PLACEMENT SCHEDULING

This section covers the process of practice education placement scheduling. Included is an overview of scheduling and the approval processes and information on travel options, conflicts of interest, placement capacity, refusal of placement, placement waitlists, and course auditing.

Overview of Scheduling and Approval Process

Once you have completed all of the required SPECO CCLO: Student Practice Education Core Orientation assignments and they have been marked as complete by the program area, JIBC’s practice education team and the CCLO program area work together with the health authorities to secure a practice education placement on your behalf. The initial request is an informal one, to gauge capacity in the region of your choice. If the health authority accepts the informal request for placement, JIBC submits a formal request through HSPnet. Once approved by the health authority, and depending on where your placement is, the final steps are taken by you and the JIBC team to ensure you are ready for practice education.

Traveling to Placement Locations

Students may be required to travel to their placements and some health authorities cover a large territory. It is important for students to consider all of their resources when planning for their placement, some of these may include:

• Staying with friends or family in another area of the province,
• Looking into low cost options for accommodation such as homestays or hostels,
• Looking at low cost travel options such as buses or public transportation,
  (Note: health authorities prefer that you have your own vehicle to travel to and from facilities and the office)
• Considering options for being able to come home on weekends or having family visit while you are on placement,
• Looking for alternative arrangements for family care or other responsibilities, and
• Ensuring you have coverage for yourself if self-employed.

Decline of Placement Request

From time to time informal placement requests may be declined by health authorities. There could be a variety of reasons that a placement is not offered or declined, two common reasons are: conflict of interest and limited capacity.

Conflict of Interest

You are required to list potential conflict of interest on your application form. It is up to the health authority to determine if conflict of interest will prevent you from being placed in that health authority and different health authorities have various policies for determining conflict of interest. Potential conflict of interest may include, but is not limited to, the following:

• You are an owner/operator of a licensed care facility within that health authority
• You have a financial interest in a licensed care facility within that health authority
• You are employed by a licensed care facility within that health authority
• You have a relative or close friend in a licensed care facility within that health authority
• You have a current or past personal relationship with a licensing officer/manager/supervisor/medical health officer within that health authority
• You, or your family member, has the potential to benefit financially from your placement in a particular region
• Your placement could create the appearance of a conflict of interest in the eyes of the public

Placements that have been scheduled may be cancelled if it determined that there is a conflict of interest that the student and/or health authority was not aware of at the time of placement scheduling. In this situation the program area will contact the student to look at other options for placement.

Limited Capacity

Each health authority has limited capacity to support student placements. Potential reasons why a health authority may refuse a placement due to capacity may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The health authority has already supported their set maximum number of placements for the calendar year, and
• The health authority does not have staff capacity to support student placement during the period requested due to vacant positions or recent hires that are being trained.

It is strongly recommended that you list your health authority preferences in your preferred order on your application and be prepared to travel to your placement location to ensure that you are able to start your placement in the six month period that starts the semester after your final online course.

Refusing Placement Outside of Preferred Heath Authority

While it is strongly recommended that students plan to be able to travel to health authorities outside of their local area, JIBC does understand that other commitments, such as taking care of family members, may make this impossible for some students. You may choose to delay your placement and audit courses at your own expense until a space becomes available and be put on a waiting list. Your application must be complete before you are added to the waitlist.

Consequences and Formal Acknowledgement

It is important for you to understand the actions/consequences of making the choice to refuse a placement and be added to the wait list for your preferred health authority. Some of the actions/consequences are listed here:

• You are formally refusing the placement offered by JIBC in order to wait for a placement to be scheduled in your preferred health authority.
• You are taking full responsibility for your action of refusing placement that would have been scheduled in the six-month period following your last online course in the program.
• You will not hold JIBC accountable for your placement being delayed or for any additional expenses incurred by yourself or your family due to the delay in placement scheduling.
• You will audit one CCLO course every other semester at your own expense and actively participate in the course until your placement is started. Note: You are required to pay the full tuition (plus fees, taxes, etc.) when auditing a course. You do not receive a grade for Audit courses.
• By delaying a placement and CCLO program completion, you may be missing potential employment opportunities. JIBC encourages you to apply for openings when they are posted even if you have not yet started your placement. If you are hired as a community care licensing officer and have worked the full-time equivalent of six months, you would be eligible to complete the capstone course (CCLO-3409) rather than the CCLO 3410 Practice Experience Course.
• When a placement is offered by JIBC, you will be available to attend a placement (health authority capacity and conflicts of interest permitting) on the dates offered. If you turn down the placement when offered, you will be moved to the end of the waitlist for placements thus resulting in a further delay to your placement start date and program graduation. Note: You should advise JIBC well in advance of any dates that you cannot attend a placement and JIBC will consider this when scheduling placements whenever possible.
• If you exceed the timeline for program completion (5 years) as outlined in the JIBC academic progression policy, you will be withdrawn from the program and be required to re-apply. As long as you re-apply within 4 months after your end of program date and continue to audit courses, you will not lose your place on the scheduling list.

JIBC does not recommend you refuse a placement and delay completing the program. If you are not able to travel to complete a placement, you may formally refuse the placement outside of your home region(s) by communicating this to the program area by email. The program area will send you an email that details these possible consequences for refusing placement and delaying program completion.

Waitlists

The waitlist is managed by the program area and students are placed on the waitlist in the order they have completed their practice education application and documentation.

If you choose to delay your placement you will be required to audit a course every other semester starting the second semester after your last online course. This is to ensure that you are keeping your knowledge and skills fresh so you can be best prepared to be successful in your placement and make a good impression on potential future co-workers and employers.

Auditing Courses

JIBC does not recommend students extend their placement deadline by auditing courses. However, students waiting more than six months after their final online courses are required to audit and participate in one course every other semester.

When you audit a course you do not receive a final grade. The program area does expect that you participate fully in the course and submit new assignments and discussion posts (not resubmit work completed for earlier courses). The course will show up as “Audit” on your transcript.

The cost of auditing courses is the same as a standard registration and includes the cost of tuition, fees, and course textbooks/resources. Please visit jibc.ca for current costs. You are responsible for keeping track of your schedule to audit courses (every other semester) and register for the most appropriate course to keep your knowledge and skills current.

Please advise the program area on when you are planning to audit a course and they will confirm with JIBC Registration that you have permission to audit a course. You will need to register for the course by calling JIBC Registration and letting them know you will be auditing.