Clinical Placement Requirements for Healthcare Students
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The document provides guidance for student health professionals undertaking a clinical placement at SA Health sites.
Hosting Health Care Students on Clinical Placement
From July 2023, the Clinical
Placement for Student Health Professionals Policy is in place, which outlines mandatory requirements for education providers and clinical supervisors and educators to facilitate student clinical placements.
The South Australian approach to ensuring strong and healthy relationships between health services and education providers has resulted in a state-wide strategy with a focus on providing students with the best possible learning opportunities.
This will assist them to become highly competent and flexible clinicians, who will in turn educate and support the next generation of health care professionals.
Clinical pre-placement requirements
All education providers wanting to request health care placements within SA Health must have a current SA Health Clinical Placement Agreement which is centrally managed by Better Placed.
For further details please select this link to the Clinical Placement Agreements.
If a health site has agreed to take a student from an education provider who does not have a current Clinical Placement Agreement, you will need to contact the Better Placed Office to request this to be set up. Placements cannot commence until this is finalised.
Note that students are not to contact health sites directly.
Education providers must ensure that all students have completed the mandatory SA Health pre-placement requirements, as well as any site or disciple specific requirements prior to commencing the clinical placement.
Refer to the Clinical Placement Requirements for Healthcare Students (PDF 1MB) document.
Placeright™ for Staff
Placeright is the mandatory online clinical placement management system for all SA Health staff to book and manage clinical placements.
Placeright is a secure online system that can be accessed by both health sites and education providers to record placement activity.
The implementation of Placeright has supported the formalisation and streamlining of the clinical placement administration processes. A major advantage of the system is that it provides live placement information for both the health site and the education provider and has the ability to provide reports.
Existing communication and relationships between health sites and education providers remain an essential aspect of clinical placement management.
Education providers must request placements through Placeright; allied and scientific health, nursing, midwifery and dentistry placements are recorded in the system.
Sunrise EMR Access
Students who are accessing SA Health sites that are Sunrise live will need to complete their training requirements at least four weeks prior to their first day on placement. These details are then uploaded in Placeright by the education provider.
Download the Student Sunrise EMR access fact sheet (PDF 250KB)
To learn more about the process refer to the Information and resources for education providers page.
Contact: Health.StudentHADActivations@sa.gov.au
For SA Health Staff only – Refer to the SA Health Better Placed intranet pages for additional resources and information.
Frequently Asked Questions
The following questions and answers may be of assistance when hosting a health care student clinical placement within SA Health.
How are student placements arranged in SA Health sites?
The education provider is responsible for arranging and requesting clinical placements at SA Health facilities. Students should not contact SA Health staff directly to arrange individual placements.
What is PlacerightTM?
Placeright is a secure, web-based information system that helps SA Health student placement providers plan and administer student placements with partnered education providers.
Setting up and confirming a placement booking in Placeright is the final step in negotiating and accepting a placement in SA Health. It is the only platform used to manage clinical placements and collect official student related activity.
Clinical supervisors are required to record attendance of all students on clinical placement in SA Health.
For more information on Placeright please download the Better Placed Factsheet - Introduction to Clinical Placement Management, Better Placed team and Placeright (PDF 341KB).
When would I require access to Placeright?
Placement staff and education providers are required to record and administer all clinical placements through Placeright for all health professions in scope. You may need access if:
- Your role involves the supervision, coordination, allocation and management of clinical placements for your profession;
- You need to generate clinical placement activity reports;
- You need to view placement allocations and or student details within your ward/department; or
- You are responsible for student rostering and attendance marking.
How do I arrange access to Placeright?
Placeright accounts are managed by the Better Placed Clinical Placement Coordination Team.
If it is determined that you require Placeright access as part of your role, a new user access form must be completed and signed by your manager. You can download the Placeright TM user form from the SA Health Intranet.
What should I do if my site needs to cancel a confirmed placement in Placeright?
Clinical placement demand can exceed availability. It is important to consider if a placement could be reallocated to another ward location / health service within the Local Health Network or Region prior to cancelling a confirmed booking
There may be varying reasons why a placement needs to be cancelled; early notification will allow education providers time to find another suitable placement opportunity for the student/s.
If when cancelling a confirmed booking an explanatory note needs be written; refer to the Managing Student Cancellations fact sheet (PDF 1MB).
How do I know if the student has met the pre-placement requirements?
Education providers have a responsibility to ensure students are fully prepared for their clinical placement including of all pre-placement requirements.
Health site staff should be confident that each student’s pre-placement requirements have been completed by the placement start date.
If Health staff request to sight relevant student documents (for example a completed “Clinical Placement Deed Poll” or immunisation checklist) the student is required to provide this.
What supervisor training is available?
SA Health is supporting Allied Health Professionals working within their Local Health Network in accessing appropriate and effective online training modules.
Staff can choose from a range of training options to gain the skills to supervise students on placement.
These options are available on the Professional development and training in allied health web page.
Online PlacerightTM eModules
- PlacerightTM Unit Managers – This module is aimed at nursing and midwifery staff in managerial roles that are responsible for overseeing the coordination of placements. Staff gain the skills and knowledge required to monitor and record student related activities.
- PlacerightTM Clinical Placement and Site Administrators – This module is aimed at Clinical Educators/Clinical Placement Coordinators and staff who are involved in the coordination, negotiation and allocation of students.
- PlacerightTM Supervisors – This module is aimed at Clinical Supervisors supervising students on placement and responsible for arranging a placement schedule and recording attendance/timesheets.
These modules are available to SA Health staff via Digital Media e-Learning. The Access Key is available on the Country Health WIKI or SA Health Allied and Scientific Health Intranet page.
My student has started placement, how do I arrange Sunrise login?
You don’t need to arrange Sunrise access. The student HAD/Sunrise EMR accounts are created centrally by the Better Placed Student Sunrise EMR Access Team.
The team checks Placeright to make sure Sunrise training has been completed by the student prior to placement.
How will the student HAD/Sunrise EMR login details be received?
Once the Sunrise EMR Access Team has checked that all students belonging to an individual PlacerightTM booking are ‘ready for login’ they will email the student login details to the clinical educator or site supervisor at the health site location the students will be undertaking their placement.
Once received it is the health site staff’s responsibility to pass the login information onto the students.
What is the expected timeframe for receiving student HAD/Sunrise EMR login details?
The Sunrise EMR Access Team aims to provide health site staff with student login details at least two weeks prior to the placement commencement date to accommodate late student changes by education providers.
Late requests or the addition/removal of students due to ‘Extenuating Circumstances’ from a booking may delay the emailing out of student login details.
If concerns arise that students won’t have their login details by their first day of placement, please contact the team on (08) 8463 6333 or via email at Health:StudentHADActivations@sa.gov.au.
What Criminal and Relevant History Screening does the student need?
All students are required to comply with the SA Health Criminal and Relevant History Screening Policy Directive prior to attending their first day on placement.
For further information please refer SA Health Criminal and Relevant History Screening Policy Directive (PDF 1.1MB).
What Immunisation does my student need?
SA Health services are required to protect health care workers and other employees, workers, patients and visitors, including students, by immunising in accordance with the Addressing vaccine preventable disease: Occupational assessment, screening and vaccination policy.
Please refer to the Addressing vaccine preventable disease: Occupational assessment, screening and vaccination policy for the immunisation requirements of students on clinical placement.
All clinical placement students are required to comply with the policy.
What if a student is unable to complete the clinical placement?
If a student has commenced the placement and is unable to complete the required hours, the education provider must be notified.
To finalise the student placement in Placeright, record an explained absence note in the attendance marking tab against the date the student finished. Notes written must maintain student confidentiality.
Further information
For general enquires: BetterPlaced@sa.gov.au
For student Sunrise EMR access enquiries: Health.StudentHADActivations@sa.gov.au