This information is for education providers who need to arrange a clinical placement in a health facility for their students as a component of the practical training requirement related to their health profession course or module of study.
Contacting the health facility
To organise a placement within a Queensland Health facility, the education provider’s placement coordinator must contact the local Queensland Health facility’s placement coordinator to negotiate placement availability and details.
Preparing a Student Placement Schedule (Schedule 3)
Once both parties have agreed to the terms of the placement, Schedule 3 must be completed. This is legally required for each placement before students are able to commence their placement. The Schedule is a planning and recording tool outlining the placement details to which both parties have agreed.
It is the education provider’s responsibility to provide two signed copies of the completed Schedule to the Queensland Health delegate for appropriate countersigning. Please refer to the Schedule Signatory List [PDF 328.54 KB] for the relevant signatory. Each party will keep one originally signed copy.
Please note that a Schedule can include a number of students from the same education provider and also a number of facilities within the Queensland Health. They must, however, be discipline-specific. Please refer to the Schedule 3 Completion Notes [PDF 544.3 KB] for more details.
Visiting students during their placement
Any staff member visiting students at a Queensland Health facility needs to complete a Supervisor Deed Poll. This document requires staff visiting students to familiarise themselves with Queensland Health’s privacy and confidentiality requirements, and is required to be completed before attending the hospital or health facility.
A copy of the Supervisor Deed Poll [PDF 844.2 KB] will need to be provided to the relevant Hospital and Health Service.
Record retention period for clinical placement records
A new Health Sector (Corporate Records) Retention and Disposal Schedule was authorised by the Queensland State Archives on 4 November 2020.
The Department of Health and Hospital and Health Services manage Student Placement Deeds and associated Department-generated documents as per the General Retention and Disposal Schedule for Administrative Records (GRDS) and the newly approved Health Sector (Corporate Records) Retention and Disposal Schedule.
The GRDS requires that student placement records for students must be retained for 25 years after the qualification is awarded to the student OR 25 years after the student withdraws from the course, whichever is later. Student records may include, but are not limited to, the Student Placement Deed, Schedules, orientation lists, roster and supervision details, correspondence, observation, evaluations, assessments and reports.
New record keeping requirements have been included in new legal instruments for the clinical placements program commencing July 2022.
Record keeping for students under the age of 18 years
Students under the age of 18 years are classified as ‘vulnerable persons’ under the GRDS, requiring additional, proactive protections of their legal rights and entitlements. It is recommended that education providers and Queensland Health staff complete, collect, and retain placement records relating to students under the age of 18 separately to other students, so that they are easily identifiable.