What is a clinical placement?
The OTAC clinical placement is a structured, supervised practical experience where General Practitioners and Nurse Practitioners apply their knowledge and skills in a real-world clinical setting to demonstrate their competence to provide safe and effective opioid pharmacotherapy for opioid dependence and become an accredited prescriber. After completing the OTAC course and passing the exam, General Practitioners and Nurse Practitioners who wish to gain accreditation to prescribe opioid pharmacotherapies can arrange a clinical placement with a local supervisor. The placement is a minimum of three hours (or half day) and involves assessment across four key areas: Clinical assessment, ethical and regulatory considerations, patient management, and advice and support
It is recommended that the placement be completed within 12 months of finishing the course.
Could you be a clinical placement supervisor or mentor?
You may be a suitable supervisor for clinical placements if you are:
- An Addiction Medicine Specialist (a medical practitioner who is a member of the RACP Chapter of Addiction Medicine).
- An Addiction Psychiatry Specialist (a medical practitioner who is a member of the RANZCP Faculty of Addiction Psychiatry).
- An experienced prescriber of opioid agonist treatment (e.g., a GP Specialist). If this applies to you, we recommend you contact us to confirm eligibility before arranging a placement.
- An experienced Nurse Practitioner in drug and alcohol settings who prescribes opioid agonist treatment. Please contact us to confirm eligibility before arranging a placement.
- If you are working in a regional or remote area and believe you may be a suitable supervisor, please contact us.
What should you do?
As a supervisor, your role is to guide and assess the OTAC applicant’s knowledge, skills, and professional attitudes in providing safe opioid agonist treatment.We recommend the following steps for OTAC clinical placement:
- Review the clinical placement form prior to the placement. This form serves as a guide for the clinical placement—please consider the main areas that should be assessed during the placement.
- Arrange a suitable time for the clinical placement with the applicant, and if possible, schedule a session when you can interview one or more OAT clients.
- Obtain the client’s consent and confirm the confidentiality of the session.
- Brief the applicant on the typical steps in an AOD interview and assessment
- Ask the applicant to observe your interview with the client.
- Have the applicant conduct an interview with a client.
- Provide feedback to the applicant and discuss all the items in the Clinical Placement Review Form and AOD Care Charter during the placement.
- Complete the Clinical Placement Review Form based on your assessment, providing as much detail as possible. This form is a supporting document for the applicants’ application and your comments are carefully considered by the OPS committee.
- Submit the Clinical Placement Review Form to the OTEP team’s email at your earliest convenience (otep.info@sydney.edu.au).
The provided video offers a brief overview of how to guide and support OTAC applicants during their clinical placement.If suitable patients are not available during the placement, you can use the provided example scenarios to role-play key clinical situations, or develop your own scenarios to simulate important aspects of patient care.
How to complete the Clinical Placement Review Form?
Please complete the Clinical Placement Review Form at your earliest convenience. You may either download the form to fill it out electronically or print and complete it by hand. Once finished, kindly email the completed form to otep.info@sydney.edu.au
What is the next step?
After supervising a clinical placement, please submit the Clinical Placement Review Form to the OTEP team. The applicant’s application will then be reviewed at the next meeting of the NSW Ministry of Health Opioid Pharmacotherapy Subcommittee (OPS). You will be notified when the applicant has successfully received accreditation.