The ability to communicate your knowledge in oral and written formats is a core academic
skill set you should acquire whilst at University.
Learning Outcomes
Successful completion of this assignment should allow you to:
– research the current biomedical literature to obtain information from peer-reviewed
journal articles on specific health-related risk factors and associated disease states,
– structure a written article to effectively convey the information in an organised and
logical fashion,
– critically review the information and develop balanced and well supported viewpoints
on key issues relevant to the risk factors and conditions investigated,
– broaden your understanding of the relationships between body systems and the
development of pathology/pathophysiology
Assignment Requirements
“What will kill you first: smoking, a high fat diet or alcohol abuse?”
The essay should be structured to include information on the following areas:
General Background/Introduction: Setting the scene
May include;
– Overview of key/common health-related risk factors/mechanisms of disease
– Epidemiology/prevalence of health issues related to smoking, a high fat diet and
alcohol-abuse
– Establish the whole patient context (ie consider interactions between risk factors)
Pathophysiology and pathology: Major content (can be more than one section)
May include;
– Description of the impact smoking, a high fat diet and/or alcohol-abuse has on the
relevant body system/s
– Mechanisms responsible for the development of pathology/pathophysiology
– Key manifestations/clinical characteristics of major pathologies/pathophysiologies
– Critical review/comparison of the overall impact each risk factor has on the
development of pathology/pathophysiology
Pre-hospital/Medical Management: Major content (can be more than one section)
May include;
– Discussion of common patient presentations/conditions and their diagnosis (ie
emergency and non-emergency) encountered by paramedics that result from, or
are influenced by smoking, a high fat diet and alcohol-abuse
– Current pre-hospital management practices/therapies for these risk-factor
related presentations/conditions – analysis of benefits and limitations
– Common complications associated with these presentations/conditions that have a
significant impact on patient morbidity/mortality
– Critical review/comparison of the overall impact each risk factor has on
morbidity/mortality
Summary and Conclusions: Discussion section
– Draw your conclusion and support your argument with a concise summary of key
points/issues discussed
– Relate points/issues to the overall patient context (ie consider interactions)
– No development of new issues/ideas or repetition of information – conclusions
made should be supported by the information provided in the body of the essay (ie
you can refer to it, but don’t repeat the detail)
Big Hint….before you start to write, develop an essay content plan.
The purpose of the Content Plan is to help you structure your written article and make
sure you provide relevant information in a logical sequence. Planning what you want to
write about and the order you present the information is the critical first step in ensuring
you submit an informative, well written piece of work.
BEFORE you prepare the Content Plan, it is CRUCIAL that you have a good
understanding of the subject material and have identified the key areas you think you
need to discuss. To do this EFFECTIVELY, you will need to have PERFORMED YOUR
INITIAL LITERATURE SEARCH and obtained the key guiding references you will use for
your article.
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The Content Plan should comprise MAJOR HEADINGS and SUB-HEADINGS with DOTPOINTS
of the key items you plan to discuss included under each sub-heading. This plan
may change as you develop your essay but once you have it finalised, convert it into a
one-page table of contents that is identical to the major headings and subheadings
you have used in your essay. Once you have your plan, then you can work on each
section one at a time knowing what information needs to go into it, and what information
you will cover somewhere else. This will help you limit repetition but also help you create
links between relevant bits of information.
Literature Searching
It is expected that most of the information you use for this assignment will come from journal
articles. It is recommended you find the journal articles you need by searching the United
States National Library of Medicine database using the PubMed search engine.
The link to PubMed is: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
Before you start using PubMed, it is strongly recommended you visit the PubMed Tutorial
page: www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/pubmed_tutorial/m2017.html
To Get You Started – here are some suggested searches:
high fat diet and metabolic syndrome and mortality
smoking effects and “pulmonary disease” and mortality
“alcohol consumption” and mortality
Handy Hints:
– putting the search items between “parenthesis” will limit the search i.e. “pulmonary
disease” and “alcohol consumption”
– check out the “review” and “free full text” tabs on the right hand side of the results
page
o the “review” tab will list those articles identified as reviews – these are good
starting points
o the “free full text” tab will list those articles you can link to from PubMed and
obtain for free
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Marking Rubric
Assessable items
CONTENT
Uses evidence to set the correct context (epidemiology, mechanisms
of disease)
Accurately describes impact of each risk factor and contextualises
their role in pathology/pathophysiology
Comprehensively describes pathophysiology/pathology involved and
underlying mechanisms responsible
Identifies key clinical manifestations and describes relevant clinical
characteristics and diagnosis of risk-factor related conditions
encountered in the pre-hospital setting
Discusses common complications associated with risk-factor related
conditions that impact patient morbidity/mortality or areas of debate
(can be focussed around a specific clinical aspect linked to a riskfactor)
Accurately describes current management practices and/or therapies
and provides an informed discussion of their benefits and limitations
Provides a succinct summary section drawing a clear conclusion and
highlighting 2-3 key points supporting the conclusion (based on
evidence presented.
Critically reviews information and correctly identifies knowledge gaps
Higher marks will be awarded for a comprehensive exploration of the
topic, with consistently sound critical evaluation of concepts and
personal synthesis of issues.
STRUCTURE
Develops a sound and informative table of contents
Main points clearly identified, discussed in a logical and sequential
manner and directly related to the table of contents
Paragraphs and sentences are well structured and linked in terms of
context and information content. Appropriate sentence length used
with clear concept development and supporting detail provided with
minimal repetition
Clear development of themes and/or discussion “arguments” based on
critical review of the literature
Diagrams and figures used effectively to support text
PRESENTATION 5
Well set out; clear, easy to read style.
Grammatical and spelling accuracy.
EVIDENCE OF RESEARCH
Researched material is well synthesised into content, cited correctly
and accurate details provided in a reference list conforming to AuthorDate
(Harvard) System.
Extensive use of primary references supporting critical evaluation of
concepts and personal synthesis of issues, areas of debate; limited use
of text books (no web sites)
