Professional Experience Placement

The Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights was developed after much consultation with with the health sector, government and consumer groups by the Australian Commission of Safety and Quality in Health Care. It was endorsed in July 2008 for National use and applies to all health care settings to ensure there is a common understanding of the rights by people giving and receiving health care.

The document is designed to provide a simple explanation to providers and consumers of health care of each of the seven rights included in the Charter.

These are:

• Access;
• safety;
• respect;
• communication;
• participation;
• privacy and
• comment.

Clinical supervisors need to full conversant with these rights as they are role models for the next generation of nurses. Students need to understand the rights and uphold the tenet of their meaning. Additionally, the rights can pertain to supervision too, as students have the right to access high quality supervision; are expected to be safe in practice; both supervisors and students need to respect each other;  communication is essential for high quality supervision and feedback; participation is necessary for guidance and  progression; privacy may be required for discussion and feedback; and comment is necessary for evaluation of the quality of supervision and reporting of level of competency attained by students while in practice.

The Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights website provides a range of resources for patients, clients or consumers and also for health care providers and organisations. There are brochures for patients, posters for your organisation and also educational resources such as PowerPoint presentations and documents that can be used to familiarise students with the Charter.

If you have any comments about the Charter of tips for students, you are welcome to post them here. Join us @PEPCommunity