SA Pathology and UniSA celebrate 100,000 student placement hours

03 September 2019

Professional, clinical and field placements in metropolitan and rural areas are an essential element of many health programs offered by the University of South Australia, including Laboratory Medicine.

Partners that accommodate students through placements, such as SA Pathology, are vital in providing students with work experience, clinical skills, as well as helping deliver a pipeline of skilled professionals to work in pathology.

While UniSA has 18 health programs with compulsory placement components, and delivered more than one million placement hours across all health programs in 2018 alone; more than 100,000 hours across the past five years were the result of the strong UniSA and SA Pathology partnership.

Each year, students in the Bachelor of Laboratory Medicine complete more than 1000 clinical placement hours in their third and fourth years of the program, with a large number of these placements taking place within SA Pathology laboratories across metropolitan Adelaide and regional South Australia.

Dr Tom Dodd, SA Pathology Clinical Director, says it’s exciting to see how placements at SA Pathology have steadily grown.

“Over the past five years, SA Pathology has facilitated more than 100,000 hours of placement for more than 200 students.  This includes more than 21,000 hours of placement for 41 students in 2018 alone,” he says.

Mike Attwell, a UniSA Laboratory Medicine graduate, completed placements at SA Pathology in 2011 and 2012 and is currently employed as a Medical Scientist at SA Pathology.

“Clinical Placement was the highlight of my degree, and I completed both my clinical placements with SA Pathology in the field of Genetics and Molecular Pathology,” he says.

“These experiences enabled me to learn about various molecular techniques, become familiar with the workflow in a laboratory, establish contacts and I was also lucky enough to gain part-time employment for the remainder of my time studying as well as acquire full time work as a Medical Scientist following completion of my degree.”

UniSA Dean: Academic and Clinical Education said Professor Esther May says the relationship is mutually beneficial.

“The University of South Australia and SA Pathology are proud of the long-standing relationship, investing in the development of South Australia’s future generations of health workforce,” Prof May says.

 

The Bachelor of Laboratory Medicine is one of the University of South Australia’s oldest programs, and offers an Honours year for students interested in a research pathway.  SA Pathology is one of the program’s major placement and research partners, and the University and SA Pathology look forward to a continued partnership and joint commitment to education and training in the field of laboratory medicine.