Clinical Practice in Exercise Physiology 1 (9379.2)

Required texts

Required Textbooks:  None for this unit.

Students are encouraged to purchase the following book from Exercise and Sports Science Australia (website) as a resource for assessment and outcome measure protocols.

• Marlow, N., Hastings, K., Hansson, J. Exercise and Sports Science Australia's Outcome Measures for Exercise Physiologists: Ensuring Evidence-Based Practice. ISBN 978-0-9873065-9-3.

This book can only be ordered through the ESSA website, and is available for purchase in hardcopy or PDF. If students choose to order the PDF copy, it is their responsibilty to bring/print out any required pages for use throughout the unit or associated placements.

Website link:
1. PDF ($44.00): www.essa.org.au/ItemDetail?iProductCode=OUTCOME%20MEAS&Category=DVD&WebsiteKey=b4460de9-2eb5-46f1-aeaa-3795ae70c687

2. Hardcopy ($88.00): www.essa.org.au/ItemDetail?iProductCode=OUTCOME%20MEASURE&Category=DVD&WebsiteKey=b4460de9-2eb5-46f1-aeaa-3795ae70c687

Required Reading:

• Exercise Physiology Student Clinical Placement Handbook 2020

• ESSA Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct

• Other Codes of Conduct required for placement (UC, ACT Health, NSW Health, relevant organisations)

Other useful resources:

• Erham, J.K, Gordon, P.M, Visich, P.S & Keteyian S.J., (Eds.) (2017). Clinical Exercise Physiology, (4th ed.). Champaign, Il, Human Kinetics.

• Heywood, V.H. (2010). Advanced Fitness Assessment and Exercise Prescription (6th ed.). Champaign, Il, Human Kinetics.

• ESSA Position Statements: www.essa.org.au/Public/Advocacy/Position_Statements/Public/Advocacy/Position_Statements.aspx?hkey=c2c01874-ffdc-4a20-adb9-42e6d3d020a7

Submission of assessment items

Extensions & Late submissions

Where the supervisor(s) at a placement site are not able to provide students with the completed placement documentation (signed Smartabase entries; competency assessment forms; feedforward forms) by the due date, the student must notify the Unit Convenor to be given an approved extension, as appropriate for the circumstance.

Students may request an extension or changes to an allocated clinical placement, if:

• There are grounds for compassion (evidence is required)
• The student is suffering from an illness (a medical certificate is required)
• There are extenuating circumstance (evidence is required)

Where this occurs, it cannot be guaranteed that a replacement clinical placement that meets the same accreditation and assessment requirements will be able to be sourced and provided within the standard timeframe of this Unit. This may extend the timeframe needed for that student to undertake the required placement activities and attain competency for completion of the Unit, and the overall course.

LATE HAND IN POLICY

When a student does not submit an assessment task on or before the due date and time, their mark will be reduced by five percentage points per day from the total mark available (e.g. if an assessment was submitted three days late a mark of 70% would be reduced to 55%, or put another way, if a student was awarded 21 out of 30 and submitted three days late their mark would be reduced to 16.5 out of 30), up to a maximum of seven days at which time the assignment will no longer be accepted, unless there are approved extenuating circumstances.

Special assessment requirements

Students must attempt all assessments in this unit, and must gain an overall grade of 50% to pass this unit.

Students must complete their placement requirements within the provided performance assessment criteria, including professional behaviour.

All marked assessments will be moderated in accordance with the University's moderation policy. Placement performance will be moderated by the Unit Convenor and Clinical Placement Convenor.

Supplementary assessment

If a student fails a clinical practice unit based on their supervisor competency assessment or their professional behaviour, they will be offered the opportunity to undertake an additional supplementary placement at a different time. The timing of the supplementary placement will depend on placement availability, and circumstances surrounding the failure of the initial placement.

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 Unit requires students to be organised and self-manage their learning and placement activities appropriately in balance with other time commitments. It is important that students prioritise that, in additional to on campus classes, their engagement with the online activities, placement preparation activities, independent skills practice and placement (during semester and mid-year blocks) are all part of the required workload of this Unit.

Participation requirements

This unit contains placement activities that are essential to meeting the requirements for exercise physiology accreditation with ESSA (Exercise and Sports Science Australia). https://www.essa.org.au/Public/Professional_Standards/The_professional_standards.aspx

All students must have completed and signed the University of Canberra Student Agreeement Form prior to undertaking any placement in this unit. If this was not completed as part of previous WIL units (Research and Professional Practice B), students will be required to complete this form by Week 1 of semester.

As a minimum, all students are required to meet all of the pre-placement requirements specified by the Faculty of Health for Exercise Physiology before commencing placement in Semester 1 (other than Manual Handling): https://www.canberra.edu.au/current-students/canberra-students/work-integrated-learning/prepare-current-students/health

For different placement sites, there may be additional pre-placement requirements. Students who are allocated to sites with additional requirements will be notified and provided specific information to be able to satisfy these prior to their placement commencing.

Students are expected to adopt professional practices when undertaking placement, particularly informing their clinical supervisor if they cannot attend at any time due to illness, etc.
For further information on placement requirements, students should refer to the University's Professional Practice Guidelines and the 2019 Student Clinical Exercise Physiology Placement manual.

Students will be allocated to their placements by the Clinical Placement Convener. Students should anticipate that one or more of their placements may require travel (including accommodation) outside of the ACT area. Placement allocation will be done fairly and equitibly to ensure students meet accreditation requirements as well as having opportunity to attend a variety of placement learning environments and experiences. Where possible, allocation will take into consideration student personal information or circumstances but this cannot be guaranteed to change/affect placements that students are allocated to.

Failure to participate in the allocated placement opportunities given may result in the student's inability to progress in their degree until such times as placement participation requirements can be met.

Required IT skills

It is expected that all students will have basic word-processing skills and appropriate IT skills for using UCLearn to access relevant course material and information, and submitting assignments. For training and support please contact https://learnonline.canberra.edu.au/studentSupport.php or the Library.
 

Students in this unit are also required to regularly engage with online placement management platforms, including InPlace and Smartabase, and a range of exercise prescriptions and practice software at their various placement sites.

In-unit costs

Students will need to purchase at least two University of Canberra Exercise Physiology polo shirts, and a University of Canberra name badge, if they do not already have them. Students will be expected to wear both items as part of their clinical practice attire to all placements.

Students may be assigned to clinical placement outside of the ACT region and required to travel and support accommodation needs at their own expense. There may be some funding opportunites for students to apply for in order to assist with expenses for placement outside of the ACT region. Students need to contact the UC Placement Office for further information.

Work placement, internships or practicums

In addition to undertaking weekly placement (no more than 10hrs/week) during the Semester, you will be allocated to placements during the mid-year blocks.

The amount of hours completed during this unit will vary between students. If you are concerned about your placement hours, please contact the Unit convenor to discuss this early in the semester so that an appropriate plan can be developed, if required.

You should have already completed the 140 Exercise Science hours by the end of 3rd year. If you have not yet completed this or are concerned whether your hours meet the ESSA requirements, please make a time to discuss this with the Unit convenor in the first few weeks of semester.

Additional information

Announcements made during O-Week, the weekly workshops and/or via UCLearn for this Unit will be deemed to have been received by all students.

• Semester 1, 2020, Flexible, UC - Canberra, Bruce (193215)
• Semester 1, 2019, Flexible, UC - Canberra, Bruce (189179)
• Semester 1, 2018, On-campus, UC - Canberra, Bruce (180068)
• Semester 1, 2017, Flexible, UC - Canberra, Bruce (169346)
• Semester 1, 2016, Internship, UC - Canberra, Bruce (154593)
• Semester 1, 2015, Internship, UC - Canberra, Bruce (148049)