Most the time, students are the ones arranging their placement and they are responsible for ensuring they do not commence placement prior to all the necessary approvals and paperwork being in place. That said, sometimes clinics prefer to arrange their approvals themselves. Either way, as long as everything is in place prior to the student starting – then everyone is covered.
Prior to starting a placement, there are three steps all students must complete to ensure placement can count towards their course, and that the appropriate insurance is in place to protect the clinic and the student. For students employed by the veterinary clinic, clinic and mentor approval happens during student induction.
These should be done in the order below to ensure that every requirement is met prior to the student starting in the clinic. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure all steps are completed, and we will notify the student and clinic when they are good to start.
Students are asked to allow a minimum of three weeks for steps 2 & 3 to be arranged and confirmed prior to the commencement of the placement. Often the approval process is much quicker, but sometimes we need further details before we can put approvals in place.
Placement cannot start until we have confirmed the student is ready to go and insurance is in place.
1.
All students must complete their first two subjects before they enter the clinic for placement. These are ‘Health and Safety at Work’ and ‘Safe Animal Handling Techniques’. We want the student to be aware of the dangers of working in a veterinary clinic and around animals, and have some underlying knowledge before they arrive.
Of course, common sense dictates they should also complete all the theory that relates to the placement prior to starting. This ensures they have learnt the necessary background theory which will better prepare them for their time in clinic as well as their practical assessments.
2.
Both the clinic and the clinical mentors must have ACVN approval.
Learn more about being a:
Clinical mentor Registered training clinic
3.
To keep everything legal and insured, a Clinical Placement Agreement must be completed by all parties for placements to ensure insurance coverage is in place and legislative requirements are met.
The University of Queensland, trading as UQ Skills, RTO ID: 1511, will contact you direct with the placement agreement.
All our students are covered by insurance under a policy held by our RTO partner they are enrolled with during their clinical placements. For most students this is under UQ Skills, however some of our older students are still enrolled with QATC (until the end of 2019).
This insurance covers:
To have this insurance arranged, the agreement form must be completed and returned prior to the relevant work experience period.