96087 Clinical Placement 1
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Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 6 cp
Result type: Grade and marks
Requisite(s): 96084 Sub-acute Rehabilitation AND 96085 Outpatient Rehabilitation AND 96088 Acute Physiotherapy Care
There are course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.
Description
This subject (CP1) is undertaken in a hospital, private practice or community setting and sits within one of the three following areas: acute care, rehabilitation or primary care. Students are required to demonstrate developing competence in specific clinical skills required for the placement as well as the generic skills and attributes of physiotherapy professionals e.g. professionalism and communication. CP1 is an opportunity for students to observe, understand and apply, within a clinical setting, the knowledge and skills gained in Year 1 and may include acute in-patients, musculoskeletal outpatients (including spinal therapy), in-patient and out-patient rehabilitation (including a range of client groups), orthopaedics and community settings.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
| 52. | Assess own performance in the clinical setting by way of the APP and take action to continually improve practice |
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| 58. | Effectively organise and prioritise workload and resources to provide safe, effective, and efficient physiotherapy autonomously and, where relevant, as a team member |
| 71. | Demonstrate competent practice as determined by the APP |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
The learning outcomes for this subject are as follows:
- Knowledge and skills: Integrate core biomedical and social health science knowledge across the breadth of physiotherapy practice to inform assessment and safe, competent and skilled practical care of individuals across the lifespan as an autonomous practitioner and as a member of an interprofessional team. (01.01)
- Clinical reasoning: Identify impairment, activity and participation deficits in individuals in accordance with the International Classification of Function, Disability and Health framework and develop evidence-based care plans in accordance with best practice physiotherapy. (01.02)
- Critical thinker: Critically analyse the evidence underpinning practice and effectively apply new knowledge to practice; conduct and disseminate high-quality research to improve professional knowledge and influence direction of future practice. (02.05)
- Research-enabled: Apply scientific research skills to advance the evidence base supporting physiotherapy practice. (02.09)
- Professional and ethical practitioner: Embody the physiotherapy profession, demonstrating globally relevant ethical and professional behaviour and social accountability, while utilising deliberate critical analysis, self-reflection and self-awareness to constantly improve practice. (03.04)
- Communication: Communicate effectively using high-level interpersonal skills in both traditional modes of communication and when integrating advances in technology and methods of intervention delivery into patient care. (03.06)
- Teamwork and leadership: Engage in leadership and collaboration, representing the profession in interprofessional teams and seeking advanced practitioner roles to ensure the future vitality of the profession. (03.07)
- Client focus: Provide empathetic, compassionate and respectful patient-focused care, facilitating client self-management, advocating for best practice care and empowering clients by education. (04.03)
Contribution to the development of graduate attributes
Practice ready
Graduates of the Master of Physiotherapy are knowledgeable, practice-ready clinicians, skilled in providing safe and effective evidence-based care to clients across the lifespan, using a wide range of therapeutic approaches including skilled hands on practice, and in a variety of clinical settings as both independent and collaborative practitioners.
Research-enabled
Graduates of the Master of Physiotherapy effectively integrate research evidence into practice, are proactive in identifying gaps in knowledge and are competent to undertake research to advance the evidence base and inform future physiotherapy practice.
Professionally Competent
Graduates of the Master of Physiotherapy embody professional and ethical practice, maintaining knowledge and competence at local and global standards. Graduates embrace opportunities for leadership and advanced roles, utilise deliberate practice to optimise physiotherapy care and advocate for the profession in interdisciplinary contexts.
Person-centred
Graduates of the Master of Physiotherapy are empathetic, person-centred practitioners who empower client self-management and endorse preventative care by forming and valuing partnerships with individuals, families and communities.
Teaching and learning strategies
Practice-orientated experiential learning in the workplace setting: this is an external clinical placement subject. Students are allocated 5 week block placements under the supervision of a registered physiotherapist.
Practice-orientated Learning: as a clinical placement subject, students have the opportunity to engage in clinical physiotherapy practice, utilise and further develop their hands-on clinical skills and apply their academic knowledge of physiotherapists to real patients and authentic experiences and scenarios within the clinical environment. Learning in the clinical environment is under the mentorship of qualified health professionals. Students are expected to actively engage in all aspects of clinical physiotherapy practice including; the assessment of patients, discussion of patient cases and management approaches and clinical troubleshooting.
Collaborative Learning: physiotherapists work within a multi-disciplinary team environment and often collaborate with other health professionals to provide optimal patient care. Through clinical placement, students have the opportunity to work within these collaborative teams and develop both general teamwork skills and specific clinical skills such as; patient handover, collaborative management planning and case conferencing. Students also have the opportunity to collaborate closely with peers, registered physiotherapists, administration, nurses and other allied health professionals throughout their clinical placement.
Reflective Learning: reflective practice is an essential skill for health professionals to develop. Students are encouraged to critically reflect on their learning throughout the subject to identify areas where they may improve their performance and to assist in the development of lifelong learning skills. Specific activities where reflective learning is encouraged are; such as self-evaluation of learning within the clinical environment through using the APP-tool. Reflection is further encouraged through the patient education task and collaborative discussion about this task within workshops in Transition to Practice (96093).
Self-directed Learning: A number of clinical placement sites provide information about the types of patients and area of specialisation of their clinic. Students are further encouraged to review this information prior to attending clinical placement and revise key concepts and skills related to the clinical site area of practice.
Ongoing Feedback: students are provided with ongoing feedback relating to the performance of clinical skills, clinical reasoning and understanding of key concepts of clinical practice by supervisors when on clinical placement. Formative feedback about a student’s performance while on clinical placement is provided via the clinician feedback assessment in week 3 and week 5 of the clinical placement.
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Clinical Placement
| Intent: | This assessment task will give students the opportunity to demonstrate their competence in specific clinical skills required for the placement as well as the generic skills and attributes of physiotherapy professionals e.g. professionalism and communication. The Assessment of Physiotherapy Practice (APP) tool provides the final assessment for this Subject and contributes 100% weighting towards the final academic mark i.e. the maximum mark/80 is converted to a percentage which is recorded as the Subject mark. Students have access to their feedback and grades provided by the Clinical Educator via APPLinkup https://www.applinkup.com/ Graduate Attributes: Practice ready, research-enabled, professionally competent, person-centred, culturally competent |
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| Objective(s): | This task is aligned with the following subject learning objectives: 52, 58 and 71 This task is aligned with the following course learning outcomes: 01.01, 01.02, 02.05, 02.09, 03.04, 03.06, 03.07 and 04.03 |
| Type: | Demonstration |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 100% |
| Length: | 5 x 35 hours clinical placement |
| Criteria: | Please refer to Canvas for the marking criteria for this assessment task (APP-tool) |
Minimum requirements
100% attendance at placements, and associated on-campus activities
- A score of 37 or greater on the APP is required
In addition
- A mandatory satisfactory level of clinical performance is required, scoring ≥2 on at least 17 items of the APP. i.e. a score of 1 can be achieved in a maximum of any 3 areas
In addition
- A minimum rating of ‘adequate’ must be recorded on the Global Rating Scale
Required texts
Coursework Assessments Procedures
Graduate School of Health Policy, Guidelines and Procedures (login required)