Healthcare in Remote and Extreme Environments

This fully online unit was designed to complement Operational Aspects of Healthcare in Remote and Extreme Environments. We look at cold, high altitude, desert, maritime, underwater and aerospace as the five key extreme environments, though given the origin of this program it won’t surprise you to discover that we focus more on “cold” and “high” than we do on the others.

We start with the challenges of living and working in each environment, and then look at relevant physics and physiology in that environment (you can’t care for people effectively if you don’t start with that) before moving on to patho-physiology and clinical care of common problems. As always the focus is that of the clinician in a remote site providing frontline care.

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This fully online and predominantly non-clinical unit provides a foundation for designing and running a healthcare facility in an austere setting. It looks at some concepts and that underpin how healthcare is delivered differently and uses case studies that showcase solutions to some of the difficulties faced.

The unit starts by considering the concepts of “remote” and “extreme” and the types of populations to be found there. It then moves on to look at topics such as leadership, management and teamwork, disaster planning, evacuation, telehealth, and point of care testing, before finishing with additional non-medical knowledge and skills to allow you to thrive in extreme environments.

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This unit focuses on the key skills and knowledge you need to deliver safe, high-quality healthcare in different community settings. You’ll explore legal and ethical responsibilities, advanced diagnostic reasoning, and clinical decision-making models, all grounded in evidence-based practice. By building on your existing skills, the unit helps you understand how to assess patients, make effective decisions, and work with teams to provide the best possible care.

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Explore how health systems worldwide address complex challenges to improve equity, quality, efficiency, and sustainability in health and social care. This unit takes a systems-thinking approach, examining structures, financing, and resilience while emphasising critical analysis. You'll compare global health systems and assess their relevance to Australia, gaining insights into the role of context in shaping healthcare solutions. By the end, you'll be equipped to evaluate and contribute to improving health systems for diverse populations.

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Gain a comprehensive introduction to the principles and practice of epidemiology, focusing on how data informs health care and human services. This unit explores disease distribution, study design, causality, and critical appraisal of research, with real-world applications to issues like mental health, cancer screening, and substance addiction. You'll develop essential skills in data analysis, scientific evaluation, and critical thinking, preparing you for research, health planning, and policy development.

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Discover the scope of modern public health and its role in addressing the social, political, and economic factors shaping health outcomes. This unit explores the social and economic determinants of health, equity in health standards, and strategies for empowering communities to tackle health challenges. Through theoretical and practical learning, you'll critically examine health outcomes across diverse communities and gain insights into effective public health practices.

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Learn how systems thinking helps us tackle complex public health challenges by understanding the connections between different factors affecting health. This unit introduces key concepts and practical methods for applying systems thinking to improve population health, from local to global contexts. You’ll explore how these methods can inform policy decisions and contribute to solving complex health issues across various disciplines in the health and community sectors.

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Gain foundational knowledge and skills in leadership within health and human service (H&HS) organisations. This unit explores leadership theories and practical techniques for leading yourself, teams, and organisations, with a focus on the H&HS sector. It prepares you for further leadership development in the program.

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This unit covers governance, clinical governance, and risk management in health and human services. You’ll learn to implement frameworks that ensure safety, quality, and risk management in care delivery. Through practical applications, you'll develop leadership skills to improve outcomes, foster a culture of safety, and drive continuous improvement in your workplace.

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This unit equips you with essential skills for healthcare practice in remote and extreme environments, where you’ll perform tasks typically handled by other healthcare professionals. You’ll gain practical knowledge in areas such as plain radiography, point-of-care ultrasound, regional anaesthesia, physiotherapy, and dentistry.

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This unit is an intensive, residential course providing practical skills to support the online units offered in the program. It commences with a focus on basic knowledge and skills in the following domains: expedition preparation and planning, wilderness emergency medical response, search and rescue, remote area communications, navigation, steep terrain rescue, use of stretchers and splints, and cold injury and high-altitude medicine.

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Aerospace medicine is a growing sub-specialty. This unit is developed in collaboration with the Australasian Society of Aero-space Medicine (ASAM), focusing on the environmental challenges and technological adaptations for survival in space. It explores the physiological and patho-physiological responses of humans in space, and applies principles of space analogue research to inform the development of solutions to long-term space travel.

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This unit equips you with the skills to respond to communicable disease outbreaks and public health incidents. You’ll learn outbreak investigation steps, data assessment, risk communication, and control interventions. The unit uses local examples and encourages drawing on your own workplace experiences. It’s available online, with optional workshops in Semester 2 for practical learning.

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In this online unit, you’ll learn about the factors that characterise an environment as extreme. You’ll consider how individuals and groups can manage distress in these environments and enhance resilience. Extreme environments considered include Antarctica, outer space, military operations, disaster sites, and cults. In this unit, you will examine how intrapersonal, interpersonal, and organisational factors influence the challenges posed by extreme environments.

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