Your performance

Succeeding on placement

Take responsibility for your own actions, discuss learning needs and concerns with your supervisor, continually reflect on your performance and ensure you obtain adequate feedback on your performance from your supervisor.

Fitness to practice

Concerns about your fitness to practice may be raised by (but not limited to) anyone outside of the University (for example a placement supervisor), a fellow student or a University staff member.

Concerns about fitness to practice may arise in relation to:

A physical or mental impairment;
A serious communicable disease or infection;
A criminal record;
Inappropriate behaviour;
Any other condition or attribute which may undermine your capacity to participate in or carry out your placement duties without harm or injury to yourself, patient/clients in the care of the placement provider, the placement provider, or a third party

Should the course convenor, supervisor and/or School Academic Placement staff member consider that you are not sufficiently prepared to provide safe care for yourself or others prior to a practical experience, or while undertaking a placement, they have the right and responsibility to prevent you from going out on placement or can request you leave the placement.

Inability to Complete Required Components of Professional Qualification Policy

Feedback

Feedback is an essential part of continuous professional development. On placement you will be receiving lots of constructive feedback about your performance, all designed to help you learn and grow as a health or human services professional. Constructive feedback may be positive or negative feedback and the following are some helpful tips on how to receive feedback.

Listen to feedback

Feedback can be uncomfortable to hear. Remember that people will have opinions about you and will have their perceptions of your behaviour, and it can help to be aware of those. However, do remember that you are also entitled to your opinion and you may choose to ignore it as being of little significance, irrelevant, or referring to behaviour which for some reason you wish to maintain.

Be clear about what is being said

Try to avoid jumping to conclusions or becoming immediately defensive, otherwise people may cut down their feedback or you may not be able to use it fully. Make sure you understand the feedback before you respond to it. A useful technique can be to paraphrase or repeat the criticism, to check that you have understood.

Ask for the feedback you want but do not get

Feedback can be so important that we may have to ask for it if it does not occur naturally. Sometimes we do get feedback but it is restricted to one aspect of our behaviour and we may have to request feedback we would find useful but do not get.

Decide what you will do as a result of the feedback

We can use feedback to help our own personal and professional development. When we receive it, we can assess its value, the consequences of ignoring it or using it, and finally decide what we can do as a result of it. If we do not make decisions on the basis of it, it can be wasted.

Thank the person giving feedback

Finally, thank the person for giving feedback. We might benefit from it, it may not have been easy for the person to give and it is a valuable practice to reinforce in any organisation or relationship.

Unsatisfactory performance

Although you are not expected to perform duties to the level of a fully trained and experienced health or human service professional, you will be expected to conduct yourselves in a professional manner at all times.

You may only undertake treatment on patient/clients to your level of competence or scope of practice.

If, at any time during the degree program there are reasonable grounds to form the view that a patient/client is at risk you will be immediately removed from the environment.

Inappropriate conduct and behaviour

Inappropriate conduct and behaviour includes, but is not limited to:

Communication issues (including harassment, bullying, intimidation, threats);
Habitual non-attendance;
Punctuality issues;
Dress code breach;
‘Inappropriate’ conduct;

Failure to respond to direction;
Breach of patient/client confidentiality;
Breach of University policy and/or professional Code of Ethics;
Impairing ability to participate in legitimate University activity;
Participation in conduct defined as misconduct under the Student Conduct, Safety and Wellbeing Policy;

Activities that misrepresent a student’s status or level of skill or knowledge;
Patient/client treatment on any part of the University campus or at a placement facility that is not a required component of a course or degree program and/or is not under the direct supervision of a registered health care professional;
Failure to adhere to the professional standards and workplace requirements of the placement provider.

Criminal conduct

Criminal conduct includes, but is not limited to:

Boundary violation;
Assault;
Criminal offences;
Conduct discreditable.

Medical fitness

Concerns about medical fitness include, but is not limited to:

Health reasons that impair capacity of fitness to practice;
Addiction to substances that impair capacity;
Failure to disclose immunisation status;
Failure of a blood borne virus positive student to exclude themselves from exposure prone procedures;
Failure to abide by infection control procedures.

Other

Failure to meet the assessment requirements and/or learning goals
Failure to report injuries/incidents

Consequences of unsatisfactory performance

A fail grade in a course that incorporates a placement
A fail grade for a placement assessment item of a course
Removal from the placement, which may result in a fail grade for a placement assessment item(s)
Exclusion from the degree program