Nursing (postgraduate) professional experience placement

Professional experience placements are important learning experiences, allowing you to apply theoretical knowledge in a professional setting.

Before going on placement there are compliance requirements you need to undertake.

View the topic-specific placement information below.

The rest of the information below about preparing for placement and while you're on placement is for all postgraduate nursing students.

Preparing for placement

Uniforms

A general rule is neat, modest, casual dress with enclosed shoes will be worn while on placement, but please check the dress requirements for each of your placement venues to ensure that this is suitable.

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.

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.

If you want or need to purchase a placement uniform, the CNHS nursing placement uniform can be ordered through the Valerie Travers website.

Clinical name badge

A badge that identifies you is required to be worn during your placement. Please check with your placement venue if you should use a name badge which identifies you as a student of Flinders University

Flinders University Clinical badges can only be obtained once you have a student ID card. How to obtain a student ID card.

Able to come to campus:

Visit UniCard Office, Level 1 Central Library (main campus).
Ensure you have a minimum of $4.40 on your student ID card to purchase your clinical badge.

Unable to come to campus:

Visit printcard.flinders.edu.au and add credit to your account to pay for the badge.
Log in with your FAN and password.
Ensure you have a minimum of $10 on your student ID card.
Email flinders@unicard.com.au that you have added credit, along with your FAN and student number and your clinical badge will then be processed and mailed out to you.

During placement

Attendance

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 one
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

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.

View further information about while you're on placement

Problems and concerns

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 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 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.

Placement communication framework

Rural placements

Postgraduate nursing students may attend a placement in a rural or remote venue. A rural venue is defined by the Australian Statistical Geography Standard Remoteness Areas 2-5.

Reimbursement policy

Student Reimbursement Policy for SA rural, remote and interstate placements (16 January 2023)

This policy is for College of Nursing and Health Sciences students undertaking a rural or remote South Australian or any interstate placement.

Students will be eligible for reimbursement following each completed placement in line with this policy.

Reimbursement claims are processed at the completion of placement. Reimbursement claims must be submitted by the 15 January the following year for reimbursement of placement expenses the previous calendar year.

Students living in a rural or interstate location while completing their course qualify for reimbursement when they undertake placement in a metropolitan location.

Accommodation

Accommodation expenses will be reimbursed to a maximum of $150 per week for the duration of the placement period.

Students must provide evidence for payment of accommodation, a receipt is preferred where possible, bank statement or signed letter from landlord can also be provided as evidence. Bonds and security deposits for accommodation, paid by students, are not covered by this policy and will not be reimbursed.

Travel

Travel will be reimbursed to a maximum of $500 for travel expenses to and from the placement venue, at the commencement and completion of the placement based on the receipts provided (such as flights, bus, taxi fare). Students will not be reimbursed for travel while on placement returning to their residential address (e.g. at the end of a shift or on weekends during placement).

Students travelling within SA to rural and remote locations by a private vehicle will receive a predetermined amount to cover fuel expenses. Students will not be required to submit receipts. The total amount students will receive is provided on the Personal Travel Reimbursement - SA Rural Locations (PDF).

Exemptions:

If the placement is in the Northern Territory, students will be entitled to be reimbursed for travel expenses to a maximum of $750.

If the placement is a project-based placement requiring the student to travel several times from metropolitan Adelaide to a rural venue, the student will be entitled to 2 return trips to a maximum refund of $500. To be eligible the student must provide supporting documentation in writing from their topic coordinator indicating this activity is essential.

If a student is required to travel to more than one rural location during the placement period and the placement provider requires them to travel between the locations at their own expense the student will be eligible for reimbursement of travel to a maximum of $500 (this will include travel to and from placement location on first and last day of placement).

Students in this scenario will keep a log of the kilometres travelled, dates and destinations and submit this as evidence when seeking reimbursement. Travel will be reimbursed based on fuel at $1.80 per litre, with the average fuel consumption 11.1 L/100 km (ABS Survey of Motor Vehicle Use, Australia 2020).

Assessment

All accommodation and travel reimbursements will be subjected to the following criteria;

Rural and remote placements in South Australia must be within ASGS Remoteness Areas RA2 – RA5 outlined on the Doctor Connect website. Mt Barker will be excluded from this policy for both accommodation and travel reimbursement.
Interstate placements, including metro locations, are included when; the placement is approved and/or required by the college (the college via the WIL placement team will identify if a placement satisfies this test prior to confirmation).
Interstate placements, including metro locations, are not included when you choose to go to an interstate location where there is a suitable South Australian placement available to you as defined by the College of Nursing and Health Sciences WIL placement team. In these circumstances the students can still do this placement, but reimbursement will not be provided.
All placements will be confirmed by the College of Nursing and Health Sciences WIL placement team.
Scholarships received by the student for any placement will be taken into consideration when calculating the reimbursement. Student reimbursements from this policy will not exceed the total expenditure the student incurred for travel and accommodation.

Example:

Accommodation [$1,500] + Travel [$600] – Scholarship [$500] = $1,600 (Reimbursement)

Reimbursement process

Students are to submit reimbursement claims as per the following process:

At the completion of placement, fill out the Student Placement Reimbursement form (PDF) detailing expenses incurred while undertaking your placement.
Scan the form with receipts/invoices of expenses and email to cnhs.placements@flinders.edu.au with your student ID number and “Placement Reimbursement Claim Request” in the subject heading. Ensure your scanned document is clearly legible.
Payments are made into your nominated account within approximately 4 weeks of submitting your student placement reimbursement form.

You must ensure you keep your accommodation and travel expense receipts/invoices.

For more information please contact cnhs.placements@flinders.edu.au.

Topic-specific postgraduate nursing placement information

Contact your WIL placement team

College of Nursing and Health Sciences

Location: Level 1, North Wing, Sturt campus
Phone: 8201 7500
Email: cnhs.placements@flinders.edu.au