PMSC13003 - Pharmacology in Paramedic Practice

General Information

Unit Synopsis

You will develop an understanding of pharmacotherapy in paramedic practice through investigation of the appropriate use of pharmacological interventions in patient management. You will develop knowledge of specific medications common to patients requiring care by paramedics, as well as skills to calculate medication dosages through a series of coursework and case management exercises.

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: PMSC12001 Procedures and Skills in Paramedic Care

and

Co requisites: PHRM19001 Pharmacology and Toxicology or BMSC13010 Pharmacology

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 3 - 2024

There are no availabilities for this unit on or after Term 3 - 2024

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 and Written Assessment 50%
2. Online Quiz(zes) 25%
3. Online Quiz(zes) 25%

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 - 2019 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 65.52% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 43.94% 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 feedback via Moodle.
Feedback
New lecture material was very good and the lecture length was perfect.
Recommendation
The twenty minute length lectures remain a favourite with students, as it was last term with previous Lecturers, so all new content will continue to be formatted to this length.
Action Taken
Lectures remain around twenty minutes in duration.
Source: Student feedback via Moodle and email.
Feedback
Presentation of pathophysiology material for each weekly topic preceding lectures on drug therapy protocols for that topic was very useful in helping to link patient presentation with treatment.
Recommendation
This approach gained great feedback over term three with the previous Lecturers, and will continue to be implemented for this unit.
Action Taken
Lectures continue to directly link pathophysiology with drug indications and effect.
Source: Student feedback via Moodle.
Feedback
Zoom sessions were engaging - students wish to have more of these sessions recorded.
Recommendation
Students had clinical placement during term one and responded via a survey earlier in the term stating that they would rather Zoom sessions be held back until they finished placement so that they could participate in more sessions. This was done, with sessions recorded, but many still did not attend. Greater participation is expected for the term three offering as students will not have other units to complete or placements to attend over the summer period.
Action Taken
Zoom sessions were facilitated during term, including on weekends and after hours for Zoom sessions on assessment tasks to ensure more students had opportunity to participate. Student participation in Zoom sessions remains low; most choose to watch the recordings at a later time.
Source: Student feedback via Moodle and email.
Feedback
Students appreciated the opportunity to submit the major written assessment piece as a draft to the Lecturer for general feedback on areas to improve.
Recommendation
This initiative was very helpful for students, encouraging them to get started on the major (50% value) task early, and enabling them to refine their submission in response to generalised feedback. It was however very time consuming for the Lecturer, so if offered again it will be subject to an earlier deadline for draft submission.
Action Taken
Draft submissions were again invited and reviewed as formative feedback. Students that took up this option performed very well on the assessment task.
Source: Student feedback via Moodle and email.
Feedback
Students question the learning value of a major task with 50% value that is not directly related to a drug in current use within Australia.
Recommendation
This task required students to think more broadly around the requirements for drug introduction and use within ambulance services, with a focus more upon critical thinking, research, and presentation skills than a requirement to learn that particular drug itself. The task will however be reformatted for the term three offering to centre more upon clinical decision-making and clinical judgement in prehospital pharmacology.
Action Taken
This task was reframed to involve greater focus on clinical judgement and justification.
Source: Moodle feedback.
Feedback
Include answers to the weekly questions that are embedded within lectures.
Recommendation
Answers to the lecture questions will be provided as additional content. This was not initially done as students were instead encouraged to discuss these questions on the discussion forums and within Zoom sessions; however engagement with both was poor.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Moodle feedback.
Feedback
Whilst students appreciated detailed feedback on the written task, assessment feedback was delayed.
Recommendation
The written task was given individualised feedback in a lot of detail to best enable students to improve their writing skills. The detail was appreciated by students and has helped them produce quality submissions for student research competition, but it does however consume a lot of time in marking. The rubric for the written task will be adjusted to rely less upon individualised narrative feedback and improve marking turnaround. Students will be advised to contact the Lecturer directly if they do wish for greater detail feedback or further explanation of specific points.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Moodle feedback.
Feedback
Presentation of pathophysiology material for each weekly topic preceding lectures on drug therapy protocols for that topic was very useful in helping to link patient presentation with treatment.
Recommendation
We will continue to use this approach in lectures.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Moodle feedback.
Feedback
Students appreciated the opportunity to submit the major written assessment piece as a draft to the Lecturer for general feedback on areas to improve.
Recommendation
We will continue to offer formative feedback on the major written task.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Describe the indications, pharmacokinetics, actions, routes of administration, contraindications, side effects and precautions of medications and fluids administered by paramedics, and how you would evaluate the effects of administration
  2. Correctly calculate drug doses for the administration of paramedic medications
  3. Discuss the implications of renal or hepatic dysfunction, pregnancy and extremes of age on drug administration in the paramedic context
  4. Research and justify the most effective pharmacological treatment options in the pre-hospital context.

1. The educational institution must demonstrate it has developed a paramedic education course that provides students with the educational base for a graduate appropriate to the level of qualification to be attained, the specified level of competence to meet the requirements for employment as an entry level paramedic.

2. The educational course / curriculum requirements for work readiness must be determined by the curriculum / course development committee through consultation with all major stakeholders in particular, the principal ambulance services in Australia and New Zealand represented by the CAA.

3. The educational couse / curriculum requirements to meet the work readiness requirements of the principal ambulance services in Australia and NZ and should be reviewed on a regular basis as part of a formal paramedic education course review process.

4. Given the complex nature of out of hospital, unscheduled care and the diversity of health care situations encountered, Paramedics must be well educated, skilled and knowledgeable practitioners in a range of subjects and be able to appraise and adopt an enquiry-based approach to the delivery of care

5. Paramedic education courses should produce graduates with an educational base and attributes appropriate to the level of qualification attained and specified level of competence required. These objectives and attributes must be clearly described for each course being assessed.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Presentation and Written Assessment • •
2 - Online Quiz(zes) •
3 - Online Quiz(zes) • •
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 • • •
6 - Information Technology Competence • • •
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