MRS Residency 1 H (6cp) (10023.1)

Required texts

Prescribed reading:

National safety and quality health services standards second edition available at   https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/publications-and-resources/resource-library/national-safety-and-quality-health-service-standards-second-edition

Recommended Readings:

Stagnitti, K., Schoo, A., & Welch, D. (2010). Clinical and Fieldwork Placement in the Health Professions. Melbourne: Oxford University Press

Long, B., Rollins, J., & Smith, B. (2022). Merrill's Atlas of Radiographic Positioning and Procedures, Vol 1 & 2, 15th edn, Elsevier. (this text will be used in other units)

Lampignano, J. & Kendrick, L. (2021), Textbook of Radiographic Positioning and Related Anatomy. 10th edn,  Elsevier: St Louis. (this text will be used in other units)

Eisenberg, R. L. (2021). Comprehensive Radiographic Pathology. 7th edn,  Elsevier, St Louis (this text will be used in other units)

McQuillen-Martensen, K. (2020) Radiographic Imaging Analysis, 5th ed., Elsevier 

Students must apply academic integrity in their learning and research activities at UC. This includes submitting authentic and original work for assessments and properly acknowledging any sources used.

Academic integrity involves the ethical, honest and responsible use, creation and sharing of information. It is critical to the quality of higher education. Our academic integrity values are honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage.

UC students have to complete the Academic Integrity Module annually to learn about academic integrity and to understand the consequences of academic integrity breaches (or academic misconduct).

UC uses various strategies and systems, including detection software, to identify potential breaches of academic integrity. Suspected breaches may be investigated, and action can be taken when misconduct is found to have occurred.

Information is provided in the Academic Integrity Policy, Academic Integrity Procedure, and University of Canberra (Student Conduct) Rules 2023. For further advice, visit Study Skills.

Learner engagement

This is an industry based placement, and therefore it is expected that students will attend normal work hours at the allocated placement site. It is the student's responsibility to record and maintain evidence of the hours attended at placement within Smartabase. Some placements may include shift hours and weekend work.

Inclusion and engagement

Clinical medical imaging departments / practices have reasonable expectations that students, under the supervision of registered practitioners, will be able to undertake the roles of a student diagnostic radiographer in a timely and an appropriate manner. If your registered disability or ongoing health condition may affect this, you need to discuss this with Inclusion and Engagement staff and importantly, you MUST also discuss this with the Medical Imaging academic staff.

Any adaptation to the practice education placement outline requires approval from Inclusion and Engagement and the Unit Convenor prior to placement allocation. 

Participation requirements

Residency 1H requires you to attend a 12 week clinical placement. This is a compulsory requirement of the course and unit. Other details of the clinical placement requirements will be provided in the clinical handbook.

Note: Clinical placements are ONLY offered in the scheduled times as specified in the Medical Imaging clinical calendar and as detailed in other areas of this unit outline. 

Note: Over the duration of the Medical Imaging degree course, students are required to attend clinical placement at:

• A major hospital
• Rural / regional and metro site
• Public hospital / private practice.

Note: The ACT / Canberra / Queanbeyan has only a limited number of clinical placement sites. You CANNOT expect that all clinical placements in your Medical Imaging degree course will be undertaken in the ACT / Canberra / Queanbeyan. You WILL be required to travel interstate during the Medical Imaging degree course to complete the clinical requirements of the course. This will likely be more than 50% of your placements.

Participation in each placement is 5 days per week for 12 weeks. Part time placement attendance is not available. Full attendance is required for accreditation and successful completion of the unit. If unable to attend, students must advise their Clinical Coordinator and the Unit Convenor with an appropriate medical certificate. 

Placements will be outside the ACT and around Australia. 

The successful completion of the clinical placement is a mandatory element of the Unit and the assessment of the Unit. 

Clinical or Work Integrated Learning (WIL) placements will be randomly allocated and will include placements interstate and/or in remote, rural and regional settings. Accommodation and transport costs will be the student's responsibility. 

This unit contains participatory elements vital to the professional learning outcomes for this unit. Except in the case of extenuating circumstances, 100% attendance is expected at all scheduled on-campus classes such as lectures, workshops and laboratories. 100% participation is required in all clinical placements. It is expected that students unable to fulfil these participation requirements will inform the Unit Convenor as soon as practical by email. Consideration will be given for illness, however evidence such as a medical certificate will be required. 

Absence from clinical placement:

Absence from clinical placement, for any reason, including illness, MUST be reported to the clinical supervisor at the site AND the Clinical Coordinator at UC (MI_Clinical@canberra.edu.au) as early on the day as practically possible. Failure to adhere to this requirement may result in failure of the attendance section of the clinical placement reports and workbook assessment. Consideration will be given for illness, however evidence such as a medical certificate will be required.

Required IT skills

This unit requires the use of Canvas, Smartabase, INPLACE, library researching skills and word processing skills

In-unit costs

There are associated costs in undertaking clinical placements. These include, but not limited to, transport to and from the clinical department / radiology practice, accommodation and other living costs, uniforms, etc.

Note: Clinical placements in this unit are Monday to Friday, 8-30am to 5-00pm (or similar hours as designated by the clinical department staff). As such you will have difficulty undertaking casual work to earn an income. You will need to plan any casual work you do around these clinical placements. The timing of these clinical placements is NOT changeable.

Work placement, internships or practicums

This unit contains Work Integrated Learning (WIL) activities (clinical placements) and therefore, additional student responsibilities are required in addition to those described in this section. Work-place learning requires strict adherence to professional practice principles and ethics. Client / patient confidentiality must always be maintained (see the Clinical Placement Handbook), including for assessment items such as reports or reflective journals. The professional nature of this unit also requires 100% participation of all learning activities (see section 3) for the successful completion of this unit (also see section 6c). If attendance requirements cannot be satisfied, it is recommended that you meet with the Clinical Coordinator to schedule this unit in a future semester.

Clinical placements are an essential part of the UC Medical Imaging courses. They enable knowledge to be embedded in a clinical context through the use of trained clinical preceptors and practising professionals. This cannot be attained in any other setting. The control of access to external facilities derives from contractual arrangements with ACT
Health and other organisations and UC is obliged to accept the rules and regulations that govern who they will accept into their premises. It is beyond UC's control to influence the health facilities to change their acceptability requirements.
• The successful completion of clinical placements is a mandatory element of the Unit and the assessment of the Unit; and
• Some or all of the external agencies require a police check prior to permitting a student to undertake the clinical placement; and
• The results of the police check may be used as a basis to refuse access to a clinical placement/externship at the external agency. This decision is solely at the discretion of the external agency; and
• Students unable to gain access to a clinical placement at agencies approved by the University are unable to complete the mandatory requirements of the Unit. In this case the student will receive a NX (fail) grade and will not be eligible for a refund of any fees; and
• If the successful completion of a Unit is a mandatory requirement for the completion of a Course, an inability to complete the Unit means the student is unable to complete the requirements of the Course.

Students also need to note that the external agency reserves the right to withdraw access to a clinical placement at any time prior or during a placement/externship at the sole discretion of the agency. In these circumstances the same implications noted above will apply.

Students also need to note that they bear the full risk in relation to loss of access to clinical placements and the University will not be liable if an agency withdraws access to a clinical placement because of the actions or omissions of a student.

Additional information

See the Clinical Handbook for details on the clinical, radiation safety, patient confidentiality and other requirements and for other placement information.

Mandatory Notifications to the Medical Radiation Practice Board of Australia

Pursuant to the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act 2009, medical radiation practitioners (registered radiographers, diagnostic radiographers, medical imaging technologists, medical radiation practitioner) and education providers have an obligation to report ‘notifiable conduct', to the Medical Radiation Practice Board of Australia in order to prevent the public being placed at risk of harm. 

Education providers are also required, under Section 143 of the National Law, to make mandatory notifications in relation to students, if the provider reasonably believes:

a) a student enrolled with the provider has an impairment that, in the course of the student undertaking clinical training, may place the public at substantial risk of harm; or

b) a student for whom the provider has arranged clinical training has an impairment that, in the course of the student undertaking the clinical training, may place the public at substantial or considerable risk of harm.

Practitioners are required to make a mandatory notification in relation to a student if the practitioner reasonably believes that a student has an impairment that, in the course of the student undertaking clinical training, may place the public at substantial risk of harm (Section 141(1)(b). In relation to a student, ‘impairment' is defined under section 5 of the National Law to mean the student ‘has a physical or mental impairment, disability, condition or disorder (including substance abuse or dependence) that detrimentally affects or is likely to detrimentally affect the student's capacity to undertake clinical training.

These professional obligations are taken seriously by staff and the University.  Students should be aware of their obligations under student registration. 

For further information, please refer to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency Guidelines for Mandatory Notifications available at: http://www.medicalradiationpracticeboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines/Codes-and-Guidelines/Guidelines-for-mandatory-notifications.aspx

All such concerns may also be brought to the Discipline of Medical Radiation Science. When this is done, these concerns will be reviewed by the Head of Discipline and / or the Course Convenor before any action is taken.

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