Your personal safety on placement

Review the Queensland Police Adult Safety website. This website provides situational safety strategies for various settings including public transport, workplaces and private vehicles.

Use these strategies as a starting point for conducting an informal risk assessment for yourself and develop a personal safety plan. A personal safety plan is comprised of safety strategies chosen by you to suit your lifestyle and abilities. When formulating your personal safety plan, consider placement scenarios such as transport to and from your placement and your accommodation arrangements if you are living away from your usual place of residence while on placement.

Are you driving to a placement outside Brisbane? Driving in rural Australia is challenging and brings with it additional risks. Review the Queensland Government regional driving webpage for recommended precautions if you are driving on country roads for your placement.

If you need to travel within Australia or internationally for your placement, ensure that you understand your obligations as a student and have followed the relevant travel procedures outlined on your discipline’s Prepare for Placement webpage.

Do you commute to and from placement in uniform? A uniform identifies you as a professional-in-training within the workplace which is a positive. However, outside in the wider community it can make you vulnerable to undesirable attention. By covering up your uniform or changing into other clothes when travelling to and from placement it prevents you being identified as a certain profession and being approached by individuals who may have negative associations with healthcare professionals, or who may be looking to pray on the empathy of your profession for other reasons. We also recommend that you remove your name badge when in public. Wearing a name badge can increase risk in the form of someone who pretends to already know you, taking advantage of your trust.

Do you have a communication plan in place? Does someone know where you are and when to expect your return? There are many different phone tracking apps and personal security apps that you may wish to consider using when travelling to and from placement.