Advanced Rural or Urban Practice

The focus of this unit will be on the student developing a higher level of professional skills and competencies, and advancing their professional reasoning skills and reflective practices through the integration of practical and theoretical unit components. This unit will provide students with an opportunity to further integrate their learning gained from previous practice education. Students will complete a minimum of 380 hours which includes a 10 week supervised practice education placement with flexible support from the university. The placement will be either rural or urban and will enable the student to advance their ability to apply, develop, analyse and integrate the theories, principles and practice of occupational therapy in a variety of settings. Students may be required to undertake placements in a facility away from the campus at which they are currently enrolled, at their own expense.

The following documentation has substantially informed the syllabus/content of this unit: The Ahpra and National Boards’ Shared Code of Conduct (2022); Australian Occupational Therapy Competency Standards (2018); National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards (2017); National Standards for Mental Health 2020 as based on Mental Health Act 2014; Aged Care Quality Standards (2021); National Digital Health Framework (2021); and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Curriculum Framework (2020).

The ten week (380 hours full-time) practice placement is the core teaching and learning activity within NHPOT4022 and all assessment tasks relate to preparation for, and experiences and knowledge gained from this placement. During the placement students will have the opportunity to put into practice the theories, knowledge, and skills attained from previous units within the Occupational Therapy course.