Paramedic sciences

School of Clinical Sciences

Leading excellence and innovation in clinical sciences research and education, to develop future health professionals and contribute to better health outcomes.

Paramedic sciences

Paramedics are registered health professionals who provide emergency and non-emergency care for sick and injured people in highly varied out-of-hospital environments. They work for state-based ambulance services and private companies (e.g. mines/industry, event medical services and clinics), and enjoy careers in health service management, public health, or emergency and disaster management.

Being a paramedic involves interacting with people at some of the most vulnerable times in their life. They engage with a diverse range of people in the community across their lifespan (babies, children, adolescents, adults and the elderly). Paramedics need to be great communicators, think on their feet to solve complex clinical problems, be culturally safe, compassionate, professional and caring. They need to have a good understanding of how the body works (anatomy and physiology) as well as injury and disease processes (pathophysiology) and be up to date with current research to appropriately manage cases.

Our Bachelor of Paramedic Science and Bachelor of Nursing/Bachelor of Paramedic Science courses will provide you with the evidence-based knowledge, clinical skills and capabilities to enter the Paramedicine profession both in Australia and overseas. You will learn from highly experienced, registered paramedics and health professionals who have real world experience with state-based and overseas ambulance services, and the Australian Defence Force. Your studies include contributions from experienced on-road paramedics who assist with teaching the knowledge, skills and procedures essential for good paramedic management.

QUT has the longest running paramedic degree program in Queensland.

Key learning assets

The QUT paramedic sciences program has designated simulation and skills facilities, including:

High fidelity manikins
Contemporary paramedic equipment similar to that used by ambulance services
Mock ambulance pods
Confined space simulations involving injuries caused by compressive forces (crush injuries) and elderly people who have fallen in the bathroom
Medical Engineering Research Facility (MERF) for anatomical skills training

Students may also pursue road crash rescue simulation training with Queensland Ambulance and Queensland Fire and Rescue, and can volunteer to take part in pre-deployment and health related simulated activities with the Australian Defence Force.

Paramedic clinical placements

Our Bachelor of Paramedic Science course includes three clinical placements with the Queensland Ambulance Service where students undertake shift work as part of an operational paramedic crew in metropolitan or rural sites. Placements are each six weeks in length and include both day and night shifts.

Students also have access to other domestic and international placements and study tours. These highly competitive activities have included past placements in:

Indigenous communities, such as Murgon and Cherbourg
Mt Buller and New Zealand ski resort injury clinic operated by Medical Rescue
Canada, the USA, Vanuatu and the UK

Practice through placements

'QUT's Bachelor of Paramedic Science offers three six-week placements with the option to travel overseas in your third year. The domestic placements serve as long 'job interviews' and help you to build industry connections while working as part of an ambulance crew to cultivate and consolidate what you've learned in class. I gained experience with pre-hospital births, high-velocity trauma, and multi-system medical cases. In my final year I had the privilege of travelling to Washington USA, for a three-week placement, where I experienced the emergency medical services system across various cities. I did ride-alongs with ambulance services, fire services, and even helicopter and fixed wing flight care services.'

Jodey Brand

International opportunities

'Living and working in London is awesome, and I love how close Europe is. Being a paramedic is challenging and QUT helped me get here. With real world courses and hands-on training - that made a real difference.'

Daniel Pincus

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QUT and Australian Army joint exercise

'What I love about studying this degree is we get lots of hands on experience right from day one. These learning opportunities equip us with the hands-on skills that we need to be job ready.'

Abbey

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Annual Trauma Week

Every year for over ten years running, QUT paramedic students converge on Whyte Island to work with the Queensland Ambulance Service and Queensland Fire and Rescue participating in crash rescue simulations. Through this hands-on, collaborative training, students apply the skills they have developed at QUT to scenarios that they are likely to face as paramedics in the real world.

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Real-world scenarios

Paramedics work in diverse settings and often have to make quick decisions about patient care. One situation they may face is working with assistance dogs when their owner is injured or in need of emergency help. Assistance dogs are specially trained to help people in their daily lives with a wide range of issues, from visual and hearing impairment to adults and children with autism and those experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder, so it is vital that QUT paramedic students build capability in working in situations where assistance dogs are present.

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