PARA605 - Chronic Illness: Epidemiology and Clinical Interventions

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

NIL

Unit rationale, description and aim

As the Australian population ages, issues continue to manifest in balancing the increasing burden of chronic disease with developing primary healthcare. With areas of the health care infrastructure struggling to cope with population needs, paramedics are more frequently attending to patients presenting with chronic illness. In response to this change in population needs, Paramedics are required to develop an understanding of changing demographics and associated health care trends in addition to improving clinical knowledge of a range of chronic illness. Many of these areas are not addressed by current models of paramedic education aimed at management of what are popularly understood as ‘emergency’ patients. This unit aims to expand upon the foundation knowledge of chronic disease presentation and consider alternate models of paramedic practice in order to serve the needs of contemporary Australian communities.