Undergraduate · Nursing & Health Sciences
Bachelor of Paramedicine
Australian Catholic University, Multi-campus (7 campuses, 5 states), Australia
About this program
ACU's paramedicine degree runs across three years and puts students into ambulance and simulated-emergency settings early rather than saving clinical work for the final year. Five clinical practice units are spread through the course, adding up to a minimum of 360 hours in acute care environments, and before anyone can start placement with an Australian ambulance service they have to pass a medical and physical capacity test, a reminder that this is a physically demanding job, not just an academic one.
The teaching leans on scenario-based learning: simulated emergencies, standardised patients, and debriefs that force students to justify their clinical decisions rather than just execute a checklist. That matters because paramedic assessment is judgment under time pressure, often with incomplete information, and ACU builds units specifically around ethical and culturally informed decision-making alongside the clinical assessment skills.
Graduates register with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) once the Paramedicine Board opens registration pathways for a given cohort, and most go on to work for state ambulance services, though some move into event health, remote-area health, or defence force roles. It suits people who want a hands-on clinical career without the multi-year hospital-based training of nursing or medicine, but who are comfortable with shift work and unpredictable, sometimes confronting, callouts.
Cost & duration
English test scores
Course structure
5 terms of coursework
- Year 1: Foundations of Paramedicine, Human Anatomy and Physiology, Foundations of Clinical Practice, Introduction to Pharmacology, first clinical practice unit
- Year 1-2: Pathophysiology, Emergency Care Principles, Trauma and Medical Emergencies, second and third clinical practice units in acute care settings
- Year 2: Mental Health and Complex Presentations, Paediatric and Obstetric Emergencies, Clinical Reasoning and Decision Making
- Year 3: Critical Care Paramedicine, Multi-Casualty and Disaster Management, Professional Practice and Ethics, fourth and fifth clinical practice units (minimum 360 hours total)
- Throughout: medical and physical capacity testing prior to ambulance service placement
- capstone integration of clinical assessment and decision-making skills
Admissions
Year 12 completion, ATAR approx 75 or equivalent