Special course requirements - Education stream
Professional experience
Before participating in professional experience in any education setting, you must:
- meet mandatory checks and clearances before commencing placement that apply in the state/territory/country where the placement is being undertaken
- complete professional experience orientation provided by the faculty.
For advice on professional experience intervention, support and unsatisfactory progress refer to the Professional experience intervention and support procedure.
Professional experience expenses
You are responsible for any expenses incurred while undertaking professional experience (e.g. transport, equipment, immunisations, security checks and clearances).
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Special course requirements - Nursing stream
Students undertaking a course with clinical or fieldwork placements must demonstrate compliance with the following checks and requirements. For more information refer to the Mandatory Compliance webpage and carefully read the Student placement guide. It is your responsibility to ensure that the correct documentation is obtained prior to commencing clinical/fieldwork placements.
Fitness for practice and professionalism
To complete your course, you are required to demonstrate that you meet fitness for practice expectations. Fitness for practice is part of the assessment in all units in this course. If you don't meet the fitness for practice expectations you will receive a fail mark for the unit and be required to repeat the unit before you can progress to the next year level of the course. In some circumstances, not meeting fitness for practice requirements can lead to exclusion from the course (see Professional Standards, Ethical Behaviour and Student Support (ProFESS) framework for details).
Police checks
A valid national police check dated no earlier than 6 months prior to course commencement is required.
Working with Children checks
A current Working with Children check is required regarding suitability to undertake clinical/fieldwork placements.
National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Worker Screening check
A current NDIS Worker Screening check is required to undertake clinical/fieldwork placements.
Immunisation and infection requirements
In accordance with the National Health and Medical Research Council recommendations, this course requires that you comply with the faculty's Mandatory Compliance requirements regarding immunisation and vaccination, which are designed to provide maximum protection against the increased risk of some vaccine-preventable diseases for students, patients and workers in a health care setting.
You are required to have certain specified vaccinations, and have your bloodborne virus status determined, before commencement of clinical/fieldwork placement. Non-compliance of this requirement may result in you being unable to undertake clinical placement with the attendant academic consequences.
If you test positive to a bloodborne virus (including HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C), you will be required to consult a specialist medical practitioner approved by the faculty to provide advice on any necessary restrictions on work practices to protect patients and others from infection.
Drug Administration policy
You should be aware of your legal responsibilities regarding the administration and storage of drugs in keeping with the Drugs Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 (Vic) and the Drugs Poisons and Controlled Substances Regulations 2006 (Vic)
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
As a healthcare student you will be required to wear PPE to prevent the transmission of Covid-19 on clinical placements. The removal of facial hair may be required for fit testing of masks as a lawful and reasonable direction by healthcare settings.
Access to web camera
Some online assessments will be taken throughout the course and you will need to download specific software which requires a webcam. If you do not have a webcam available, you will need to undertake the online assessments on campus in the computer lab or library.
Professional focussed tutorials, practical and simulation classes
This course has been designed to prepare you to become a registered and/or professionally accredited practitioner. It is a condition of external accreditation that the course team ensures all of the non-placement units in your course are appropriately scaffolded to prepare you to successfully complete your off-campus fieldwork/clinical placements. You are required to attend all scheduled tutorials and practical and simulation classes. You must consult each unit Moodle Site for details of these activities and whether you need to attend in person, or online, via video and or audio conferencing. If you are unable to attend the activity you must inform the unit coordinator due to the link between these activities and placements. It may be possible to provide make-up classes but this cannot be guaranteed. Persistent failure to attend activities will have a negative impact upon your placements. You may be denied access to placements with the consequence you will fail the course.
Inherent requirements
See Student Placement Guide for information about inherent requirements/personal attributes associated with this course.
Student registration with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA)
Under the National Law, students enrolled in an approved program of study, or who are undertaking clinical training in a health profession, must be registered as a student with their respective National Board.
Students must be registered prior to the commencement of their approved program of study or clinical training in a health profession and will remain registered for the duration of study, or until they are no longer enrolled.
Students do not need to apply for registration. Under the National Law, the education provider is responsible for ensuring all students enrolled in an approved program of study or who are undertaking a period of clinical training in a health profession are registered with AHPRA.
Please note:
In order to protect the public from the risk of harm, the National Law defines legal requirements for mandatory reporting of health practitioners and AHPRA registered health practitioner students.
Practitioners, and education providers are all mandated by law to report notifiable conduct relating to students
Practitioners and education providers only need to notify APHRA when they have a ‘reasonable belief’ that a student has an impairment that, when undertaking clinical training, may place the public at substantial risk of harm. Students are advised a substantial risk of harm is a very high threshold for reporting risk of harm to the public.
A health condition and impairment are not the same thing. An illness or condition that does not have a detrimental impact on a student’s capacity to undertake clinical training is not an impairment.
Similarly, not all impairments need to be reported. A student may carry out clinical training with a mental health condition, physical health condition or physical illness, but that is not enough to trigger a mandatory notification. If the student’s impairment affects their capacity to carry out clinical training but does not place the public at substantial risk of harm, there is no legal requirement to make a mandatory notification.
The National Law also provides only limited circumstances for a voluntary notification about students. Concerns about intoxication (not amounting to an impairment), sexual misconduct and significant departure from accepted professional standards are not grounds for a mandatory or voluntary notification about a student. An education provider or health service provider would typically deal with such concerns under their own policies and processes.
Students should also be aware that members of the public also may make a voluntary notification to AHPRA about the health of a student.
Students are strongly advised to consult the AHPRA’s Mandatory notification page for further guidance.
