Overview
Within this clinical placement unit, you will develop your clinical reasoning abilities and practice ethical and professional behaviours. You will achieve this by integrating and using your current knowledge, physical skills and principles of evidence-based practice to function competently to a level of a graduate physiotherapist. The clinical placement associated with this unit will differ from other clinical placement units. It will allow you to develop specific skills within one of the many physiotherapy clinical areas of expertise, across a variety of settings and patient demographics, with an emphasis on effective and patient-centred management plans, within the framework of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF).
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
To enrol in this unit you must be enrolled in the CB85 Course and meet the following pre-requisites: PSIO13002 Professional Physiotherapy Practice 1 PSIO13003 Professional Physiotherapy Practice 2
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 1 - 2026
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 12-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 25 hours of study per week, making a total of 300 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of 'pass' in order to pass the unit. If any 'pass/fail' tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully ('pass' grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the 'assessment task' section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Student verbal and written feedback.
Students feel that there is repetition in the written assignment - Reflective Essays over the five Professional Physiotherapy Practice units.
It is recommended that the written assignments be reviewed for both student learning and staff workload and marking requirements. The unit coordinator will benchmark across other universities.
Feedback from Student verbal and written feedback. Workforce reports.
Rural placement opportunities continue to grow with good feedback provided from both students, clinical educators and facilities. There is a growing demand for rural physiotherapists, including scholarship opportunities.
It is recommended that the unit coordinator review the rural placement opportunities available and review rural placement utilisation.
- Demonstrate consistent adherence to the rules of professional conduct, including legal and ethical responsibilities, and take responsibility for your personal development as an autonomous physiotherapist
- Communicate effectively and efficiently with service users and the multi-disciplinary team in all aspects of your clinical practice
- Demonstrate competency at an entry level standard of practice in assessments, clinical reasoning, execution of techniques, and delivery of programmes to manage specific clinical problems across a variety of services
- Critically reflect upon your clinical development and relate this to relevant published sources and practice based experience.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Professional Practice Placement - 70% | ||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 30% | ||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | ||||
| 2 - Problem Solving | ||||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | ||||
| 4 - Information Literacy | ||||
| 5 - Team Work | ||||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | ||||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | ||||
| 8 - Ethical practice | ||||
| 9 - Social Innovation | ||||
| 10 - First Nations Knowledges | ||||
| 11 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | ||||
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | |
| 1 - Professional Practice Placement - 70% | |||||||||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 30% | |||||||||||
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: American Psychological Association 7th Edition (APA 7th edition)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
t.palmer@cqu.edu.au
s.randall@cqu.edu.au
Week 1
Begin Date: 09 Mar 2026Module/Topic
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Week 2
Begin Date: 16 Mar 2026Module/Topic
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Week 3
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Week 4
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Week 5
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Week 6
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Vacation Week
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Week 7
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Week 8
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Week 9
Begin Date: 11 May 2026Module/Topic
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Week 10
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Week 11
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Week 12
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Exam Week
Begin Date: 08 Jun 2026Module/Topic
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Vacation/Exam Week
Begin Date: 15 Jun 2026Module/Topic
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Clinical Placements run throughout the year from late January to early December, some may occur outside of term times. Students may be required to travel outside of their home town to complete clinical placements. The allocation of student placements is in accordance with requirements set by the Physiotherapy Board of Australia and will be allocated by the Physiotherapy Clinical Education Manager. Students will be notified of their clinical placement allocation once they have met all pre-requisites for Professional Physiotherapy Practice 3.
1 Professional Practice Placement
You will complete a 5-week full-time clinical placement as allocated by the unit coordinator. This clinical placement can be in any area of physiotherapy and may be located in any facility ranging from acute hospitals to community programs. The grade awarded is based on your performance during the 5-week clinical placement and evaluated using the Assessment of Physiotherapy Practice (APP) via the APPLink-up.
Level of GenAI use allowed:
Level 3: You may use Al to assist with specific tasks such as drafting text, refining and evaluating your work. You must critically evaluate and modify any Al-generated content you use.
Week 12 Friday (5 June 2026) 5:00 pm AEST
At the completion of the clinical placement from your Clinical Educator.
In order to pass the Clinical Placement you need to meet the "Adequate" level on the Global Rating Score and achieve the following on your End of Unit APP, as graded by your Clinical Educator:
1. A minimum total score of 49.5% for the domain of Professional Behaviour AND
2. A minimum total score of 49.5% for the combined domains of Communication, Assessment, Analysis and Planning, Intervention, Evidence Based Practice and Risk Management.
If you don't meet the above criteria for the Clinical Placement you will be eligible to sit a Clinical Exam, provided you have achieved a total score equal to, or higher than 44.5% for your clinical placement. The Clinical Exam is in the format of an Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE) that will be completed on a real or simulated patient within the area that you completed the clinical placement. The Clinical Exam will be assessed by two clinical educators, one or more will be a CQUniversity Physiotherapy academic. The exam will run for approximately 60 minutes and will be assessed on a modified APP.
The Clinical Exam is the equivalent of a supplementary assessment for the Professional Physiotherapy Practice units. You will only be given one opportunity at a Clinical Exam per clinical placement.
If you complete and pass the Clinical Exam you will only receive exactly 50% for your Clinical Placement grade. If you complete and fail the Clinical Exam, or receive <44.5% on your original APP, you will receive your original APP score as given at the completion of your clinical placement and you will be required to repeat the Unit at a subsequent offering.
If your placement has been shortened due to Covid-19 implications, please refer to the Covid-19 Clinical Placement Guidelines on Moodle.
- Demonstrate consistent adherence to the rules of professional conduct, including legal and ethical responsibilities, and take responsibility for your personal development as an autonomous physiotherapist
- Communicate effectively and efficiently with service users and the multi-disciplinary team in all aspects of your clinical practice
- Demonstrate competency at an entry level standard of practice in assessments, clinical reasoning, execution of techniques, and delivery of programmes to manage specific clinical problems across a variety of services
- Critically reflect upon your clinical development and relate this to relevant published sources and practice based experience.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Team Work
- Information Technology Competence
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
- Social Innovation
2 Written Assessment
You are required to reflect upon your performance during the first 2-3 weeks of your clinical placement and provide a detailed written self-reflection on your Mid-Unit Assessment of Physiotherapy Practice (APP) via the APPLinkup platform or on paper versions of the APP for some placement facilities. To reflect effectively, you will need to consider your professional practice, level of engagement, strengths and weaknesses throughout the first 2-3 weeks of clinical placement and develop strategies on who you will improve your practice by the end of the placement. You should discuss with your Clinical Educator when your Mid-Unit formal feedback will be completed.
Your self-reflection should include the following:
- Critical reflection and insight of your clinical performance against each item of the APP.
- Examples from practice to support reflection which effectively links experiences to theoretical knowledge and practice standards.
- Address APP items providing strengths and areas for improvements.
- Link your performance to the APP performance indicators.
- Develop improvement strategies on how to improve performance by end unit including an action plan for implementing these strategies.
Level of GenAI use allowed:
Level 3: You may use Al to assist with specific tasks such as drafting text, refining and evaluating your work. You must critically evaluate and modify any Al-generated content you use.
Mid-unit of the clinical placement as confirmed with your Clinical Educator.
Within 2 weeks after submission
Detailed marking criteria will be available on the unit moodle site, and will be based on the following:
- APP Domain Coverage & Accuracy (20%)
- Quality of Critical Self-Reflection (25%)
- Use of Practice-Based Examples Linked to APP Performance Indicators (20%)
- Development of Improvement Strategies (20%)
- Action Plan for Implementation & Monitoring (15%)
- Demonstrate consistent adherence to the rules of professional conduct, including legal and ethical responsibilities, and take responsibility for your personal development as an autonomous physiotherapist
- Critically reflect upon your clinical development and relate this to relevant published sources and practice based experience.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Information Technology Competence
- Ethical practice
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
