PUAEME007 – Provide Emergency Care for Suspected Spinal Injury

Course Outline

This course is delivered using blended learning combining pre-course online learning with theoretical and practical tasks. Students are required to participate in all course elements, providing them an opportunity to practice and refine their skills prior to assessment. The course structure involves simulated real life scenarios which could appear in the community, sporting and/or workplace settings. This allows students to demonstrate application of their skills and knowledge. This course includes the following elements;

Anatomy of the spine
Mechanism of injury/signs and symptoms
Management of suspected spinal injuries
Practical scenarios involving the assessment and management of Suspected Spinal Injuries
Injury reporting
Theory Assessment

Student Suitability Statement

Sports Medicine Australia (SMA) delivers nationally recognised training that meets the requirements of the 2025 Standards for RTOs. Before enrolling in PUAEME007 – Provide Emergency Care for Suspected Spinal Injury, students should consider the following suitability criteria to ensure they are prepared to meet the course requirements.

Access Requirements

To enrol and successfully participate in this course, students must have:

An active email address to receive enrolment details, communications, and certification.
Regular access to a web browser and internet to complete any required pre-course reading or eLearning components.

Physical and Practical Requirements

This course involves the assessment and management of suspected spinal injuries in realistic environments. To demonstrate competency, students must be physically capable of:

Participating in team-based spinal immobilisation techniques using equipment such as spinal boards.
Applying spinal care procedures in simulated high-risk environments that require bending, kneeling, lifting, and coordinated movement with others.
Assisting in the safe manual handling and movement of casualties in accordance with best practice emergency care protocols.

These tasks are essential and must be demonstrated to achieve competency.

Fitness for Training

Due to the physically intensive nature of this course, students must:

Be capable of sustained physical activity, including kneeling and manual handling of patients and equipment.
Be prepared to work collaboratively in high-pressure simulation environments, reflective of real-life emergency scenarios.

If you have a condition or concern that may affect your ability to meet these requirements, please contact SMA prior to enrolment. We are happy to discuss reasonable adjustments where possible, in accordance with our Reasonable Adjustment Policy and the 2025 RTO Standards.

Prerequisites

Students must hold a current certificate in HLTAID011 – Provide First Aid. You may be asked to provide evidence prior to course commencement.

Contact and Support

Have questions about your suitability or need additional support? Please get in touch with us: [email protected]

Student Support Services

SMA is committed to ensuring all students are supported throughout their training journey. In accordance with the Standards for RTOs 2025, we offer and refer learners to a range of support services to address individual needs related to wellbeing, inclusion, LLN (Language, Literacy and Numeracy), and academic success.

Click HERE for support options to suit your needs.

Course Prerequisites

Students must hold current qualifications in one of HLTAID003 or HLTAID011 Provide First Aid (completed within 3 years)
Students must successfully complete all online learning prior to attending the face to face course. Please refer to Delivery Mode/Duration for more information on the online learning.

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Certificate

Upon successful completion of all course requirements, students will receive a Statement of Attainment for PUAEME007 within 30 days via PDF and/or hard copy, as per the Australian Skills Quality Authority regulations of successful course completion.

Entry

To enrol, students must be a minimum of 16 years of age. This ensures the student has the necessary skills to undertake training and assessment requirements.

USI

New or continuing students undertaking nationally recognised training need a Unique Student Identifier (USI) to receive a qualification/statement of attainment for this unit.

Your USI will provide you with access to an online record of your training since 1 January 2015 and allow comprehensive training transcripts to be produced. To find out more about USIs, click here. Enrolling students should enter their existing USI to proceed with enrolment.

If you do not have a USI, or want to verify your USI number, please visit the Australian Government’s USI website here (takes 3 minutes to create a USI) .

Students who do not provide a valid USI will be deemed an incomplete enrolment. Students who do not complete the enrolment process and provide a valid USI within 15 business days of the course start date, will be unenrolled.

Delivery Mode/Course Duration

This course is delivered through a combination of pre-course online learning and 2.5 hours face to face training. All online learning must be successfully completed prior to attendance at the face to face training.

Failure to complete the online learning prior to attending the face to face training places a student at a significant disadvantage. By not completing all online learning prior to attending the face to face course student’s may struggle to complete the practical assessments to the level required for an outcome of competent.

Any student who does not successfully complete the online learning prior to the face to face course does so at their own risk. If a student has not completed the online learning and fails to achieve an outcome of satisfactory for two or more practical assessments or the final theory assessment, will be deemed not yet competent and will be required to attend an additional face to face training session. This will incur additional fees.

Students will receive their access to online learning 14 days prior to the course start date. Students who enrol less than 14 days prior to the course start date will receive access no later than close of business the following business day.

Any student having difficulty completing the online learning is encouraged to contact SMA for additional support and resources.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and Credit Transfer

SMA offers both RPL and Credit Transfer pathways for this course.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is available to students who can provide sufficient evidence that they already possess the skills, knowledge, and experience outlined in the course unit. This may include formal or informal learning, work experience, or professional registration. For example, individuals holding current AHPRA registration as a medical practitioner, nurse, or physiotherapist may be eligible for RPL.
Credit Transfer is available to students who have previously completed equivalent units of competency through another Registered Training Organisation (RTO). Verified transcripts or statements of attainment will be required to assess eligibility.

How to Apply

Read the RPL and Credit Transfer Policy
Complete the Application form and attach your supporting evidence.
- RPL: e.g. CV, job descriptions, employer reports, portfolio of work.
- Credit Transfer: certified copies of Statements of Attainment or transcripts.
Submit your application to [email protected] for assessment.

Assessment

Students will be assessed individually and in group activities. Students need to display competency in all assessable elements to successfully complete the unit package PUAEME007 accreditation. Assessment is conducted using the following methods:

Scenario assessment– Students are required to demonstrate the essential skills and knowledge to respond to a range of first aid or emergency situations, including scenarios aligned with the performance criteria required for this program.
Recognition of Suspected Spinal Injury through casualty assessment procedures– Students will recognise anatomy, mechanism of injury and the signs and symptoms of the casualty as per Australian Resuscitation Council (ARC) Guidelines.
Demonstration of Suspected Spinal Injury Management techniques– Students are required to demonstrate, individually and within a group, competency in several Suspected Spinal Injury scenarios involving conscious and unconscious casualties.
Theory Assessment – Students must complete an online theory assessment with a 100% pass rate required.

Course Resources

The following learning resources are provided to students during class and face-to-face sessions:

Online Learning, including a downloadable E-Book.
PowerPoint presentation that is interactive, and customised to include real-life suspected spinal injury scenarios
Equipment appropriate for the management and transportation of suspected spinal injuries
Workplace injury, trauma and/or illness record, or other appropriate workplace incident report form for written reports.

Special Needs and LLN Reasonable Adjustment

Sports Medicine Australia recognises that students participating in its training courses may have special needs. These may include but are not limited to students with language, literacy and/or numeracy problems, or disabilities. Students with special needs should contact us prior to enrolment to discuss their needs.

Behaviour Expectations

SMA endeavours to provide a learning environment which is supportive of group and individual learning. To achieve this, support is required from all students, presenters and course convenors. It is therefore expected that students will behave in a manner which is respectful of fellow students and Sports Medicine Australia staff.