EMS 292 - Critical Care Paramedicine

Description: Capstone critical care paramedicine experience to facilitate the synthesis of standard of care and expanded scope of practice with comprehensive assessment, diagnostic technology, patient advocacy, and ethical and professional behaviors. Includes practice in patient-centered evidence-based paramedicine in the clinical, out of hospital, and interfacility transport settings.

Prerequisites: Program Admission.

Credits: 8
Lecture: 8
Lab: 0

Course Content:

1. Critical care paramedic standard of care and expanded scope of practice: ethical and professional behaviors, patient advocacy, and critical care setting (out of hospital, clinical, and interfacility environments)
2. Effective communication and decision-making in critical care team dynamics
3. Paramedics' roles and responsibilities in medical and legal issues
4. Safety and survival strategies in critical care paramedicine
5. Principles of flight physiology: the atmosphere and gas laws, pressurized and non-pressurized aircraft, factors of the physiologic stressors of flight, and gas disorders
6. Equipment and diagnostic technology: laboratory analysis and diagnostic studies
7. Comprehensive patient assessment: pharmacology and differential diagnosis
8. Patient management with expanded scope of practice: implementation of management plan utilizing health information technology

 
Learning Outcomes:

1. Explain the standard of care and expanded scope of practice in critical care settings. (1, 2)
2. Demonstrate ethical and professional behaviors consistent with a critical care paramedic's expanded scope of practice. (1, 2)
3. Describe effective communication and decision-making factors in critical care team dynamics. (1, 2)
4. Describe the paramedic's roles and responsibilities in medical and legal issues. (3)
5. Apply safety and survival strategies in critical care paramedicine. (4)
6. Apply principles of flight physiology. (5)
7. Integrate the pathophysiological significance of comprehensive assessment findings to manage critical care and high-risk patients. (7)
8. Synthesize critical care paramedicine standard of care and expanded scope of practice to perform comprehensive patient assessment. (1-5, 7)
9. Utilize diagnostic technology and resources to interpret lab values of critical care and high-risk patients. (6)
10. Integrate pathophysiologic principles, epidemiology, and comprehensive patient assessment findings to formulate a differential diagnosis and implement a management plan according to critical care paramedicine expanded scope of practice for patients in a critical care setting. (1-8)
11. Demonstrate patient advocacy while utilizing types of health information technology. (1-8)