Clinical Physiotherapy 1 G (11554.1)

Please note these are the 2026 details for this unit
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Clinical Physiotherapy 1 G
Available teaching periods Delivery mode Location
View teaching periods Placement
 Bruce, Canberra
EFTSL Credit points Faculty
0.125 3 Faculty Of Health
Discipline Study level HECS Bands
Discipline Of Physiotherapy Graduate Level Band 2 2021 (Commenced After 1 Jan 2021)
Band 3 2021 (Commenced Before 1 Jan 2021)
This unit involves clinical placement which will give students the opportunity to learn and demonstrate competency in the generic skills and attributes of physiotherapy professionals as well as the specific clinical skills across the core areas of physiotherapy in managing clients across the lifespan in a range of environments and settings. Students will apply the theory, understanding and skills of the past years study to the clinical practice of physiotherapy. Students will be placed in clinical environments, including but not limited to public, private, acute care, rehabilitation or community health care settings. Students will begin to develop independent clinical practice, while still under close supervision.

Learning outcomes

After successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate consistent professional behaviour, including understanding of patients' rights, good teamwork and commitment to learning;
2. Communicate effectively, verbally and in writing, in the clinical context demonstrating emerging skills in clinical communication;
3. Perform a simple clinical assessment using appropriate and valid tools;
4. Analyse assessment findings to identify the patient's main problem in context of current research, and to set basic treatment goals;
5. Select and apply effective treatment based on patient goals based on the patient's main problem;
6. Demonstrate emerging skills in the ability to reflect 'in practice' and 'on practice' and reflect on the learning journey;
7. Identify and minimise risks in the healthcare context; and
8. Begin to think critically and demonstrate some insight into decisions in health care systems from an ethical, resource, and scientific perspective.


Graduate attributes

1. UC graduates are professional - communicate effectively
1. UC graduates are professional - display initiative and drive, and use their organisation skills to plan and manage their workload
1. UC graduates are professional - employ up-to-date and relevant knowledge and skills
1. UC graduates are professional - take pride in their professional and personal integrity
1. UC graduates are professional - use creativity, critical thinking, analysis and research skills to solve theoretical and real-world problems
1. UC graduates are professional - work collaboratively as part of a team, negotiate, and resolve conflict
2. UC graduates are global citizens - behave ethically and sustainably in their professional and personal lives
2. UC graduates are global citizens - communicate effectively in diverse cultural and social settings
2. UC graduates are global citizens - understand issues in their profession from the perspective of other cultures
2. UC graduates are global citizens - make creative use of technology in their learning and professional lives
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - adapt to complexity, ambiguity and change by being flexible and keen to engage with new ideas
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - reflect on their own practice, updating and adapting their knowledge and skills for continual professional and academic development


Skills development

This unit involves clinical placement which will give students the opportunity to learn and demonstrate competency in the generic skills and attributes of physiotherapy professionals as well as the specific clinical skills across the core areas of physiotherapy in managing clients across the lifespan in a range of environments and settings. Students will apply the theory, understanding and skills of the past years study to the clinical practice of physiotherapy. Students will be placed in clinical environments, including but not limited to public, private, acute care, rehabilitation or community health care settings. Students will begin to develop independent clinical practice, while still under close supervision.



Prerequisites

Must have passed 36 credit points in the Master of Physiotherapy course including:
6456 Neurological Interventions 2 PG AND
6486 Research Planning PG AND
9594 Epidemiology and principles of research AND
11551 Physiotherapy Across the Lifespan PG AND
11553 Applied Physiotherapy Skills PG

Corequisites

This unit is only available to students enrolled in 768AA Master of Physiotherapy

Incompatible units

None.

Equivalent units

None.

Assumed knowledge

All physiotherapy skills and theory taught in previous three semesters.
Availability for enrolment in 2026 is subject to change and may not be confirmed until closer to the teaching start date.
Year Location Teaching period Teaching start date Delivery mode Unit convener
2025 Bruce, Canberra Summer Semester 25 November 2024 Placement Mr Richie Talbot
2026 Bruce, Canberra Summer Semester 24 November 2025 Placement Mr Richie Talbot
The information provided should be used as a guide only. Timetables may not be finalised until week 2 of the teaching period and are subject to change. Search for the unit timetable.

Required texts

There is no prescribed textbook for this Unit of study. It is advised that you revise all suitable material from pre-requisite Units of Study and any additional revision requested by
your specific clinical site. Please see Canvas for required resources as they vary between clinical sites.

Submission of assessment items

Special assessment requirements

To pass the unit, students must pass the clinical placement (hurdle assessment), and attempt the clinical logs and reflection diary satisfactorily.

Supplementary assessment

If this unit is undertaken in the final teaching period of study and is the last and only unit the student is required to complete to meet all academic course requirements to enable conferral of their degree a supplementary assessment will be available as per the university's policy. A student will be offered a supplementary placement if they are within 5% of satisfying the hurdle assessment, i.e., the APP. All previous clinical placement units must be successfully completed. The supplementary assessment will consist of a 5-week placement with clinical log and reflection journal. Five successfully completed placements are required for registration as a physiotherapist.

Moderation of assessment

The University of Canberra’s policies on moderation apply to all physiotherapy units. The standard of assessment in this unit will be equivalent wherever and however the unit is delivered.

Assessment will be moderated to ensure that judgments of students’ performance are consistent, transparent, reliable and valid. The moderation policy can be provided by the Unit Convenor upon request. In the case of clinical placements, fieldwork, or other forms of practicums, moderation processes are outlined below.

Clinical moderation may take a number of different forms:

The APP
The APP form was developed to help physiotherapy clinical educators to be consistent when assessing students. Workshops training Clinical Educators to apply the APP are held at the university regularly to standardise its application. The APP has been validated and tested across Australia and New Zealand for this purpose.

Workshops
Workshops for clinical educators are held several times per year. Both formal and informal moderation may occur at these workshops.

Reviewing student performance
A member of academic staff (either the clinical coordinator, unit convenor or their representative) will moderate the APP assessment result or professional behaviour issues (as relevant). The academic staff member may interview the student, interview the clinical educator or other clinical staff involved, review medical records, review clinical reasoning notes made by the student, review a range of feedback provided by the clinical educator, review any documentation provided by the clinical educator or the student. Interviews may take place by any communication method (face to face, phone or skype for example). Communication may be by any communication method (face to face, phone or email for example).

The final decision to pass of fail a student on clinical placement is the responsibility of the academic staff at the university, not the clinical supervisor on site. However, the Clinical Coordinator will draw from the APP results in the first instance for assessment results and implement appropriate moderation procedures according to that.

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

The amount of time you will need to spend on study in this unit will depend on a number of factors including your prior knowledge, learning skill level and learning style. While out on placement the assumption is made that students will be at the clinical site full time, as per the hours of the site. Please reference the faculty and physiotherapy clinical placement handbooks for more details. Some sites may require weekend attendance. Students will be given time off in leu during the week. 

This Unit contains participatory elements which are vital to the Australian Physiotherapy Council professional learning outcomes for this Unit. Except in the case of extenuating circumstances, 100% participation is required in the clinical placement.

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

It is expected that students unable to fulfil these participation requirements will inform the Placement Convener as soon as practicable by email.

Inclusion and engagement

Work-integrated learning (clinical) placements take place in hospital, community and private practice settings. Arrangements that can be put in place in these locations may not reflect arrangements available in the university.
Students are expected to attend placements that are both local, interstate and rural. Travel and accomodation costs are at the students' own expence. All students will be travelling for some of their 4 placements.

Participation requirements

Participation in each placement is 5 days per week for 5 weeks. Some sites may require weekend attendance. Students will be given time off in leu during the week.  Full attendance is required for accreditation and successful completion of the unit.

Placements may be outside of the ACT.

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

It is expected that students unable to fulfil these participation requirements will inform the Clinical Convenor as soon as practicable by email.


Absence from a Clinical Placement
Absence from placement activities must be reported to the clinical educator on site and clinical coordinator at UC. Failure to adhere to these requirements may result in failure of the associated assessment piece.

Consideration will be given for illness, however, evidence such as a medical certificate will be required.

Required IT skills

The use of Canvas, library searching skills, and word processing, and electronic presentation skills are necessary for this unit. If you are unfamiliar with these, please access help via the library services.

In-unit costs

Additional costs
Cost associated with a clinical placement:

  • Travel to practical and work integrated learning (clinical education) locations
  • Accommodation costs at interstate placements
  • uniform related costs and uniform maintenance

Some sites, such as Canberra Health Services, require students to pay a cash deposit to obtain a (compulsory) ID card. This money is fully refundable on return of the ID on the last day of placement.
Scholarships may be available. See Physiotherapy WIL Canvas for details.

Work placement, internships or practicums

This unit involves a 5 week clinical placement. Students must adhere to University policy during WIL experiences, including the Student Conduct Rules 2023, the WIL Policy and WIL Procedure, and the Assessment Policy and Assessment Procedure.

Contact the WIL convenors if you have any concerns with meeting the requirements of this unit.

Visiting clinical sites and work integrated learning is an essential part of the University of Canberra physiotherapy programs. This experience enables knowledge to be embedded in a clinical context with the assistance of trained clinical supervisors, and cannot be attained in any other setting. The control of access to work-integrated learning facilities derives from contractual arrangements with ACT Health, NSW Health and other hospitals, centres and practices. University of Canberra is obliged to accept the rules and regulations that govern who they will accept into those premises.
It is beyond University of Canberra's control to influence the health facilities to change their acceptability requirements.

a. UC pre-placement requirements – e.g. vaccines, manual handling, police checks etc.

As part of this unit, students are required to undertake professional placement. Students must complete their pre-placement requirements before being able to undertake professional placement. Pre-placement requirements are to be uploaded to InPlace. After these requirements are completed (uploaded to InPlace and verified (green status)), students will be allocated to their Professional Placements as required by their course of study. Pre-placement requirements are located on MyUC (https://www.canberra.edu.au/content/myuc/home/course/internships-and-placements/clinical-and-education-placements.html). Further information can be found in the WIL guidelines found on that page.

This unit has pre-placement requirements (e.g. Working with Vulnerable People registration, immunisations, recording of relevant details in InPlace etc), which must be completed prior to allocation to your placement; refer to Pre-Placement Requirements on MyUC.
Student who have not met pre-placement requirements by the specified due date will not be allocated a placement. This will result in a fail grade for the unit.


b. Industry mandatory pre-placement requirements (e.g. ACT Health & NSW e-learning modules etc.)


Some practice placement industry partners require students to complete further mandatory pre-placement requirements such as learning packages, prior to the commencing placement. Students will receive specific instructions on what Industry mandatory pre-placement requirements are required to be completed and how to upload certificates of completion. A due date will be set by the industry partner. Students are to complete the Industry mandatory pre-placement requirements and submit completion evidence as per the instructions of the specific industry partner by the due date. 


Failure to complete mandatory industry partner pre-placement requirements by the due date will result in the practice placement being cancelled. This will result in a fail grade for the unit.

Police Checks and access to Work-integrated learning (Clinical) Placements
All of the external agencies require a police check prior to permitting a student to undertake work integrated learning (clinical) placement; and the results of the police check may be used as a basis to refuse access to a clinical placement at the external agency. This decision is solely at the discretion of the external agency.


Students unable to gain access to a work-integrated (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 NC (fail) grade and will not be eligible for a refund of any fees. 


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 should note that the external agency reserves the right to withdraw access to a clinical placement at any time prior to or during a placement 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.

Privacy and confidentiality
As part of its partnership arrangements with Health Agencies, the Faculty of Health at the University of Canberra is aware of the issue of confidentiality of information gained from authentic field experiences. Students are expected to analyse their experiences from the field as part of their academic study. In order to support learning while protecting confidentiality of information, a privacy procedure has been developed. Please access at the WIL Canvas site.

Working with Vulnerable People
Clinical placements, visits to children's facilities, children's sports, residential aged care and other aged care facilities, require the student to be carrying on their person a current and valid "Working with Vulnerable People Card". This can be obtained from Canberra Connect shopfronts. You can commence the application online but must attend the shopfront to complete it. For students, this is free.

Additional information

Conflict of interest:

Students are required to declare all potential conflicts of interest. A conflict of interest is where a student has a relationship with, or private interest in, an individual or an organisation which may influence, or appear to influence, the proper performance of the student while on their internship. 

Mandatory notification and physiotherapy student registration
Under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act 2020, physiotherapy practitioners (registered physiotherapists) and education providers have an obligation to report ‘notifiable conduct', to the Physiotherapy Board of Australia in order to prevent the public being placed at risk of harm.

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

 (a) a student enrolled in a program of study provided by the provider has an impairment that, in the course of the student undertaking clinical training as part of the program of study, may place the public at substantial risk of harm; or

 (b) a student for whom the education 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 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.

All concerns raised within the Discipline of Physiotherapy or by clinical supervisors or preceptors will be reviewed by the Head of Discipline and the Course Convener before any reporting action is taken. 

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 following websites:

  1. Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Authority
  2. Physiotherapy Board of Australia, Occupational Health and Safety

Occupational Health and Safety
The following applies to all placements, tutorials and practicums:

Pre- existing conditions
Students are advised that the same warnings given to patients apply to students undertaking this course e.g. where a pre-existing condition(s) may be affected by any activity on the placement, the student is responsible to advise the clinical educator or relevant teaching staff. Please also note the inherent requirements (https://www.canberra.edu.au/content/dam/uc/documents/course-requirements/UC-Health_IR-Statement_Physiotherapy 2023.pdf) for physiotherapy.

Manual handling
Physiotherapy work requires manual handling. You will be taught the correct way to perform manual handling and should use the principles at all times to prevent injury to yourself or your client. If you have any injury that may affect your capacity to perform manual handling skills you are required to notify the unit convener before the commencement of the placement. If you obtain a new injury during the placement that may affect your capacity to perform manual handling skills you are required to notify the clinical coordinator as soon as practical. In the event of an injury being sustained during the placement you are also required to notify the clinical coordinator within 24 hours of the event and complete a UC incident form (https://www.canberra.edu.au/about-uc/report-a-hazard-or-incident).

Recording devices
 Mobile phones must be switched to silent mode or left in lockers while on placement. No cameras or videos are to be used on wards. Any person taking a picture of another student, a patient, a staff member, a member of the public, patient notes or other patient related material without permission will be requested to leave the placement and the images will be confiscated and deleted. They will also be suspended from placement and asked to meet with the ADE.

Counselling
In the course of studying physiotherapy students may be exposed to clinical cases and situations that may be stressful. At UC a free Counselling Service is available for all students. All sessions are confidential. The UC Counselling Service is located in the UC Health and Counselling Centre on Level B in Building 1. For more information please go to http://www.canberra.edu.au/health-counselling (http://www.canberra.edu.au/health-counselling)

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