PART A - Attendance and clinical requirements
As a health care professional your attendance is relied upon for the provision of quality patient care. Your absence and or tardiness impacts service delivery and safe patient care. It is expected that you attend 100% of the scheduled time during the clinical placement to achieve the required clinical attendance. All hours worked must be entered into the clinical attendance form in your logbook. This e-form must be signed by your clinical supervisor.
The clinical attendance form is available in your logbook.
Public holidays are included as hours worked. You can log your shift hours worked for each public holiday. These do not need to be 'made up'.
Any time you are away from your clinical institution, you MUST supply a verifiable supporting document indicating why you have not attended. Both your clinical supervisor and the unit coordinator MUST be informed by you of any absences from your clinical placement. Any absence for part, or all of, a working day must be made up during the clinical placement.
Interns will have the opportunity at the discretion of the clinic supervisor and unit coordinator to go on an external clinical placement. All interns are required to attend Junior Clinic. The placement will be decided based on the students’ performance and progress towards reaching their clinical requirements and assessments. Interns will be responsible for ensuring all components of the Work Integrated Learning (WIL) agreement is completed in advance.
During your time in clinic, you MUST complete your clinical requirements as detailed in the clinic manual (This term the targets are 100 treatments, 15 new patients consultations, 2 systemic examinations, 20 radiology reports 10 radiographic positioning encounters and lab investigations AND/OR meet the final totals required for the year of 300 treatments, 50 new patient consultations, 6 systemic examinations for each system, 45 radiology reports, 30 radiography positioning and 10 lab investigations). The logbook MUST be kept UP TO DATE as logbook audits will be performed periodically throughout the term. It is your responsibility to ensure that all of these requirements are completed in order to attain a pass for this assessment.
PART B - Overall Clinical Performance and Competency Assessments
Clinical placement occurs in a professional workplace. As a clinical student you are provided access to that workplace on the condition that you demonstrate behaviours and attributes of a healthcare professional and present a positive image to the staff and clients. As a student in the chiropractic profession in Australia, you are required to be in consistent compliance with the AHPRA Code of Conduct for Chiropractors (AHPRA Code of Conduct for Chiropractors).
This assessment considers your ability to communicate professionally with a diverse cultural audience of patients, staff and the general public, demonstrate professional respect for all, and function as a reliable, competent, well organised member of the health team.
This term as you approach the end of your studies, you will be required to complete some of these tasks within a specified time frame such tasks are indicated by (timed component). The time allowed will vary depending on the clinical case being assessed and will be discussed and decided on by the supervisor and intern.
It is your responsibility to ensure that the following competencies are completed by the end of week 10:

• 2 History taking scenarios (time component)

• 1 Physical examination

• 1 Systemic examination

• 3 Treatments – including soft tissue, manipulation, and advice (time component)

• 1 Rehab session

• 2 Report of findings including gaining informed consent (time component)

• 1 Professionalism in patient management (examples of things to be assessed observation of modesty, awareness of culture, discretion, environment considerations)

• 1 Communication in patient management (range of possible scenarios to be assessed examples include non-compliance, patient who is feeling worse, patient that crosses boundaries)

• 2 File audits including case management rationale and compliance

• 2 Overall clinical competence assessments (OCCA) (one formative during week 5 and one summative which will be completed during week 11- or as indicated by Clinical Staff)

Your clinical supervisor, or delegate, will be working with you, directly observing your day-to-day performance, and/or obtaining feedback from supervising chiropractors who are doing so. These observations and completed competencies relating to your demonstrated knowledge, skills and behaviours over the term, will contribute to the grades awarded in the final Overall Clinical Competence Assessment provided on Moodle.
There are seven main sections to the OCCA form:
· Section 1: Professional Behaviour
· Section 2: Communication
· Section 3: Patient Assessment
· Section 4: Clinical Reasoning and Planning
· Section 5: Interventions / Management
· Section 6: Evidence-based/Informed Practice
· Section 7: Documentation
In each of the 7 sections there are multiple observable behaviours that you are REQUIRED to demonstrate throughout your placement. It is your responsibility to ensure that these are successfully completed. Your assessor will score your performance based on how frequently and to the extent you demonstrate each of the listed behaviours and your completed competency feedback. Your assessor is also encouraged to provide comments to expand on the scoring feedback. This assessment occurs twice during the placement. The first occurs at the mid-placement point (week 5, or as indicated by Clinical Staff). The mid-placement OCCA is a formative discussion, meaning its function is to provide you and your unit coordinator with formal documented feedback on your performance, but for the formative assessment there are no minimum required scores contributing to your final grade. You are expected to use that feedback to reflect on your performance, develop an action plan to address any areas of performance that are not yet at the target level for this placement, and use the remaining weeks to achieve those targets. For any behaviour that you score well on at the mid-placement assessment, it is expected that you will continue to meet that level of performance or surpass it for the rest of the placement.
The second OCCA assessment occurs toward the end of the second last week of the placement (week 11, or as indicated by Clinical Staff). The end-of-placement OCCA assessment is summative, in that its primary use is to evaluate and document your competence and performance relative to the stated competence targets. The minimum required scores are listed in the Assessment Criteria section below. Your final overall grade in this assessment depends on where you stand relative to those performance targets.
The OCCA form and marking criteria is available in the assessment block in the unit Moodle site. A copy has been given to the clinical supervisors. It is your responsibility to read the OCCA form carefully to ensure that you understand the criteria against which your professional and clinical behaviour will be evaluated. Your clinical supervisor will meet with you after completing each assessment to discuss it with you. This is your opportunity to get timely clarification on any score or comment on the assessment. Once you have had that discussion, you both need to sign and date the assessment. You should complete a brief summary of the discussion. It is your responsibility to ensure that each completed assessment form has all required documentation, including the name, and dated signature of your assessor as well as your dated signature. Your supervisor will provide you with a copy of the completed assessment form. You will then upload the OCCA and all completed competency assessments into the Moodle assessment item.
It is your responsibility to ensure that you remind your clinical supervisor at least one week prior to the assessment that it needs to be done, and book a meeting with him/her toward the end of the week that the assessment is due. This gives your supervisor the opportunity to collect and review feedback. Competencies should be completed by week 10 so that the final summative OCCA meeting can take place in week 11 (or as indicated by Clinical Staff).
If there are extenuating circumstances at the clinical facility that prevent you from being assessed during the required weeks, you must contact the unit coordinator in a timely manner. This will require obtaining approval for an assessment extension via the unit Moodle site. It is also your responsibility to ensure regular access to the technology needed to upload your assessment by the submission due dates. In the absence of an approved assessment extension, if you have not met all of the requirements listed in the Assessment Criteria section by the stated due dates, you will fail this assessment, and because this is a pass/fail course that means you will receive a Fail grade for the unit.
On occasion, clinical sites inform us of student behaviours which either: compromise the reputation of the clinical site and/or the University, compromise patient / staff safety and/or well-being or breach the Code of Conduct for Chiropractors (examples of such behaviours include but are not limited to - data protection violations, radiation guideline violations, failure to complete file documentation, violation of approved treatment plans etc). In these instances students are notified that they must cease attendance at the clinical site and discuss their position with the unit coordinator and head of course. This may result in applying student behavioural misconduct procedures in line with the CQUniversity Student Behavioural Misconduct Procedure.
All clinical requirements and competencies must be completed by March 21st, 2025, as outlined in the logbook.  If tasks are not completed by March 21st, 2025, the unit will need to be repeated at its next available offering.  

PART A

To pass this assessment you must achieve a minimum of 168 hours (12 X 14 hours - 3.5hrs x 3 clinic shifts/week, 3.5hrs x 1 radio/recept shifts/week) of clinical attendance AND provide documented evidence of completion of the clinical requirements (Both term and final year totals see above for required numbers). Any days away from your clinical site must be documented and approved prior to leave being taken and must be signed by the primary clinical supervisor and reception. In addition, it is your responsibility to make this time up. Any shortfall in clinical requirement numbers or attendance hours must be completed before this task can be awarded a passing grade.

PART B

The criteria for assessment are detailed on the OCCA form, which details behaviours, attributes and competency assessments that will contribute to your score. The assessor will use the stated not assessed (NA), 0,1,2,3 or 4 point scale to indicate the frequency and extent to which you demonstrate each. The required behaviours, attributes and competency assessments are grouped into 7 sections (examples of material that will inform your score are detailed in bullet point form -this list is not exhaustive -see scoring indicators on Moodle for further information), each section has its own minimum required scores.  Your OCCA will in part be informed by performance during JR Clinic activities. 

For Section 1: Professional Behaviour demonstrated during:

· Systemic examinations

· Radiography competency

· Daily observations

For Section 2: Communication during:

· History taking competency

· Physical examination competency

· Report of findings competency

· Adjustive technique competency

· Written interprofessional skills

· Communication within the clinic environment with peers and staff

· Daily observations

For Section 3: Patient Assessment during:

· History taking competency

· Physical examination competency

· Rehabilitation functional screen

· Physical examination planning discussions

· Daily observations

For Section 4: Clinical Reasoning and Planning during:

· History taking competency

· Physical examination competency

· Case summary presentations/discussions

· Case summary write ups

· Daily observations

For Section 5: Interventions / management during:

· Case summary presentations

· Case summary write ups

· Adjustive technique competency

· Rehabilitation skills

· Patient records management

· Daily observations

For Section 6: Evidence-based/informed Practice during:

· Case summary write ups

o Treatment plans

o Prognosis

o Outcome measures

· Report of findings competency

· Case management

· Daily observations

For Section 7: Documentation and risk management during:

· File audit competency x 2

· Interprofessional communication (verbal or written)

· Daily observations

For each of the 7 sections there are multiple required behaviours.

The minimum required score to be considered successful in the first (formative) OCCA:

· No more than one score of NA

· No scores of 0 or 1

· No more than 6 scores of 2

· All remaining scores must be 3 or higher

The requirements to successfully pass the second (summative) OCCA:

• no scores of NA
• no more than 4 scores of 2
• All sections must be scored at 3 or higher

In order to achieve an overall grade of 'Pass' in this assessment task, you must:

• Schedule and complete both the formative OCCA in week 5 and summative OCCA in week 11
• On the overall placement assessment, meet the minimum required scores in all seven sections and successful completion of all associated competencies
• Ensure the documentation of each OCCA is complete, signed and submitted via Moodle with all completed competencies and the OCCA via moodle in weeks 5 and 11

If minimum required scores in the formative OCCA are not met, you will be regarded as a "Student At Risk". The unit coordinator will contact you via email to advise you of the risk of failing CHIR20013 and provide formative feedback. You must respond to this email to show you understand the implications of this information and give details of your plans for immediate improvement. A phone call or visit will follow. If concerns continue, your supervisor or unit coordinator may request an OCCA, a review of your progress will be completed. Unsatisfactory scores at this second OCCA will result in a fail grade for CHIR20013.  Please note, part of the score in your OCCA will be informed by your JR Clinic performance. 

When a student's behaviour is beyond acceptable risk to clinical sites (compromise the reputation of the clinical site and/or the University, compromise patient / staff safety and/or well-being or breaches the Code of Conduct for Chiropractors, or the the clinical sites policies and procedures), clinical supervisors are required to contact CQUniversity academics/unit coordinator immediately. An OCCA will be performed at this time, IF the outcome of this out of sync OCCA is unsatisfactory, and/or the site feedback indicates that they can no longer host you due to the risk incurred, then this one OCCA alone, or site refusal to host, will constitute a fail of CHIR20013. Where such risk exists your placement will terminate immediately. It is difficult to place such students in the clinical environment again. Your continued progress within the chiropractic course may be at risk.

The clinic exit test will test your clinical skills and knowledge. It will consist of:

• One Objective Structured Long Examination Record (OSLER) station that will last for up to 60 minutes. This will follow the standard template (see Moodle) and involve working through a new case consultation, examination skills, further investigations, management including rehabilitation, and theory

While this is a P/F assessment a score of 65% or above is required to pass.

There will be a Zoom tutorial session with an overview of the clinical exit practical.

Please note:

You must present for your individual practical assessment dressed as you would present to the clinical environment. Any student not adhering to the dress code may be excluded from the assessment.

Non-Academic reviewers may be present as part of the examining panel in addition to academic members of the team

This assessment task may be recorded using a video camera to enable moderation

Please note the following advice from the University Assessment of Coursework Procedures:

3.2.6 In non-graded (pass-fail) courses, all assessment items must be submitted by the due date, as there is no opportunity to apply a five per cent penalty, due to the pass-fail nature of each assessment task. Students who fail a single assessment task in a pass-fail course, or who fail a pass-fail component of a graded course will be deemed to have failed that course.

This assessment task must be completed on the specified day and time. In the absence of an approved extension, there will be no opportunity to complete the task after this date, and there will be no opportunity to apply a late penalty of five per cent per day.

4.41 Students who fail a single assessment task in a pass/fail unit or a pass/fail component in a graded unit will be deemed to have failed that unit, unless the unit profile includes provision for students to re-attempt a failed assessment task and the student passes the re-attempted assessment task or the assessment task reattempt is otherwise approved (see marking re-assessment task attempts).

Part A Written Reflection
As you move closer to graduation and becoming a qualified member of the profession, we would like you to do some self-assessment and identify some areas for self-improvement.. To help accomplish this, please complete a reflection (+/- 1000 words) - Using one of the papers discussed in case conference, or a paper in this unit, pick a case you have managed in clinic and with the new information you have gleaned, what impact does this have on your clinical considerations upon reflection of your own care plan. To help complete your task, use either Gibbs, or Kolb's reflective models.
Some questions that may help to guide your reflection may include:
- What strategies would you consider adopting, that you did not potentially use in your case?
- How can you upskill in areas where you feel you would benefit?
- How will you stay evidence-informed in practice?
- How does this paper help you to fulfil your duty of care to your patients?
- Do you feel that you satisfied your duty of care to your patient(s)? Why/why not?
- Reference your reflection where required (APA)
- Be specific
- Use professional language and grammar
*Generative AI is not permitted to be used.

Part B: Online test
One online test that will last up to 120 minutes. This will test your clinical knowledge and reasoning, ethics, synthesis of information, and evidence informed management. It will also test familiarity with the professional code of conduct and overall professional attitude and understanding of AHPRA guidelines.
There will be a Zoom tutorial session with an overview of the online test.
Computer Lab Room locations will be advised.

Assessment Criteria Part A:
The assessment criteria for the written reflection will consider the following:
Has the student utilised a relevant research paper, as outlined in the portfolio task?
Has the student identified actions to undertake?
Is the grammar and language appropriate?
Have they included references (APA)?
Is the general composition and overall presentation professional?
Has the student used an appropriate reflection tool such as Gibb's or Kolb's reflective cycle?
Has the student not used a generative AI tool?

Assessment Part B
This test will aim to confirm the following at the level expected of an entry level chiropractor in line with the standards set by the Council on Chiropractic Education Australasia including:
Demonstration of clinical skills at the level of an entry level chiropractor
Ability to interpret patient data and perform clinical reasoning
Ability to synthesise patient information to create an evidence informed plan of management
Demonstration of awareness and understanding of professional behavior, scope and practice
Demonstration of knowledge and application of knowledge of the AHPRA Code of Conduct, Guidelines for advertising a regulated health service, and Chiropractic Board of Australia Mandatory Notifications about Registered Health Care Practitioners, and Clinical Record Keeping for Chiropractors