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Example of how to structure Assessment 1 I’m going to focus on burns in young children (toddlers) because that was the example I used when answering a couple of discussion posts.

Introduction

My introduction would state the focus of my paper and what this paper will cover.

This is also a chance for you to make clear what the parameters are – for example, making clear if you are only focusing on Tasmania or NSW, or discussing an issue in a global context.

Media report

This media report is taken from a story published online by NBC, an American cable news organisation.

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/baby-scalded-hot-water-heater-lawsuit-arleta-converted- garage/2465670/

(Note that it doesn’t matter that this is an American story – it does not have to be Australian news)

Question

How can we prevent burn injuries to young children in the home?

(Note that the media report is about compensation paid to the family, but my question has nothing to do with injury compensation. I am using this media report because it is about burn injury in a young child and that is the topic I am interested in, but I choose the focus for my question)

Why is this an issue?

In this section, I need to establish why this is a problem, with reference to child development and based on data and/or evidence.

I’d probably start by talking about why burn injuries are more likely to occur in young children linked to development. I’d be discussing the fact that toddlers are mobile and like to mimic what adults are doing, but don’t have the cognitive ability to understand the risks associated with hot liquids for example. In other words, toddlers are physically able to take risks, but not cognitively advanced enough to protect themselves from those risks.

My next approach would be to get data on the prevalence of burn injuries in young children and where these injuries occur, particularly getting information about burn injuries occurring in the

home. The best places to get data for this section would be government sites like the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare or other sites such as Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand (BRANZ) or Kidsafe (Child Accident Prevention Foundation of Australia).

I might include information about numbers of children admitted to hospital, financial cost to the health system of treating burn injuries, provide evidence about how stressful burn injuries are to families and the ongoing impact on the child. I would be able to find data to support the first two points, but would probably need to use research evidence to support the last two points.

What can be done to address it?

I might start this section by a general explanation (supported by references) about why strategies aimed at preventing burn injury in toddlers take a risk avoidance approach (to prevent the risk occurring). This links to the cognitive development of the young child and their ability to grasp concepts like risk, harm, hot , cold etc – at this age we just take the risk away as much as possible while the child continues to learn about their world and how to keep themselves safe.

Note that this approach is different to how we approach it with an older child to warn them about danger at a level they can understand. For example, we teach older children that they should not stand too close to a fire or play with matches – in younger children we just make sure they cannot reach the matches at all.

I would then identify one or two strategies that could be used to remove the risk of burns for example, lowering the temperature of the hot water as it comes out of the hot water cylinder. I’d base this discussion on the highest possible level of evidence such as evidence informed clinical practice guidelines, systematic review/s etc, recommendations from reputable organisations such as Kidsafe.

The level of evidence available depends on the topic. If there is limited evidence available (eg. this is a new strategy that is being trialled and there is not a lot of evidence about it yet) then it is important to state this and demonstrate your understanding of levels of evidence.

You do not need to critically appraise the evidence – just describe and discuss.

Please note: Because this topic has been comprehensively explained in this example, this topic cannot be used for the assessment task