Emergency Medicine (Ballarat Health Services)

Unit Code

01554

Department/Institution Offering Unit

Emergency Department
Critical Care Division
Ballarat Health Services
Cnr Mair and Drummond St
Ballarat
Victoria 3350 Australia

web: www.bhs.org.au
in combination with the Rural Clinical School in Ballarat.

Unit Points

Research Points: 75

Coursework Points: 25

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Contacts

Unit Coordinator/s:

Dr Jaycen Cruickshank
Director of Emergency Medicine
Ballarat Health Services
Cnr Mair and Drummond St
Ballarat
Victoria 3350 Australia

tel: +44 3 5320 6455
email: jaycenc@bhs.org.au

Alternative Contact:

Mrs Denise Robinson
Secretary, Emergency Department
Ballarat Health Services
Cnr Mair and Drummond St
Ballarat
Victoria 3350 Australia

tel: +44 3 5320 6455

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Overall Objectives

• To understand the basic concepts of clinical research, and how these may apply in emergency medicine research in a regional setting.
• To understand the principles of study design, including ethical issues relating clinical research in emergency medicine.
• To implement high quality clinical research in emergency medicine by understanding the key principles of a project management framework.
• To clarify the scope of a research project and ensure that deliverables are defined and met

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Content

Coursework:The two components (each 12.5 points) are:

1. Intermediate Epidemiology and Biostatistics

2. Research and Education in Emergency Medicine. This unit involves a combination of

a) Education in emergency medicine, at a level more advanced than the Emergency Medicine component of the Undergraduate Curriculum. In Ballarat this will include 3 hours per week of formal teaching, access to resuscitation training, and web based tutorials developed locally.

b) Education in the application of research methods locally, including project management, key aspects of teamwork, and of the statistical methods, study design, and ethical issues that are relevant to the student's project.

Research: The student(s) will be based in the Emergency Department at Ballarat Health Services. Clinical Research topics relate to accurate diagnosis in the ED, for example in wrist injuries and ischaemic heart disease, use of clinical pathways, role of advanced imaging in particular CT scan, and use of web based learning.

Sample Research Topics:

Consent in the ED - implementation and evaluation

Informed consent for patients is pivotal to good patient care, but in ED it is a mixture of implied consent, verbal consent, and written consent. Our research team aims to implement a project to improve patient consent, and to evaluate the effectiveness of a more formal approach to consent in the ED. The key measures will be patient's perception of consent before and some time after the procedure. Procedures will include LP, Bier's block, and for a selection of other procedures and tests in the ED.

Diagnostic tests

Our department has undertaken research into the use of diagnostic tests in a clinical pathway, specifically into CT for scaphoid fractures. The appropriate use of tests in ED, and performance of tests in that setting, is a research area that we are continuing to explore. This research is well suited to AMS, as it will be completed on time, and has overlap with research methods, statistics, and clinical application for you, and clinicians in the future.

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Assessment Breakdown

Research Component: 75 points
Research Report (up to 7,000 words): 75%
Oral presentation of the research (20 mins): 12.5%
Supervisor Evaluation: 12.5%

Coursework Component: 25 points
Intermediate Epidemiology and Biostatistics will be assessed as per subject description.
Research in Prehospital and Emergency Medicine: One exam (1 hour, 2*15 minutes questions and 4 * 7 ½ minute questions)

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Student Numbers

Number of places available:
2