Course Title: Chiropractic Diagnosis and Practice 10

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Chiropractic Diagnosis and Practice 10

Credit Points: 12.00

Course Code	Campus	Career	School	Learning Mode	Teaching Period(s)
REHA1028	Bundoora Campus	Undergraduate	150H Health Sciences	Face-to-Face	Sem 2 2006

Course Coordinator: Dr Phillip Ebrall

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 7744

Course Coordinator Email: phillip.ebrall@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: 201.5.23D

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

To successfully complete this course, students should have the ability to:

• know and understand basic and clinical science principles underlying health care;
• apply their knowledge of diagnostic procedures;
• apply their knowledge of specified therapeutic procedures;
• develop a knowledge and understanding of basic health strategies required to produce positive health outcomes;
• build on a basis for understanding the scientific literature in manual medicine and related fields and demonstrate the ability to put this understanding to effective use;
• be information literate; locating, evaluating, managing and using a range of information;
• adopt appropriate behaviours including socially and ethnically sensitive communications skills and empathy;
• engage personally with a body of knowledge by ongoing learning, reflection and analysis;
• work independently or as part of a team;
• demonstrate consistent ethical professional behaviour; and
• understand the principles involved in due duty of care to patients.

Course Description

The second of the senior clinical Chiropractic Diagnosis and Practice subjects prepares the student for entry into private practice by reviewing the ethical and legal principles of health care practice and developing critical analysis of patient care through multiple case-presentations and extensive hours of Clinical Conference.

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

The completion of this course should lead to a graduate better prepared for full and equitable, social and professional participation in both society and a chiropractic profession which is undergoing significant change with the view being the graduate will be a positive participant in such change.

To assist the student attain the intellectual capacity to identify, appreciate, understand and apply ethical principles and legal requirements in the following professional topic areas:

Unprofessional conduct and malpractice
Medical negligence in Australia
Health care practice duties under statute
Relevant Acts for all health care providers
The Chiropractors Registration Act
Professional societies and associations
Child abuse and neglect
Sexual misconduct, abuse and sexual offences
Doctors as a witness
"Return to play" decisions in sport
The patient’s Bill of Rights and other matters
Contractural elements of professional practice

and to assist the student attain entry-level clinical competency in a range of clinical conditions typically encountered in contemporary chiropactic practise through the refinement of Clinical Decision Making skills, outcomes assessment, and evidence-based case management.

Overview of Learning Activities

Jurisprudence:

The student will gain knowledge of the various ethical and legal dimensions of chiropractic practice through directed reading and guided reflection and analysis, within a context emphasising the attitudes and values associated with a primary contact health provider to develop and report skills which allow the student to disassemble complex clinical, professional, legal, and ethical situations and construct behaviours and mechanisms to maximise risk management and patient care while minimising exposure to harm.

This learning will be primarily led by structured on-line materials supported by a class-room presence in weeks 1, 6, and 12 and an ongoing discussion board within the DLS ’classroom’.

This module requires a work allocation of about 4 hours total per week.

Clinical Conference:

The Clinical Conference module is lecture-based. There is one 2-hour lecture per week.

During the first half of the module a number of field practitioners will attend the class and present interesting cases from their clinics, covering a range of selected conditions. These cases will include the processes of Clinical Decision Making, outcomes assessment, and the preferred approach to case management. Students are expected to discuss these and other aspects of the cases with the practitioners during the class and are encouraged to apply these in their own practical context.

The field practitioners will represent a range of styles of practice management. Students are expected to use these opportunities in class to raise and discuss issues relating to their own approach to practice and the range of possible practice management options.

The second half of the module will provide the opportunity for students to present cases from their own practical experience in the RMIT Teaching Clinics. Students will be expected to form their own Problem Based Learning Group of 6 or 7 members for this purpose. Each group is required to present at least one case from a nominated range of case types.

These classes will also involve panel discussion between the members of the presenting PBL group and the members of the class.

Overview of Learning Resources

Jurisprudence:

The required text is Essentials of Law for Health Profesionals. Kim Forrester and Debra Griffiths. Sydney, Harcourt. 2001. Available from the RMIT Bookshop, Bundoora.

A highly recommended text is Complementary Medicine: Ethics and Law. Michael Weir. Brisbane, Prometheus Publications. 2000. Available from the RMIT Bookshop, Bundoora, about $36

A recommended text for Clinical Conference is Technique Systems in Chiropractic by Cooperstein R and Glegerzon BJ.

Distributed Learning System (DLS)
The DLS is the essential driver of your learning in this course.

Overview of Assessment

There are 3 assignments for the Jurisprudence module.

There are 2 written assignments, several formative assignments as well as 1 PBL presentation and 1 PBL Case Study to be written for Clinical Conference.