Professional Experience Placement (PEP)

Students will be allocated PEP within individual health care agencies. Students must be available 5 days a week (40 hours) during the allocated PEP, and must be prepared to undertake a range of shifts – morning, evening and nightshift, which may include weekends, as per roster provided by the healthcare agency. Students may be expected to relocate and are expected to travel to where PEP is available. To be eligible to undertake PEP, all students must be ‘Verified’ as meeting College of Health and Medicine PEP Safety in Practice Compliance as per the Course Entry Requirements.

Students who cannot or do not comply with these requirements will not be allocated PEP and therefore will not be able to complete this unit.

PEP dates MAY differ from University of Tasmania calendar semester dates.

In order to commence PEP, you must:

• Complete and submit all pre-placement compliance documentation as outlined on the PEP Website. Please adhere to the timelines that are outlined in the Safety in Practice Student Compliance Documentation Guidelines and Procedure.

In order to pass PEP, you must:

• Demonstrate the necessary capability in practice for this particular unit of study against the NMBA’s Registered Nurse Standards for Practice (2016) as evidenced in your PEP workbook;
• Attend 100% of the allocated PEP hours.

Missed Attendance at PEP

In the event of being unable to attend a placement, it is your responsibility to:

• Notify the facilitator/preceptor and the health care agency administration office prior to the commencement of the shift to be missed;
• Notify the School of Nursing via the absence from PEP form including uploading supporting documentation;
• Log absence in PEP workbook and have signed by a Registered Nurse. NOTE: Students are not automatically permitted to make-up missed PEP time. If a student has missed any of the allocated time for PEP for any reason, including illness or extenuating circumstances, they may be required to repeat the unit of study.

Unsatisfactory Performance in PEP

In accordance with the NMBA Registered Nurse Standards for Practice (2016), a clinical facilitator/preceptor may assess a student’s performance in PEP as unsatisfactory for reasons including unsafe practice, under developed practice skills or illness during the placement making achievement of unit objectives unrealistic.

Please Note: The School of Nursing has responsibility for determining final assessment results and reviews unsatisfactory PEP assessment at the end of semester only.

Withdrawal from PEP

A student can be withdrawn from PEP in the situations listed in the College of Health and Medicine PEP Risk Management Procedure.