School of Nursing and Midwifery PEP Facilitator: FAQ & Timesheet Guidelines Please consider your existing workload before nominating your availability as a PEP Facilitator. The School of Nursing & Midwifery supports a maximum weekly workload of 38 hours per casual employee. 1 What will I be paid for Professional Experience Placement facilitation? Under the Flinders University Enterprise Agreement 2014-2017 the facilitation rate is currently $61.88 per hour. This rate assumes that for every hour of student contact paid there is an additional 30 minutes associated work included in that payment eg telephone calls, meetings and documentation. 2 How do I calculate my weekly student contact hours? The School of Nursing & Midwifery allocates 30 minutes of facilitation contact per student per placement day. eg You are allocated 4 students for a 40 day clinical placement (8 weeks x 5 days). To calculate how much facilitation contact you have per student per week the following formula applies: 1 student x 5 days x 0.5 hours = 2.5 hrs per student per week To calculate how much facilitation contact you have for 4 students per week the following formula applies: 4 students x 5 days x 0.5 hours = 10 hours total per students NB if your actual student facilitation contact equates to less than your weekly allocated time your timesheet should reflect this. 3 How do I calculate placement days if my PEP topic clinical requirements are calculated in hours rather than days (eg 200 hours per semester)? One day equals 8 hours. Divide the total PEP hours by 8 to calculate the number of PEP days (eg 200 hours / 8 = 25 PEP days) 4 Can I also claim payment for the associated work that I complete? No. While associated work is on top of your allocated 30 minutes facilitation contact it is understood that you will need time to make phone calls/send emails/attend meetings and 15 minutes per student per placement day has already been calculated into your hourly rate. 5 I am facilitating students for multiple topics over multiple venues am I expected to meet with every student on their first placement day? Undergraduate nursing & midwifery placements: Yes. Every effort should be made to meet with all of your allocated students on their first day of their clinical placement. Where this is not possible it is the School s expectation that you make contact by telephone to introduce yourself to the student. You should also negotiate a time when you will be meeting them in person. 1
Postgraduate nursing placements: PEP Facilitators are expected to make contact with their allocated students via telephone or Skype prior to their first placement day to introduce themselves, with follow up contact to occur within the first placement week. 6 If I arrive at a venue and am unable to locate my student what should I do? 1 If you don t already have the student s contact telephone number, please contact the PEP Unit (tel 08 8201 3409) to obtain it. 2 Call the student and check on their wellbeing: - if the student answers the phone find out the reason for their absence. Liaise with Topic Coordinator if assistance is required to manage the student s absence. - if the student doesn t answer: (1) leave a voicemail asking them to contact you and their Topic Coordinator as a matter of urgency. (2) email the student s Topic Coordinator and inform them of the student s absence and your action taken to make contact with student. Await further direction from Topic Coordinator. 3 If this occurs on the first day of placement you may claim payment on your timesheet for this time (up to a maximum of 30 mins) using paycode OD1; if this occurs after a placement has commenced please document this time as associated work. 7 Can I facilitate my students by telephone or email rather than visiting them at their PEP venue? PEP facilitation must be provided via direct contact (ie face-to-face) where possible. Facilitation other than direct contact must be approved by the Topic Coordinator and Course Coordinator. If direct contact is not possible then videoconference or Skype facilitation is the next option followed by telephone facilitation if the previous methods are not available. Facilitation via email is not an approved form of facilitation. 8 If I see students collectively in a group format rather than individually can I document student contact as 30 minutes each? Your log should reflect your actual student contact time. For example: - if you meet with 4 x students in a group format (as opposed to individually) for 30 minutes you should document your student contact as 7.5 minutes per student. - if you meet with 4 x students in a group format (as opposed to individually) for 2 hours then you should document your student contact as 30 minutes per student. 9 Are there a minimum number of times I should be visiting students throughout their placement? You are allocated 30 minutes contact time per student per placement day however conflicting student rosters or your outside commitments may mean that you are unable to visit your allocated student(s) every placement day. Undergraduate nursing & midwifery placements: it is vital that undergraduate nursing and midwifery students receive ongoing regular support during their PEP. You must aim to meet with your allocated undergraduate students a minimum of three (3) times per week throughout their clinical placement. If you are unable to meet this requirement for part or all a placement you are required to notify the Topic Coordinator so that alternative arrangements can be made. Postgraduate nursing placements: please contact your allocated student(s) and offer facilitation support during their PEP. Postgraduate students may not always require full or any facilitation support. Please note that Postgraduate student placement range dates may vary and are based on specific topic requirements and should be discussed directly with the relevant Topic Coordinator.
It is an expectation that PEP Facilitators are aware of the total placement days and topic requirements for the topic(s) they are allocated. If you are uncertain of how many placement days the topic involves please contact the relevant Topic Coordinator. Full topic details can be located at: http://www.flinders.edu.au/webapps/stusys/index.cfm/topic/main 10 What if I need more time to facilitate a student than the School s formula allows? You need to discuss this with the relevant Topic Coordinator who will seek approval from the Associate Dean (Teaching & Learning) for extra time. Please do not allocate extra time to a student before you have approval in writing from your Topic Coordinator. 11 Am I expected to attend a PEP venue on a public holiday? \ No. You have the flexibility to reallocate the facilitation time (ie 30 mins per student per PEP day) to another day if you feel that it would benefit the student. This is claimed on your timesheet in the usual way. If you don t meet with your student on an alternative day you would not be paid for the time and you should not put it on your timesheet. 12 Can I meet a student outside of the PEP period to complete course paperwork? There is an expectation that course requirements are met within the PEP period. There may be some instances where course paperwork and/or incident debriefing (eg attendance at birth on final day of placement) will need to occur following the PEP. If you need to meet with a student after their PEP has concluded you need to obtain approval in advance of the meeting taking place from the relevant Topic Coordinator. Please note that the meeting should not take place at the venue where the PEP occurred. An exception to this requirement is where a postgraduate student is undertaking their PEP in their place of employment in this instance a PEP Facilitator may meet the student at the PEP venue if this is the preference of the student. PEP Facilitators are encouraged to meet with students on University grounds outside of PEP periods. 13 Should I be keeping a record of my facilitation for each student? You are required to keep a log of your student contact and associated work throughout your placement. You may be required to produce a copy of your log as part of a periodic audit. You are expected to retain a copy of your log for 12 months after the placement has concluded. Please contact sonmstaffing@flinders.edu.au should you require a copy of the log template. 14 How often should I be submitting my timesheets? Please submit timesheets on a weekly basis throughout the PEP period. If you forget to submit a timesheet and need to submit one retrospectively (eg for the previous month s work) please include a separate entry for each week of facilitation. Please do not defer claiming hours to a later time in the academic year. A copy of your work log may be requested if timesheets are submitted greater than 30 calendar days after work has been completed. This may result in delayed payment. 15 Can I submit a timesheet in advance? No. Please wait until you have completed work before you enter/submit a timesheet - timesheets submitted in advance will be rejected.
Timesheet Guidelines The minimum information required on your timesheet is illustrated below (NB timesheets submitted without this information will be returned to you for resubmission which may delay payment). \ 1 Topic number (ie NURS2005): 2 If you are facilitating more than one topic please use a separate entry for each topic:
3 If you would like to view your approved timesheet history, follow these instructions once you are logged into Employee Self Service (ESS):
The Timesheet History criteria screen will appear, similar to the image below:
4 If you would like to view your payment history, follow these instructions once you are logged into ESS: A screen similar to below will appear: Source: https://www.flinders.edu.au/flinders/employee-self-service/user-guide/individual-instructions/viewing-your-payslip-history.cfm