Information for partners

What to expect

Dates

Attire

Our students should arrive for placement dressed in a UTS uniform (including badge), unless otherwise stated by your clinic.

Attendance

Students should not leave the placement early because of work or for a medical appointment.

Supervisor forms

Forms should be completed for students who spend between 4-10 or more sessions at your site (1 session = 0.5 days) and this will vary across the three professional practice subjects.

Please note that each clinical practice subject has a unique assessment form. Ask the student which subject they are enrolled in before completing the form.

NB. There is a unique code for each subject assessment form which is to be kept confidential.

If you have any problems completing the assessment form, please contact Felicia Adinanto via email felicia.adinanto@uts.edu.au or phone (02) 9514 4123.

Learning levels

Find out about the learning levels of students on clinical placements (PDF)

Professional Practice 1 (Year 1, Session 2)

This is the first exposure our students have to the clinical setting. Student learning is predominantly centred around observation and post assessment discussions. We encourage you to allow our students to practise clinical skills, if time and clinic flow permits, however it is not compulsory on this placement.
PP1 Supervisor Assessment Form

Professional Practice 2 and 3 (Year 2, Sessions 1 and 2)

These two clinical placement subjects are undertaken by final year students. Students have the background knowledge and the clinical skills for the assessment of patients but require hands-on exposure and real patient cases in order to consolidate their knowledge and further develop clinical skills and reasoning. These placements aim to build confidence in students’ assessment techniques so as to become “clinic-ready practitioners” by the end of the year.
PP2 Supervisor Assessment Form
PP3 Supervisor Assessment Form

How to manage students

If busy

Aim to let the student perform at least 1 test during the patient consultation – you can use that time to write up notes and keep the clinic moving.
Ask the student to identify a case they have observed during the session and to take notes of their observation. Discuss the case with them during lunchtime or at the end of the day.

If slow

Provide an opportunity for the student to develop an understanding of administrative duties such as managing bookings and billing, maintaining the rooms, stock taking, calibration of instruments, filing and phone triaging.
Find a recent interesting case and ask the student to diagnose and create a management plan from the records of the initial consultation. Compare and discuss their suggestions with the actual patient record.

Employing a student

We do not recommend that students are employed in an ophthalmic practice as it can interfere with their academic progression. However, if you wish to employ a student in your practice, please note the following:

the student cannot describe themselves as an orthoptist or include the word orthoptist in any part of their title
employment must not interfere with clinical placements or academic work load. In their final semester, students attend university and clinic in block mode. This means there are weeks in which they are attending university and clinic five days a week. The student should inform you of this in advance and ensure their employment is fitted around their university commitments.
students are not covered by university insurance on days they are employed. These means they should be covered by the practice’s insurance policy in order to have their employment covered by insurance.
we recommend that employment is offered when students have reached Semester 2 in their final year of study. This is to ensure that they have no further clinical placements at the site of employment. We will not send a student to a site for clinical placement where they are employed as this poses a conflict of interest in regards to assessment.

As students as not yet registered by the Australian Orthoptic Board (AOB) there are some clinical activities that they by law are unable to undertake, such as performing refraction. Further sonography by orthoptists is regulated by the sonographers registration with AHRPA, which permits orthoptists to perform ocular ultrasound only if registered with the AOB. These activities are permitted as part of training but if the student is employed then this negates such dispensation.