Unit Synopsis
This unit introduces you to clinical practice through your first supervised placements in both non-ambulance and ambulance settings. You will begin applying foundational paramedicine knowledge and skills in authentic healthcare environments while developing confidence, professionalism, and reflective capacity. The initial placement is within a diverse (non-ambulance) healthcare setting such as an aged-care facility, providing interprofessional education. This placement will be a minimum of 70 hours, rostered across two weeks with a placement provider local to you, where possible. You will work alongside and learn from other health professionals and patients in non-emergency contexts, building skills in teamwork, communication, and person-centred care that will support future clinical practice within the ambulance and collaborative care settings. The second minimum 150-hour placement rostered across four weeks with an ambulance service, extends your learning into the prehospital environment, where you will observe and participate in emergency care under direct paramedic supervision. Across both settings, you will engage in guided reflection and feedback to support clinical reasoning, self-awareness, and ongoing professional growth. Preparation and support activities before and during placement develop workplace literacy and support your student-mentor relationship, ensuring you enjoy a positive and successful first clinical placement unit.
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:
Co-requisites:
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 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 | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Term 2 - 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. Professional Practice Placement | 0% |
| 2. Portfolio | 0% |
This is a pass/fail (non-graded) unit. To pass the unit, you must pass all of the individual assessment tasks shown in the table above.
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 89.47% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 13.19% 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 data
The unit requirements are unclear.
Articulate unit requirements in the Unit Introduction tile, during weekly Zoom sessions, and in the welcome messages in Week 1.
The unit Moodle page was reformatted for the 2025 offering to improve information availability. Unit requirement details were articulated as planned in several places within the Moodle page and reiterated during Zoom sessions.
Source: SUTE data
Learning materials could be more relevant.
Review all learning materials for the next unit iteration, and ensure materials are scaffolded appropriately within the unit to ensure the relevance to the unit is understood and timely for clinical placement.
All learning materials were redeveloped for the 2025 iteration, with some rescheduling of content to ensure relevant information was available to students before placement.
Source: SUTE data
Feedback on performance is insifficient.
A greater effort will be made by the unit coordinator and assigned markers to offer more detailed feedback on student performance in assessment tasks within the unit.
Adjustments were made to the Mentor Report Form to improve qualitative feedback opportunities; comprehensive feedback was also offered on the case study assessment.
Source: SUTE data.
A disconnect between unit intent and student expectations in a clinical placement unit.
Acknowledging that this unit will undergo further change for the 2026 offering, ensure students understand that clinical placement units also address relevant professional capabilities in addition to facilitating clinical placement opportunities.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Apply clinical reasoning and practical skills at a novice level in both ambulance and interprofessional clinical settings, providing safe, culturally responsive and evidence-informed care
- Employ reflective practice principles associated with clinical reasoning and conduct whilst supporting consumers in diverse healthcare settings
- Analyse the ethical, legal, professional and interprofessional requirements, responsibilities and boundaries associated with paramedic practice.
The Paramedicine Board of Australia requires that units align with the Professional capabilities for registered paramedics, which consist of five (5) domains. The below section aligns the proposed learning outcomes with these domains. In addition, the learning outcomes have been aligned with the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Ambulance Health Service Standards.
Professional Capabilities for Registered Paramedics
| Domains | Learning Outcomes |
| 1: The professional and ethical practitioner: 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, 1.1.4, 1.1.5, 1.1.6, 1.1.7, 1.1.9, 1.1.10, 1.1.11, 1.2.1, 1.2.2, 1.2.3, 1.2.4, 1.2.5, 1.2.6, 1.3.1, 1.3.2, 1.3.3, 1.4.1 | LO1, LO2, LO3 |
| 2: The communicator and the collaborator: 2.1.1, 2.1.2, 2.1.3, 2.1.4, 2.1.5, 2.1.6, 2.1.7, 2.1.8, 2.2.1, 2.2.1, 2.2.3, 2.2.5, 2.2.6 | LO1, LO2, LO3 |
| 3: The evidence-based practitioner: 3.1.1, 3.1.2, 3.2.1, 3.2.2, 3.2.3, 3.3.2, 3.3.4, 3.4.2, 3.4.3 | LO1, LO2, LO3 |
| 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, 4.3.3, 4.4.1, 4.4.2, 4.4.3, 4.4.4, 4.5.2, 4.6.2, 4.6.5, 4.7.2 | LO1, LO2, LO3 |
|
5: The paramedicine practitioner: 5.1.1, 5.1.2, 5.1.3, 5.1.4, 5.1.5, 5.2.2, 5.2.4, 5.3.4, 5.3.6, 5.4.1, 5.4.2, 5.4.3, 5.4.4, 5.4.6, 5.5.3, 5.6.1, 5.6.2, 5.6.3, 5.6.4. |
LO1, LO2, LO3 |
National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards
| Standard | Learning Outcomes |
| Clinical Governance: 1.01b, 1.01c, 1.06a, 1.10a, 1.10c, 1.11a, 1.13a, 1.16b, 1.16c, 1.19b, 1.20a, 1.20b, 1.20d, 1.21, 1.22a, 1.23a, 1.23b, 1.23c, 1.24a, 1.24b, 1.25a, 1.26, 1.27a, 1.27b, 1.28b, 1.28d | LO1, LO2, LO3 |
| Partnering and Consumers: 2.01a, 2.01b, 2.03a, 2.07, 2.08, 2.10a, 2.10b, 2.10c | LO1, LO2, LO3 |
| Preventing and Controlling Infections: 3.02b, 3.06, 3.07a, 3.07b, 3.07c, 3.07f, 3.08a, 3.08b, 3.08g, 3.08i, 3.09b, 3.09c, 3.10a, 3.10b, 3.12, 3.13a, 3.13b, 3.13c | LO1, LO2, LO3 |
| Medication safety: 4.04, 4.05, 4.06, 4.07, 4.10a, 4.10b, 4.10c, 4.11, 4.12a, 4.12b, 4.14a, 4.14b, 4.14c | LO1, LO2, LO3 |
| Comprehensive care: 5.04a, 5.04b, 5.04c, , 5.04d, 5.05a, 5.05b, 5.06, 5.08, 5.10a, 5.10b, 5.10c, 5.12, 5.13a, 5.13b, 5.13c, 5.13d, 5.13e, 5.13f, 5.14a, 5.14b, 5.14c, 5.14d, 5.33 | LO1, LO2, LO3 |
| Communicating for Safety: 6.01a, 6.01b, 6.02a, 6.03a, 6.03b, 6.03c, 6.04a, 6.04b, 6.04c, 6.07a, 6.07b, 6.07c, 6.08a, 6.08b, 6.08c, 6.08d, 6.08e, 6.08f, 6.10, 6.11a, 6.11b, 6.11c | LO1, LO2 |
| Recognising and Responding to Acute Deterioration: 8.01a, 8.01b, 8.03a, 8.03b, 8.03c, 8.04a, 8.04b, 8.04c, 8.06a, 8.06b, 8.06c, 8.06d, 8.06e, 8.07, 8.09, 8.10, 8.12, 8.13 | LO1, LO2 |
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Professional Practice Placement | • | • | • |
| 2 - Portfolio | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 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 | • | • | • |
| 10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | • | • | |
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |