic interventions used to manage neurological, respiratory, cardiovascular, endocrine and gastrointestinal presentations. These skills are taught and reinforced through hands-on practice on campus, where you will implement these newly acquired skills into simulated patient scenarios of a broad range of clinical presentations guided by National Safety and Quality Health Services (NSQHS) standards and Quality Use of Medicines framework. Case-based learning and simulations will assist you in contextualising your clinical skills and decision-making to ensure you meet the Paramedic Board of Australia’s registration requirements.
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:
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 1 - 2026
Term 1 - 2026 Profile
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).
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. Practical Assessment | 0% |
| 2. Online Quiz(zes) | 50% |
| 3. Written Assessment | 50% |
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%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 1 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 14.29% 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: Student Unit and Teaching Evaluation.
Students enjoyed the subject and the delivery style of the lecturer.
Continue to create lectures with the green screen and present in an engaging format to share enthusiasm for the teaching of skills and procedures.
The 2024 learning material was reused for the 2025 offering of this unit, that was well received by students.
Source: Student Unit and Teaching Evaluation.
There was a lot of content to cover prior to residential school, but felt it was structured logically and explained to convey understanding.
Continue to deliver content in manageable lectures and explain to support students understanding. Consider placement of residential schools within the term.
The 2024 learning material was reused for the 2025 offering of this unit, that was well received by students.
Source: Student Unit and Teaching Evaluation.
Academics and sessional academics across all campuses made the residential schools enjoyable experience and enhanced their learning.
Continue to use academics and sessional academics who teach to a high standard and are well received by students.
High standard casual academics were engaged for supporting the facilitation of the residential school.
Source: Student Unit and Teaching Evaluation.
The combination of four-day residential schools for both PMSC12001 and PMSC11004 was too long.
Consult with HOC and consider how the duration of these residential schools can be adjusted to assist with a positive student experience.
The 2025 residential school was reduced to three days. This created L&T challenges due to the amount of learning material required for these three days.
Source: Verbal feedback within virtual tutorials.
Students expressed high satisfaction with the quality of learning material and the learning and teaching approach.
The learning material will continue to use the same learning and teaching approach within future offerings of this unit.
In Progress
Source: Verbal feedback within virtual tutorials.
Some of the learning material is outdated, with referenced guidelines no longer available.
This unit will be redesigned for the 2026 offering, with new learning material reflective of the curriculum enhancements.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Articulate the theoretical underpinnings, including the anatomical and pathophysiological reasons, for the application of advanced care skills and interventions in the management of a critically ill or injured patient relevant to paramedic practice
- Identify and interpret the indications, precautions, risks and contraindications of using specific paramedic interventions involved in advanced care prehospital practice
- Employ critical thinking and clinical reasoning for using specific paramedic interventions involved in advanced care prehospital skills and interventions
- Apply and explain the application of paramedic advanced care prehospital interventions, guided by standards such as National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) standards and Quality Use of Medicines framework, in a safe, ethical and professional manner.
| Standard/Attribute/Criteria | Learning Outcomes |
| Domain 1: The professional and ethical practitioner 1.1.4, 1.1.5, 1.1.9, 1.1.10, 1.1.11, 1.2.2, 1.2.4, 1.2.5, 1.3.2, 1.3.3 | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4 |
| Domain 2: The communicator and collaborator 2.1.2, 2.1.3, 2.1.4, 2.2.4, 2.2.5 | LO1, LO2, LO3 LO4 |
| Domain 3: The evidence-based practitioner 3.1.1, 3.2.2, 3.2.3, 3.2.5, 3.2.6, 3.3.3 | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4 |
| Domain 4: The safety and risk management practitioner 4.1.2, 4.1.3, 4.1.4, 4.1.5, 4.2.4 | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4 |
| Domain 5: The paramedic practitioner 5.2.1, 5.2.2, 5.2.3, 5.2.4, 5.2.5, 5.3.1, 5.3.3, 5.3.4, 5.3.6, 5.4.1, 5.4.2, 5.4.3, 5.4.4, 5.4.5, 5.6.1, 5.6.2, 5.6.3, 5.6.4, | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4 |
National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards
| Standard | Learning Outcomes |
| Clinical Governance: 1.01b, 1.27a, 1.27b | LO3 |
| Partnering with Consumers: 2.01a, 2.04, 2.05a, 2.05b, 2.06, 2.10a, 2.10b, 2.10c, 2.10d | LO2, LO4 |
| Preventing and Controlling Infections: 3.01a, 3.01b, 3.02b, 3.06, 3.07b, 3.10a, 3.11a, 3.12 | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4 |
| Medication Safety: 4.03a, 4.03b, 4.03c, 4.11, 4.15a | LO2, LO4 |
| Comprehensive Care: 5.03, 5.04a, 5.04b, 5.04c, 5.04d, 5.06, 5.10a, 5.10b, 5.10c, 5.11, 5.14a 5.14b, 5.14c, 5.14d, 5.21, 5.22, 5.24a, 5.24b, 5.24c, 5.25 | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4 |
| Communicating for Safety: 6.03, 6.04 | LO2, LO4 |
| Recognising and Responding to Acute Deterioration: 8.03, 8.06, 8.10, 8.13 | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4 |
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Practical Assessment | • | • | ||
| 2 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | • | • | |
| 3 - Written Assessment | • | • | ||
| 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 | • | • | • | |
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |