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).

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

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

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Written Assessment 50%
2. Case Study 50%
3. On-campus Activity 0%

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 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 81.48% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 41.22% 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 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
Poster presentation criteria was revised and extra drop in sessions provided for students to gain clarity in the assessment task.
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
Actors are continuing to be engaged for all residential schools. The actors will be provided their scenarios prior to residential school to allow for more realistic experiences as they have time to engage.
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
Lectures were re-recorded to improve duration and allow students to better consume the content.
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
The tools have been provided to students from week 1 to utilise throughout the semester and to have familiarity with them.
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
The moodle site has been streamlined to only include information that is pertinent to the unit.
Source: Student and Unit Teaching Evaluation
Feedback
Students enjoyed the interaction with actors across residential schools with the real life application of scenarios.
Recommendation
Continue to engage actors for the residential school with increasing the diversity of the groups to ensure deeper exploration of realistic experiences.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student and Unit Teaching Evaluation
Feedback
Students requesting shorter lectures for weekly content due to workload across multiple units.
Recommendation
Explore the use of different approaches, for instance short duration videos that can be easily consumed and referenced when required.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student and Unit Teaching Evaluation
Feedback
Students appreciated the passion in teaching the unit with specific assessments tailored to the type of work they will be exposed too as graduate paramedics.
Recommendation
Explore different assessment deliveries that will benefit the content with potential for innovating ideas.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Evaluate individual patient presentations and related factors contributing to mental health conditions
  2. Formulate and apply evidence-based and safe treatment strategies for individuals experiencing a mental health crisis
  3. Appraise and integrate mental health legislation and professional standards within the context of paramedicine
  4. Communicate effectively with individuals experiencing mental health challenges, health care teams involved in mental health care, and the general public.

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) Standards.
 
Professional Capabilities for Registered Paramedics

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, 2.1.8, 2.2.1, 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, 3.2.6, 3.3.1, 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, 5.2.1,5.2.2, 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

Standard Learning Outcomes
Partnering with Consumers LO2, LO3, LO4
Preventing and Controlling Infections LO1, LO2, LO4
Medication Safety LO1, LO2, LO4
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 - Written Assessment • •
2 - Case Study • •
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 • • •
7 - Cross Cultural Competence • • •
8 - Ethical practice • • • •
10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures • • • •
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