PMED2000 Ambulance Operations and Patient Safety Course description

Ambulance Operations mainly covers the planning, organisation, implementation and evaluation of ambulance jobs, including the management and organisation of other health care resources and cooperation and interaction with other emergency agencies or partners. The course focuses on the structure and organisation of the rescue services in Norway, own safety, tactical responses, use of communication equipment and work at accident scenes.

The students take part in the interdisciplinary course INTER1200.

INTER1200: ‘Communication with Children, Youth and their Families’ (1.5 credits)

INTER1200 ‘Communication with Children, Young People and their Families’ makes up the second module of the university's teaching project INTERACT.

INTER1200 increases students' knowledge about communication and interaction with children and young people. As in INTER1100, the students receive training in cooperating with students from other programmes of professional study on topics relating to the everyday lives of children and young people.

Physical classroom lectures, individual exercises, and tutorials. Problem solving sessions with guided questions ranked from simple to difficult. Peer-learning though group formation and allowing students to learn from each other while doing the project related tasks.

After completing the course and INTER1200, the student should have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence: 

Knowledge 

The student 

• can describe the structure and organisation of the Norwegian rescue services
• can explain how the ambulance service, including the emergency medical communication centre (AMK), is organised
• can describe the organisation of emergency preparedness in Norway and the role of the ambulance service and other health services
• can explain how operational management of the health services is organised in relation to relevant management roles, functions and work methods and explain the functions of key management roles in the prehospital health service
• can describe how cooperating parties are organised and managed at the accident scene
• can recognise jobs with special operational challenges
• can describe what is characterised as hazardous goods and materials (CBRNE), and how to handle this in day-to-day ambulance operations
• can describe the use of risk assessment in emergency response work
• can describe how to carry out triage in mass casualty situations
• can describe the organisation of the health service in the Norwegian Armed Forces
• can explain the health service’s role in the Norwegian overall protection organisation
• can describe potential decision-making traps in operational work
• can describe recognised tactics and principles for patient management in hostile and combat environments (TCCC/TECC)
• has knowledge about the importance of appreciative communication with children, young people and their parents/guardians*
• can explain children and young people’s right to participation in decisions that concern them*
• can explain the importance of explorative approaches in cooperation with children and young people*

Skills 

The student

• can apply knowledge about laws, rules and guidelines relating to work at the accident scene and how to cooperate with other agencies
• can apply principles for management of the health service’s efforts in early phases of an accident
• can cooperate and contribute to interaction with other health resources, emergency services and partners at the accident scene
• can apply basic models for decision-making in operational work
• masters the use of digital radio in communication and interaction with relevant parties
• can plan, manage and organise the health service’s efforts at an accident
• can use knowledge about operational challenges and the use of relevant equipment
• can perform situation-based leadership
• can carry out a risk assessment and implement measures to maintain their own, patients’ and other people’s health and safety
• can act in the proper manner on suspected crime scenes
• can carry out a conversation about everyday life with children and young people*
• can have appreciative communication with parents/guardians*

General competence

The student

• can contribute to preventive emergency response work, evaluation and follow-up of own staff after critical incidents and training
• can exchange experiences and share own knowledge and skills to contribute to planning, organisation and performance of comprehensive health services
• reflect on their own role in explorative conversations with children, young people and their parent/guardians*
• understand the importance of interprofessional cooperation with children, young people and their parents/guardians*

*Learning outcomes pertaining to INTER1200

The following coursework requirements must have been approved for the student to take the exam:

Four individual assignments (3-5 pages each) comprising deriving the governing equations for a system and solving small systems of equations for low degree-of-freedom prototypes using Python codes. The assignments must include an explanation of the problem and the solution procedure. The solutions must be analyzed and correlated with analytical results when possible.

The following must have been approved in order for the student to take the exam: 

• Minimum attendance of 80% in student groups.
• Minimum attendance of 90% in simulation and skills training, including exercises

Required coursework relating to INTER1200:

• Submitted individual log. Scope: 500 words (+/- 10%). In order to write the log, the student must first attend a seminar over two days

The exam consists of two parts: One individual and one group project.

Part one: Individual project report, 20-30-page, which counts 40 % of the final grade.

Individual project includes developing a Python code for a medium sized structural system and solving for the response.

Part two: Group project report, 3-5 students per group, 30-40 page, which counts 60 % of the final grade. The project includes simulating a sophisticated system subjected to static, dynamic, or thermal loads using the commercial software ABAQUS and interpreting the results. Part one and two are complementary in the sense that in part one, students code themselves to understand the underlaying code, while in part two they use sophisticated software, ABAQUS to solve the given problem.

New/postponed exam:

In the event of a postponed examination in this course the exam may be held as an oral exam. Oral exams cannot be appealed.

Lecture notes, textbooks, opensource codes, available Python codes, YouTube online lectures

Grade scale A-F.

All exams are assessed by two examiners. At least 20% of the exam papers will be assessed by an external examiner. The external examiner’s assessment should benefit all the students.

Two internal examiners. External examiner is used periodically.