Work experience opportunities at Sandringham Hospital

Departments

Students will observe the following departments:

Emergency volunteer / Dialysis ward

The student accompanies the volunteer on their usual round of the ED ensuring the non-medical needs of any carers or relatives are attended to. This may involve tea and coffee duties, general conversation, engaging with young children and other such tasks. Time is also spent in the Dialysis Ward talking to the patients and assisting with making afternoon tea.

Find out more about Emergency at Sandringham and Dialysis services

Infection Prevention

Students meet with the Infection Prevention Nurse Consultant for an informal chat, viewing graphs, data and websites to demonstrate the wide variety of responsibilities in this role.

Topics covered include:

• Vaccine preventable diseases and the process of staff vaccination
• Demonstration of personal protective equipment and signage for suspected or confirmed infectious diseases
• Staff exposures to infectious disease and confidentiality issues
• The process and results of surveillance of healthcare acquired infections
• Monitoring of the environment, including legionella testing in cooling towers, food safety audits of kitchens, cleaning audits and construction and renovations affecting patients.

Find out more about the Infection Prevention and Healthcare Epidemiology Unit

Nursing Education

Time spent with nursing education allows the student to be involved in educational sessions with nursing staff across all areas of the hospital. Time is also spent exploring the range of clinical skills nurses are exposed to via a practical session where the student utilises equipment and products to provide a realistic experience. Some key anatomy and physiology processes are also explained and discussed.

Find out more about nursing at Alfred Health

Occupational Therapy

Occupational Therapy enables people to be as independent as possible in their activities of daily living after becoming ill or having an accident. This may be in the form of retraining someone to do an activity in a different way or providing that person with equipment so that the task is easier for them to complete.

The student will observe the Occupational Therapist talking to patients about what the patient finds important to them. The Occupational Therapist also looks at how the patient is currently able to perform those tasks so that we can decide if the patient can return home from hospital or will require some rehabilitation. We can also show the student the various assistive equipment and devices that we provide to patients.

Find out more about Occupational Therapy

Orthopaedic outpatients clinic

When students come to Orthopaedic outpatients on Friday mornings we are have a very busy clinic. As a rule students are in our plaster room with the resident doctor observing the removal of plaster or application of plaster to injured limbs. Students may have the opportunity to assist by holding a limb or talking with the patient or family. If we do not have many plasters to do then student will sit in on a consultation with doctor and patient.

Find our more about the Orthopaedic Friday clinic

Physiotherapy

Students will be observing and accompanying a physiotherapist working with patients on either the surgical or medical ward. You will see physiotherapy assessing and treating inpatients for a diverse range of conditions such a fractures, post-surgery, chest conditions and post-falls to name a few. 

Find out more about Physiotherapy

Radiology

When students come to radiology they are involved in a range of diagnostic imaging procedures. They will be introduced to the different imaging modalities at Sandringham Hospital such as plain film x-ray, CT scanning and ultrasound. During their time in radiology students will learn the risks associated with imaging utilising ionising radiation and the importance of radiation optimisation, justification and safety. We encourage students to consider the role that radiology plays in the overall management of patient.

Find out more about Radiology

Special Care Nursery

Demand in the nursery may vary. Students will observe a staff member, learning about the nature of the day-to-day work and the gestation of the babies. Students are also encouraged to talk to parents. 

Find out more about the Special Care Nursery

Theatre

The Operating Suite has three theatres. We offer surgery in many specialties. Students have the opportunity to watch either some general surgery or obstetric & gynaecological surgery, depending what is scheduled on the day of your visit. Students can see how the surgeries happen and what each staff member does. Students may see the patients at various stages of surgery, before, during or after surgery.

Find out more about Sandringham general surgery

Ward F2 (Medical), Ward F3 (Maternity) and Ward G2 (Surgical)

On arrival, students will be oriented to the ward, and are then paired with a registered nurse to observe handover. From there the nurse explains the daily procedures on the ward and students are able to stay with the nurse throughout the time in the rostered shift. Students are only allowed to observe and not actively participate in any procedures; however they are encouraged to ask questions.

Students are given the opportunity to talk with the patients and to take part on the ward rounds and listen to the journey board meeting. Students at times also work with other members of the interdisciplinary team.