BSc in Remote Paramedic Practice
The BSc Remote Paramedic Practice, developed by the College of Remote and Offshore Medicine (CoROM), is a pioneering undergraduate degree designed specifically for clinical practice in remote, resource-limited, and austere environments.
As global demand grows for highly skilled practitioners capable of operating beyond traditional healthcare settings, this programme prepares graduates for roles in expedition medicine, remote and rural healthcare systems, offshore and maritime industries, humanitarian missions, and security environments.
The curriculum integrates paramedic science, emergency and critical care principles, and austere medicine, equipping students with the knowledge, clinical reasoning, and adaptability required to deliver high-quality care where resources are constrained and decision-making is critical.
The programme is delivered through a blended learning model, combining asynchronous online study with face-to-face classroom-based skills training and supervised clinical placements. This flexible structure allows students to progress academically while developing essential hands-on competencies and real-world clinical experience under expert supervision.
Throughout the programme, students develop:
- Advanced patient assessment and clinical decision-making skills
- The ability to manage medical emergencies with limited equipment and support
- Competence in risk assessment, evacuation planning, and operational medicine
- A resilient, problem-solving mindset essential for working in challenging and unpredictable environments
CoROM also recognises prior learning and professional experience. Applications through Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) are considered, enabling experienced practitioners to access the programme or gain credit towards the qualification where appropriate.
Graduates of this programme emerge as versatile, confident, and highly employable practitioners, capable of delivering safe and effective care across a wide spectrum of settings – from urban prehospital systems to the most remote corners of the world.
Year 1 Modules
COMPULSORY
This module provides the knowledge and skills needed to provide Basic Life Support medical assessment and treatment for casualties found in remote and austere environments. Content areas include: airway management, history taking, techniques of the physical examination, patient assessment, clinical decision making, communications, documentation and assessment-based management.
Course Specifications:
This module includes human anatomy, pathophysiology and microbiology. It gives a fundamental understanding of human biology and the structure and function of the human body. The pathophysiology section provides case-based learning of human pathology. Microbiology provides a good understanding of the diseases and processes applications for the second-year modules in tropical and austere medicine.
Course Specifications:
This module focuses on the basic concepts, skills and principles that are required for a fundamental safe practice for the remote paramedic. It uses an evidence-based approach to describe and demonstrate safe, professional practice in the remote clinical setting. It will introduce direct and indirect factors that influence patient care. It covers how relationships between health care professionals and casualties can be enhanced through effective communication, best practice medical skills and thinking outside of the box.
Course Specifications:
This module provides hands-on skills and case-based learning that builds on the concepts found in RPP103. The three-week module is a comprehensive introduction to the paramedic profession and the practice of advanced medical skills in the remote prehospital environment. Through a variety of didactic and clinical experiences, students will gain an understanding of the roles and responsibilities of the remote paramedic practice. The module strongly emphasises developing an evidence-based, assessment-based approach to casualty care that leads to appropriate treatment and evacuation of the critical casualty. The classroom location is Pretty Bay, Malta.
Course Specifications:
This compulsory module provides hands-on clinical experience to practice and perfects the skills learned in RPP104. The 375 hours of clinical placement are conducted under the direct supervision of a medical doctor or advanced practitioner.
Course Specifications:
Year 2 Modules
COMPULSORY
Known as TTEMS, this compulsory module provides didactic and hands-on classroom-based learning that covers wilderness medicine, tropical medicine, expedition medicine and travel medicine. The module was based on disease and non-battle injury (DNBI) research found in the review of recent expeditions and military deployments. It focuses on the top twenty injuries and ailments found in remote clinics worldwide. The module culminates with a prolonged field care exercise. The classroom location is Pretty Bay, Malta.
Course Specifications:
ELECTIVE
This module provides didactic and hands-on classroom-based learning that covers the remote and austere medical skills needed for the advanced practitioner. It covers minor surgical skills, and austere laboratory clinical diagnosis and culminates with a prolonged field care exercise. The classroom location is Pretty Bay, Malta.
Course Specifications:
ELECTIVE
Known as ICARE, this module focuses on the basic concepts, skills and principles that are required to assess and treat the critical casualty. The course covers haemodynamic monitoring, critical care monitoring, advanced concepts of shock, and the treatment of burns in remote environments and prepares the student for the American board certification as a Critical Care Paramedic. The classroom location is Pretty Bay, Malta.
Optional certification: Flight Paramedic (FP-C) or Critical Care Paramedic (CCP-C) accredited by International Board of Specialty Certification (www.IBSCertifications.org)
Course Specifications:
This compulsory module is designed to give students the skills required to manage a range of minor injuries and emergencies encountered in remote and austere environments. Common injuries have been identified from area-specific literature and the experience of the teaching faculty working in remote and austere environments.
Course Specifications:
ELECTIVE
This module will cover the fundamental topics regarding the presentation, diagnosis and initial management of the casualty suffering from burns, specifically for the healthcare provider working in remote, austere and resource-limited environments.
ELECTIVE
This module introduces the fundamental topics for assessing and managing pain, specifically in remote, austere and resource-limited environments, focusing on general, regional, pain management, and sedation anaesthesia concepts. Additional topics include: airway management techniques, positioning, and an introduction to anaesthetic pharmacology are emphasized. Anaesthetic management strategies for patients with common diseases and perioperative problems are examined. Upon course completion, students should be able to demonstrate prehospital pain management and sedation strategies.
ELECTIVEÂ
This module introduces basic clinical laboratory techniques, laboratory safety, care and use of basic laboratory equipment and setting up a small clinical laboratory in a remote, austere and resource-limited environment.
This compulsory module covers the top twenty injuries and ailments seen by healthcare professionals working in remote, austere, and resource-limited environments.
ELECTIVE
This elective module introduces the foundational concepts of the practice of healthcare and the knowledge base required to work in wilderness and expedition medicine.
COMPULSORY
This module aims to build on the concepts of assessing and managing a patient in the remote out-of-hospital environment found in RPP105. It will provide students with advanced knowledge, understanding and skills to undertake preliminary patient assessment and treatment and will introduce them to the range of management options available for paramedics within a defined range of situations. This knowledge, and the skills gained during the module, will directly assist them in preparing for their placement modules.
Year 3 Modules
ELECTIVE
This module presents the fundamental skills and knowledge the remote healthcare practitioner needs to assess and treat the unwell traveler and the skills needed to assess and mitigate travel risks. It also covers health and safety in the remote workplace, including water, food, and workplace safety.
ELECTIVE
This elective module builds on the foundational knowledge from RPP301. It discusses the role of the special operations medic whilst providing medical care in remote, austere and resource-limited environments.
ELECTIVE
This module combines the knowledge and skills needed for disaster medical response and public health requirements found in remote and austere environments.
ELECTIVE
This advanced module will build on the fundamental learning of tropical medicine from RPP201 and RPP202. It will cover advanced concepts in tropical diseases, including a profound understanding of the pathophysiology and laboratory diagnosis of tropical diseases and advanced assessments and treatments for these issues.
ELECTIVE
This module introduces the foundational concepts of dive and marine medicine, including the medical observation of divers, diseases and organisms specific to the marine environment, and the management of medical conditions and emergency situations found whilst diving or during marine operations.
ELECTIVE
This elective module discusses the various conditions found whilst ascending to altitude. The physics of altitude medicine are discussed, along with the assessment and treatment of altitude sickness. Optimal management is discussed, along with strategies that can be used to prevent altitude sickness.
ELECTIVE
This elective module provides foundational knowledge on the recovery of the critical casualty by air specifically focusing in the extreme altitude environments. Additionally, the module will focus on the clinical, aviation and logistics issues that ensure safe and effective retrieval missions.
COMPULSORY
This module builds on the foundational knowledge learned in modules RPP103 and RPP104. Emphasis is placed on applying advanced concepts for the use of pharmaceuticals for the healthcare practitioner working in remote, austere and resource-limited environments.
ELECTIVE
This elective module will allow you to develop the fundamental skills in the use of ultrasound in resource-limited environments, including; patient care and communication, technical skills and the scanning and use of equipment. The classroom location is Pretty Bay, Malta.
COMPULSORY
This module is designed to engage the student in entry-level research in an associated field. The purpose of this module is to introduce the student to research methodologies, including but not limited to sourcing of academic information, peer-reviewing articles, assessing bias, impact factors, the applicability of the research to their academic research and the importance of referencing in relation to plagiarism.
COMPULSORY
This module is designed to give students the skills required to prepare and submit for presentation a minor dissertation on a subject pertaining to pre-hospital, austere or remote medical or trauma care. This module is designed to engage the student in entry-level research in an associated field. The minor dissertation will be conducted under the supervision of an experienced, published academic supervisor. It will also serve to introduce the student to academic writing, and referencing, and to secure a knowledge of the rigours of academic writing and plagiarism.
COMPULSORY
This compulsory module is designed to give students the skills required to prepare and submit for presentation a minor dissertation on a subject pertaining to pre-hospital, austere or remote medical or trauma care.
This module is designed to engage the student in entry-level research in an associated field. The minor dissertation will be conducted under the supervision of an experienced, published academic supervisor. It will also serve to introduce the student to academic writing and referencing and to secure a knowledge of the rigours of academic writing and plagiarism.
- MQF: Level 6
- Accreditation: Malta Further and Higher Education Authority
- Total Learning hours: 4500
- Credits: 180
- Course Delivery: Online & On Campus
- Programme Length: 36 Months Full-time - 60 Months Part-time
- Qualification: Bachelor of Science Remote Paramedic Practice
Required Modules
RPP101, RPP102, RRP103, RPP104, RPP105, RPP201, RPP204, RPP208, RPP210, RPP308, RPP310, RPP311, RPP312
INSTRUCTORS
Dr. Tom Mallinson
Tim Cranton
Vish Rajan
Entry Requirements
Maths/Numeracy:
GCSE Maths at Grade C
Functional skills Maths Level 2
Key skills application Level 3
English/Literacy:
GCSE English Grade C
Functional skills English Level 2
Key skills communication Level 3
Adult literacy Level 2
Non-Native English Speaking Applicants:
If English is not your first language, you must have an International English
Language Testing System (IELTS) score of 7 or more.
Additional Requirements:
Aged 18 years or over at the start of the course, all vaccines must be up-to-date
Must be fit to work in the healthcare setting.
CoROM Podcast Channel
The College releases a new podcast each Friday discussing wilderness medicine, austere healthcare and emergency medicine. We have four presenters including an MD PhD cardiologist, COL(ret) anaesthetist burns and pain specialist, a critical care paramedic and an offshore medic.
Earn CPD Credits
You can earn free Continuing Professional Development credits by listening to the CoROM podcasts and taking a short quiz on the content. Only current Members of the College will be eligible to sit these quizzes and earn CPD credit.
Listen To 3rd Year Graduate Discuss The BSc RPP Programme
CREDITS: 180 HOURS