Information for hosts

The information below references the following document: Host Placement Guide.

What duties/work tasks are appropriate for students?

Students are not able to undertake work as a qualified psychologist on placement. While students may work within a clinical psychological practice or with a registered psychologist, students are not registered or suitably trained for delivering clinical services themselves. Hosts therefore are also not required to be Board approved supervisors.

Placements should provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate and develop professional skills and competencies expected in professional work settings including communication and interpersonal skills, critical thinking and problem solving, organisation, and reliability and responsibility. Further examples of these attributes are provided in Appendix B. At the end of the placement we will ask supervisors to assess students' proficiency in these areas so it will be helpful for students to have the opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities.

The structure and activities involved in each placement will differ based on the host organisation and can vary across the duration of the placement. Below are only a few ideas for activities during a professional placement.
Design and develop resources. A placement could develop educational, health promotion or marketing resources in the area of psychological health and wellbeing e.g. video and digital materials including infographics.
Data collection and analysis. Focused research placements, for example running a survey on staff which would involve data collection, data analyses, statistics, visualisation and reporting.
Literature review. A placement could include conducting a review of the literature in an area of your choosing and a summary report of the findings for your organisation.
Services aligned with mental health. Placement students could provide assistance with allied health and disability services. This could range from assisting the patient liaison officer or support with admin and daily tasks.
Professional communication roles. The placement could be focused on client/customer engagement e.g. scheduling, record keeping, admin support and communication tasks.

Duration of placement

Students will complete a research or experience-based program of work jointly defined by the host organisation and the unit coordinator. The placement requires that the student completes a maximum of 96 hours of relevant, voluntary work.

There are 12 weeks in Semester 2 which runs from July - October. Therefore, we envisage this to take the form of 1 day per week for 12 weeks but alternative time configurations are acceptable, should they suit your needs, as well as the student’s requirement to manage any existing work/study commitments. It is up to the host to decide the distribution of 96 hours of engagement across the course timeline of the placement student they would ideally like. For example, 1 day a week at 8 hours, or 2 days a week at 4 hours. The unit coordinators will try to place students in conjunction with these schedules.

We are also supportive of students undertaking placement via a hybrid format of on-site and remote hours, with a minimum of 50% of their dedicated hours on-site.

Students are asked to log the hours involved in placement including any related hours which may be completed remotely if mutually agreed by you and the student. We ask that you sign off on the log book entries to confirm authenticity.

Timeline of placement

Appendix E outlines the rights and responsibilities of the placement supervisor.
We request that you have at least 3 formal supervision meetings with the student at the start, middle and end of the placement.
- Orientation meeting. This will allow you to set goals and outline the structure of the placement, address any OHS, confidentiality and ethics requirements for the student.
- Mid-placement check in. Review participation and performance and any further goals the host or student may want to outline in the remaining time of the placement.
- End of placement review. Review and feedback of the placement, including completion of the graduate attributes form (Appendix B), in addition to career aspirations as appropriate.
We encourage additional informal supervision throughout the placement to provide guidance and opportunities for engagement across the workplace.
If there are concerns about the student and/or their performance within the placement, please contact the placement support team as soon as possible.
Work integrated learning placements are unpaid since the student is undertaking the placement as a requirement of their course of study. The student is responsible for all costs such as accommodation and travel, and for ensuring that he/she has sufficient funds to cover the placement.
Ownership of any intellectual property developed by the student during the placement will remain with the host organisation. This is outlined in Clause 8.6 of the Student Placement Agreement for hosts external to Monash University.
As per clause 12.1 of the signed Host Agreement completed prior to engagement with our placement program, all students completing an unpaid placement experience as part of their coursework are covered under Monash University’s student workplace insurance policies.
The various student workplace insurance policies cover:
- Personal accident for student injury, capital, medical and loss of income benefits. The Policy does not pay the Medicare/private health gap.
- Public liability for student’s legal liability to third parties in respect to physical injury and/or property damage caused as a result of their negligence.
- Professional indemnity for student's civil liability committed in their professional duty, but only within the limits of their training.
If the student and host organisation agree for the student to continue in a volunteer capacity past the agreed placement period, the organisation must provide their own insurance cover for the student. If an accident, injury or incident should occur while on placement, it must be reported immediately to the placement team. The placement team is responsible for reporting the incident to the university and will ensure the university procedures are followed. The importance of reporting any adverse events is reinforced to students prior to placement commencement and information is provided about support services.
Students should be made aware of any potential hazards or risks that could present during their placement period. Host organisations, and the Placement Supervisor, have an obligation to systems for a safe place of work or study and that students are not put at risk during the placement. To assist with this, students must participate in an occupational health and safety (OHS) induction as part of the orientation meeting provided by the host organisation as outlined in the Induction section below.
If at any time on placement the student feels unsafe with a potential or actual risk, it has been communicated to students they must notify their Placement Supervisor and/or the Monash placement team.
All students will have a Police Check and Working with Childrens check prior to the commencement of their placement. Please inform the placement team without delay if a placement within your organisation has other inherent requirements, such as an NDIS Worker Screening Check, vaccinations, first aid certificate, driver’s licence or any other requirement prior to placement commencement.
The placement team will support the student in obtaining any of the aforementioned checks, however if there is any in-house training relevant to these requirements please let us know and this will be communicated to students.
While on placement, it has been communicated to students the levels of professionalism and Fitness for Practice required of them to engage in their placement. Students are expected to maintain these standards and adhere to all organisational policies and procedures, particularly those related to occupational health and safety. We have requested they clarify this directly with the organisation prior to, or during their orientation/induction meeting with the Placement Supervisor.
If you have any concerns about the student’s behaviour, please contact the placement team immediately and we will follow the appropriate frameworks and procedures related to Fitness for Practice concerns. Students have been made aware of these procedures prior to placement commencement.
Students are required to be present at the workplace for the agreed-upon hours per week, as specified in their Placement Schedule, unless you have formally approved some of these hours to be completed off-site. If completing work off-site, the student should communicate to you when they sign in and off for the day.
In the event of illness or a personal or family emergency necessitating absence from the placement, students have been instructed to notify you, and the placement team, as soon as possible.
If you have any continuing concerns related to student placement attendance, please contact the placement team.
Students understand the importance of confidentiality and privacy during their placement, and that they must respect the confidentiality of all information such as personal data from interviews, surveys, organisational practices, databases, and commercially sensitive material.
Notably, students have been made aware that they are required to keep all aforementioned confidential information confidential, unless otherwise stipulated.
Students are also required to ensure that personal information, whether directly or indirectly identifiable, or anything covered by a confidentiality agreement of the organisation, is not collected for the purposes of their coursework assessment. We have also encouraged students to discuss with you how material can be presented for the purposes of assessment while preserving confidentiality.
If you have additional internal confidentiality agreements you would like the student to sign, please include these in your in-house induction.
Students may travel in a vehicle with their supervisor as part of their placement or utilise vehicles owned by the host organisation (‘fleet cars’) as needed for placement matters. However, Monash cannot provide insurance for these vehicles, as the Monash University Public Liability policy excludes motor liabilities, and therefore insurance remains under “third party liability” cover of the vehicle concerned. There should be no expectation for students to use their personal vehicle for the purposes of placement related activities.
Placement providers are required to provide students with an appropriate orientation and induction to the workplace either in person or online, including: the structure, function and code of conduct of the organisation; IT systems; safety and emergency procedures, including those relating to occupational aggression and violence, workplace injury and making claims of harassment and bullying; quality and infection control; any relevant mandatory training; privacy and confidentiality; scope of practice; student support; any specific organisational and/or professional requirements.
The University OHS Guidelines for Work Integrated WIL Student Placement and Co-Curricular Internships include the requirement that students complete a Health and Safety Briefing and complete an Induction Checklist before they start engaging in work or professional activities at their placement.
Health and Safety briefings should cover:
- Basic workplace health and safety issues e.g. emergency evacuation procedures, First Aid, Hazard & Incident reporting.
- Significant safety issues, which are specific to the type of work being undertaken (e.g. ergonomics, manual handling or infection control).
- For significant risk organisations should also cover significant safety issues that are specific to the type of work being undertaken, e.g. the procedure to be followed where a student may encounter violent or aggressive behaviour, infection control follow - up or chemical spill procedures.
Throughout the placement students will:
- Students will not be excused from placement due to other work and study commitments and are responsible for ensuring commitments do not conflict with placements. Full time students must be available to attend full time placements.
- Students must be able to undertake shift work or after hours work if required within a placement (for some courses this may include night shift and shifts on weekends and public holidays).
- Students must notify appropriate staff in a timely manner when unable to attend an allocated placement.
- Students must be ready to begin their placement day at the designated start time, which in some cases may mean arriving at the venue 15 minutes prior to start time.
- A student may become ill during placement and be unable to complete the required hours due to injury or another event. If this circumstance occurs the unit coordinator and the placement supervisor MUST be notified.
- Students MUST consider whether attending placement with an illness will pose a risk to people whose immunity may already be compromised, as well as putting colleagues and themselves at risk.
- In the event of running late for a placement, the student MUST contact their placement educator/supervisor by telephone and advise the relevant person of the anticipated time of arrival. Text messages or emails are not acceptable unless students receive amended advice from their unit coordinator or delegate.
- In the event of being unable to attend a placement, students MUST inform their immediate workplace supervisor by telephone as soon as possible but no later than 15 minutes prior to the commencement of the roster or shift and tell them they will not be reporting for their placement. Text messages or emails are not acceptable unless students receive amended advice from their unit coordinator or delegate.
- In the event of being unable to attend a placement, students MUST also contact the Unit Coordinator or delegate by email and advise that they are unable to commence or complete the shift, or continue a placement and must also provide written reasons for this absence to the relevant Unit Coordinator or delegate within 24 hours.
- Students need to be aware that circumstances outside of the control of the University may necessitate a very late change (right up to the day of the commencement of the placement) to their placement allocation. Students MUST check their Monash email account and the relevant Moodle site on a daily basis.
- Students MUST declare any planned absences well in advance ideally giving a semester’s notice. This leave will be recorded as absent days.
- Students will not be excused from placement due to other work and study commitments and are responsible for ensuring commitments do not conflict with placements. Full time students must be available to attend full time placements.
- Students must be able to undertake shift work or after hours work if required within a placement (for some courses this may include night shift and shifts on weekends and public holidays).
- Students must notify appropriate staff in a timely manner when unable to attend an allocated placement.
- Students must be ready to begin their placement day at the designated start time, which in some cases may mean arriving at the venue 15 minutes prior to start time.
- A student may become ill during placement and be unable to complete the required hours due to injury or another event. If this circumstance occurs the unit coordinator and the placement supervisor MUST be notified.
- Students MUST consider whether attending placement with an illness will pose a risk to people whose immunity may already be compromised, as well as putting colleagues and themselves at risk.
- In the event of running late for a placement, the student MUST contact their placement educator/supervisor by telephone and advise the relevant person of the anticipated time of arrival. Text messages or emails are not acceptable unless students receive amended advice from their unit coordinator or delegate.
- In the event of being unable to attend a placement, students MUST inform their immediate workplace supervisor by telephone as soon as possible but no later than 15 minutes prior to the commencement of the roster or shift and tell them they will not be reporting for their placement. Text messages or emails are not acceptable unless students receive amended advice from their unit coordinator or delegate.
- In the event of being unable to attend a placement, students MUST also contact the Unit Coordinator or delegate by email and advise that they are unable to commence or complete the shift, or continue a placement and must also provide written reasons for this absence to the relevant Unit Coordinator or delegate within 24 hours.
- Students need to be aware that circumstances outside of the control of the University may necessitate a very late change (right up to the day of the commencement of the placement) to their placement allocation. Students MUST check their Monash email account and the relevant Moodle site on a daily basis.
- Students MUST declare any planned absences well in advance ideally giving a semester’s notice. This leave will be recorded as absent days.

Psychological Sciences

Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

Information for hosts

What duties/work tasks are appropriate for students?

Duration of placement

Timeline of placement