A team of USC Paramedic Science students has won a state-wide award for producing a scientific poster that illustrates how to recognise and treat the deadly condition sepsis.

Second-year students Mahli Burgin, Ryan Edwards, Isabella Winstanley and Jeffery Moate

claimed the $600 first prize in the best poster category of the annual KJ McPherson Education and Research Foundation awards, run by the Queensland Ambulance Service.

The students completed their poster as part of a Medical Emergencies subject at USC in which they studied the treatment and management of sepsis, a condition that kills about 5,000 Australians each year.

Their work was up against entries from Paramedic Science students from universities across Queensland.

USC Paramedic Science academic Dr Nigel Barr said this was the fourth time USC students had won this award at the annual event in Brisbane that is attended by many QAS managers.

“It’s good recognition for USC and looks great on the students’ CVs,” Dr Barr said.

“The students had to show on the poster how to identify the condition and how to manage it, all grounded in scientific evidence.”

Dr Barr said the QAS Director Clinical Quality and Patient Research requested a copy of the winning poster to hang in his office, and it will be posted on the KJ McPherson Foundation’s website.

- Gail Champion