Nursing (undergraduate) professional experience placement

Nursing and midwifery students are required to comply with the following standard of dress to attend all placement and clinical laboratory workshops. These standards align with occupational health and safety requirements and safe handling recommendations.

• Dress in the specified uniform (as outlined below).
• Clearly display your student ID card at all times.
  
  • If lanyards are permitted by the placement venue, lanyards must comply with occupational health and safety requirements of that venue.
• Wear hair secured above the shoulders; ponytails should not hang below or touch shoulders, hair should be firmly secured with plain bands and clips. Beards should be neatly trimmed or fixed as close as possible to the skin with clips.
• Remove bracelets, wristwatches, dangling earrings, necklaces and rings (ONLY exceptions - simple unadorned religious bands eg plain wedding ring or Kara bracelet which must be secured (taped) as high up the arm as possible). Bands/bracelets containing stones are not permitted.
• Remove all nail polish (including clear).
• Remove acrylic fingernails and nails should be trimmed and clean.
• Remove all facial piercings - eyebrow, lip, nose and ear rings. A small single stud, one per ear lobe is acceptable.
• Wear a freshly laundered uniform, and clean shoes each day.
• Shower and attend to personal hygiene before attending the laboratory or placement.
• Complete uniform, may be worn while travelling to and from campus/placement, if desired.
• The uniform and ID badge MUST NOT be worn in social settings such as hotels, restaurants and cafes.
  
  • Lost or broken ID cards, must be replaced, at a small cost to the student.

The nursing uniform consists of:

• A blue shirt with the College of Nursing and Health Sciences emblem.
• Navy or black trousers or tailored shorts or culottes with front and back tabard or tailored skirt - no jeans, denim or tracksuit pants may be worn.
• Black or blue, enclosed, sturdy, low heeled, non-slip shoe that protects the foot (preferably leather).
• A watch with a sweep second hand. Wristwatches are not permitted.

Dress code for religious requirements:

• Long-sleeved, cotton navy or black t-shirt may be worn under the College of Nursing and Health Sciences shirt. However, sleeves must be tight enough so when pushed up to the elbows, the sleeves do not roll down. Students will be required to roll the sleeves up when performing clinical procedures and to maintain asepsis in all areas.
• Head wear: plain navy or black head covering/hijab tightly fitted with the face fully visible.

Students who do not adhere to the above policy may be asked to leave the workshop / placement and their attendance marked as absent.

Purchasing uniforms

Valerie Travers
1/20 Benjamin St, Newton SA
Phone: (08) 8223 5375
Buy online: Valerie Travers website

It is important to attend your topic's online pre-clinical meeting prior to your placement, to:

• meet students going to the same venue
• find out about expectations for placement; attendance requirements, activities and assessments
• ask questions about placement
  
• organise shared transport with colleagues going to the same venue
• meet your placement educator (facilitator).

Riverland students - your pre-clinical meeting will be held on the Riverland campus.

You will have registered into your pre-clinical meeting during topic registration. It will be available to view in your student timetable.

You are required to read and understand the SA Health Clinical Placement Requirements for Healthcare Students (PDF)

If you have an existing condition or develop an illness or disability that may impede your ‘fitness for professional practice’, you must have the Flinders University Fitness for Professional Practice form (PDF) completed by a medical practitioner.

This form needs to be submitted to the placement education coordinator as soon as possible (for existing conditions, at least two weeks prior to the start of the semester).

Venue orientation

All venues will provide a compulsory orientation for students prior to or on the first day of placement. Some venues require that students attend an on-site orientation in person, others provide an online package prior to placement, and some venues will require both.

On your first day of placement you will:

• produce your current compulsory pre-placement compliance documents
• meet the venue staff
• be shown around the venue
• be advised of any specific requirements for the venue.

If you do not attend or complete your allocated placement venue orientation, you will not have met the venue compliance criteria and your placement educator (facilitator) will send you home; you will not be able to complete this placement.

Rosters and shifts

As part of your professional responsibility, you are required to ensure that you:

• have completed or attended a placement venue orientation
• know where to arrive and meet on day 1
• know your shift times
• attend all rostered shifts
• attend for the entire allocated shift
• are well rested before each shift. Failure to be rested places yourself or others at risk and is considered unprofessional practice, as you are unable to meet your professional obligations and thus standards of practice. For example, it is not acceptable to:
  • go from a paid shift to a placement shift or vice versa
  • work all night on an assignment and then go to an early shift.

Arriving at shifts

It is your responsibility to arrive at your venue at least ten minutes before the shift begins. This will ensure you arrive in a timely manner and be prepared to engage in a full handover of your patients or clients, ask required questions and assist the previous shift to complete activities before leaving.

Missed placement hours or shifts

Any hours missed during your placement must be ‘made up’ as you need to attend for the allocated duration. Missed placement hours may mean that you:

• cannot complete the topic requirements for placement
• may not meet the course graduation requirements
• may not meet the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) minimum requirements for registration.

Contact your placement educator (facilitator) as soon as possible to discuss strategies for making up missed hours. With limited placement opportunities available, it is not always possible to negotiate make-up shifts or an extension to your placement.

Paid employment

If you are a nursing student, you may not:

• count paid employment hours in a health care venue towards your placements hours
• undertake a placement in your place of employment (due to conflicting expectations around roles).

If you work in a care facility that also provides student placements, you are requested to advise the placement team.

Elite athletes

If you are an elite athlete, you need to advise topic coordinators and the placement team of your status as soon as this is confirmed. This will enable appropriate placement arrangements can be accommodated. The University’s rule for Elite Athlete status provides further details, including the need to renew applications annually.

Australian Defence Force personnel

If you are a member of the Australian Defence Forces, and expect to be deployed or required for compulsory training exercises during a placement period, please advise your topic coordinator and the placement team as soon as details are known. Wherever possible, alternative arrangements will be made for your placement.

Withdrawing from placement

If you decide to withdraw from your placement either before or soon after it commences you need to email your placement team advising that you intend to withdraw from the topic - in some instances your placement can then be reallocated to another student.

Nursing students are required to administer medications during their placements and to adhere to the following guidelines to ensure patient/client safety and compliance with national regulations and legislation.

This section provides guidance for finding solutions for issues that may arise during a placement, and suggestions about appropriate people to contact.

Issues sometimes arise on placement that you may not be able to resolve by yourself. Who to contact and potential solutions are covered below. Keep in mind that you are required to maintain professional behaviour and communication at all times, especially with those at the placement venue.

The placement communication framework (available below) provides information about who to contact when you have a question about your placement.

First point of contact

When an issue arises at the venue where you are doing your professional experience placement, the first person to contact is always your PEP facilitator.

Your PEP facilitator is there to act as your advocate and to help resolve any matters of concern.

If the matter cannot be resolved with the assistance of your PEP facilitator:

• Make sure you have all relevant issues documented (for example, keep a full record of dates, times, what happened, any correspondence such as emails, and similar).
• Arrange to meet with your topic coordinator to discuss your concerns.

If you have done this and the problem is still not fixed - what to do next:

• Make an appointment to speak with your course coordinator.
• If the matter if still not resolved arrange to meet with the Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning).

Where appropriate and as far as is possible, your anonymity will be preserved.

Remember that you have free access to the University Health, Counselling and Disability Services.

Are you experiencing bullying or harassment?

Flinders University is committed to ensuring that students can participate in workplaces that are free from bullying, harassment and discrimination, and where people are respected and diversity is embraced.

The College complies with the Flinders University principles outlined in No bullying at Flinders.

If you feel that you are being, or have been, bullied or harassed at a placement venue, report this immediately to your Placement Educator/facilitator and/or your Topic Coordinator.

Also, seek support and assistance as soon as possible from the University Student Equal Opportunity Adviser, who provides assistance to resolve complaints that arise from harassment or bullying, under the University’s Equal Opportunity Policy (PDF).

Are you having problems meeting the NMBA standards for practice and/or the learning objectives for your Professional Experience Placement?

The knowledge, clinical skills and attitudes required for your development as a competent registered nurse or midwife are specified in each topic's learning outcomes. These learning outcomes are listed in the topic descriptor on the PEP website and are available on topic FLO sites.

During your Professional Experience Placement (PEP) you may find some of the learning objectives more difficult to achieve than others - this is a normal part of learning. You can discuss these issues with your PEP facilitator if you are having difficulty in achieving any of the topic learning outcomes. They will assist you in developing learning strategies to achieve the expected outcomes.

As a nursing student, as well as meeting the learning outcomes for your topic, you are working towards meeting the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) Registered Nurse standards for practice (2016). As such it is expected that you understand each of these standards and subclauses.

You are encouraged to discuss how you believe you are meeting the NMBA standards and/or the topic learning outcomes throughout your PEP with your PEP Facilitator. Students who require or are identified to require further support to achieve these may be offered a Professional Learning Plan (PLP) by the Placement Educator (facilitator) or Topic Coordinator. Further information about Professional Learning Plans can be found below.

What is breach of conduct?

A breach of conduct is when situations arise where there are serious deficits in the way a student conducts themselves or behaves while on placement, for example when a student:

• behave in an unprofessional manner or
• does tasks outside their scope of practice
• engages in unsafe professional practice

When a breach of conduct occurs, the student will be referred to the topic coordinator who will review whether they can continue activity within the topic, depending on the severity of the breach.

Patients and the public expect to be in a safe environment within a placement venue. If at any time a student demonstrates unsafe practice during a placement, they will be immediately withdrawn from the placement venue. The placement educator (facilitator) will then notify the topic coordinator and course coordinator, in writing, of the event or activity that required the removal of a student from the venue.

Unsafe professional practice include:

• inadequate knowledge for safe practice
• inadequate performance of skills, including communication
• unprofessional behaviour that places patients at risk of physical harm, unreasonable emotional distress or neglect
• unlawful or unethical behaviour.

If the issue/s that caused the removal of a student from placement can be resolved, and the venue agrees, a student may continue their placement. Negotiation for the support of a Professional Learning Plan may also be considered.

The topic coordinator, in consultation with the placement educator (facilitator) and relevant clinical staff, will determine whether a student may be reinstated.

If a student’s behaviour or practice is such that they would fail the topic, then they will not be reinstated.

Professional Learning Plans are designed to provide supportive learning strategies for students who have been identified as requiring further support and/or extension, to achieve the required topic learning outcomes within placement timelines.

The purpose of the Professional Learning Plan is to promote student learning by identifying their specific learning needs and providing strategies to promote successful achievement of the topic learning outcomes, whether in the clinical laboratory or Professional Experience Placement (PEP). The use of a Professional Learning Plan is designed to support the student's successful completion of their PEP. A Professional Learning Plan is not an assessable item and cannot be used as such. Students will only be assessed in accordance to the expected topic criteria as indicated on their Professional Experience Placement Record (PEPR).

A Professional Learning Plan may be negotiated with students identified as requiring further development of:

• knowledge and skills
• application of theory to practice
• time management e.g. arriving at shifts late or leaving early
• professional behaviour e.g. working outside your scope of practice
• communication e.g. difficulties communicating with patients, staff or the Placement Educator (Facilitator).

A student may be offered a Professional Learning Plan (PLP) at any time during a placement. It is the student's choice to implement this learning strategy, however, students are reminded that a PLP is designed to promote their success during placement.

How is a Professional Learning Plan implemented?

Your placement educator (facilitator) or topic coordinator would meet with you to discuss the areas within your practice, knowledge, etc. that have been identified as requiring development.

A Professional Learning Plan may then be negotiated with you and designed to specify the learning strategies that may help you meet the expected topic learning outcomes, and/or the NMBA RN standards for practice. The area/s for development are identified and together the placement educator (facilitator) and/or topic coordinator and student develop the PLP. The PLP can be continually negotiated and developed.

Students can refuse to be involved in a PLP or withdraw from a PLP without any penalty. Students cannot and will NOT be assessed in relation to the Professional Learning Plan.