General Information - Department of Community Emergency Health and Paramedic Practice

Department Overview

Ambulance Paramedic education and training in Victoria has been conducted for the past 30 years by the Ambulance Officers' Training Centre (AOTC) previously located in Queens Road, Melbourne. Monash University , Faculty of Medicine has now been contracted by the State Government to provide the necessary education programs.

To meet these contractual responsibilities, the University Council created the Monash University Centre for Ambulance and Paramedic Studies (MUCAPS) in June 1998. This new Centre is located in a purpose-built building on the Peninsula Campus of Monash University at Frankston.

The Director is responsible for the academic and administrative activities of the Centre and reports directly to the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. This effectively establishes the Centre with departmental status within the faculty. The inaugural Director of the Centre, Professor Frank Archer, was appointed in May, 1999. The Director has a number or roles outside the Centre, e.g. with a number of international, national and local committees and consultancies.

The core business of MUCAPS will be the provision of education and training services to meet the needs of Ambulance Service Victoria and providers of private patient transport services. A feature of the new Centre is the mandate to develop a research program in prehospital care. It will continue to run a Public Education Unit which will be expanded as a Professional Development Unit and will continue to contribute to the teaching of first aid within the Faculty of Medicine. The Centre will use teaching facilities on the Peninsula Campus, at other Monash locations, in a number of teaching hospitals throughout Metropolitan and country Victoria, as well as both the Metropolitan Ambulance Service and Rural Ambulance Victoria.

A strong network with other similar centres in Australia and overseas already exists. It is expected that these national and international networks will be consolidated and students will be attracted from overseas.

This exciting development provides many challenges to the staff and students of MUCAPS. The initial objective is to develop the Centre as a comprehensive, integrated and effective centre of research, education and learning, professional development, and community service, for the benefit of its students, the industry and the community. The vision is to be recognised as a national and international Centre of Excellence in ambulance paramedic education and research.

The Centre will become fully engaged with both the profession and the industry, developing innovative, student-centred programs using flexible delivery modes to meet the professional and social needs of its students. The Centre will develop an environment that enriches and will be enriched by, each individual member of staff and student as they pass through the Centre.

The Centre's name was changed in June 2006 to the Department of Community Emergency Health and Paramedic Practice to better reflect the future direction of education.