Unit Synopsis
In this capstone unit you will integrate your knowledge, skills and professional experience in a range of environments in preparation for employment as an oral health therapist. In addition to treating children and adolescents, this course is approved by the National Board to train and educate you to treat adults of all ages. You will be required to attend a two-week compulsory intensive / residential school prior to the commencement of clinical placement. You will have the opportunity to demonstrate safety and competence in total patient care over a range of preventive and operative clinical procedures with patients including those who are medically compromised, with special needs and the elderly. You will also consolidate your clinical judgment skills in identifying patients who require referral for complex care outside your scope of practice. You will improve your clinical reasoning skills in a supportive environment aimed to increase your confidence through reflective and self-directed learning. On successful completion of this unit you will be able to communicate information regarding oral health in oral and written forms utilising appropriate interpersonal and team communication skills, professional attitudes and ethical behaviours.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 3 |
| Credit Points | 18 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 3 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.375 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Pre-requisite: ORAL12004 Advanced Oral Health Practice, ORAL12005 Paediatric Dentistry for the Oral Health Therapist and ORAL12006 Oral Health Clinical Practice 2. Co-requisite: ALLH13011 Rural and Remote Practice for Health Professionals. Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School |
Compulsory Residential School View Unit Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Term 1 - 2026 Profile
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 18-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 37.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 450 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. In-class Test(s) | 70% |
| 2. Reflective Practice Assignment | 0% |
| 3. Online Quiz(zes) | 30% |
| 4. Professional Practice Placement | 0% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 1 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 41.18% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: Teaching team
Yarning circles were an excellent way for students on placement to share their learning experiences. However, incorporating some structure would help ensure that all students can engage and participate in the yarning circle case discussions
It is recommended to introduce a structured format to ensure all students can engage and share their experiences effectively over the course of the term.
The yarning circles were structured to allow each student to present a case throughout the term.
Source: SUTE and teaching team
Balancing clinical placement, recorded lectures and only one online session in the evening each week was good.
It is recommended to continue with one schedule yarning circle per week and pre-recorded lectures.
Pre-recorded lectures and one scheduled online yarning circle was continued this year.
Source: SUTE
The assessment format was valuable, and the online quiz timing were good.
It is recommended to continue with the online quiz format.
The online quiz format was continued in 2025.
Source: Self-reflection and peer discussion.
Concerns were raised about academic integrity in this unit, as most assessment is done online or through assignments, creating a high risk of GenAI use.
It is recommend to incorporate face-to-face assessment to improve academic integrity for this unit.
In Progress
Source: SUTE comments.
Students enjoyed the online recorded lectures, weekly online yarning circles and guest lecturers.
It is recommended to continue the online recorded lectures, weekly online yarning circles and guest lecturers.
In Progress
Source: SUTE comments.
Students would like to learn additional local anaesthetic techniques during the teaching intensive.
The intensive schedule will be reviewed to see if additional local anaesthetic techniques can be incorporated.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Integrate and apply knowledge, skills and clinical judgement of assessment, preventive and operative procedures with child, adolescent and adult patients in a range of environments
- Provide safe and competent oral health clinical care for patients including identifying patients who require referral pathways for complex care outside your scope of practice
- Advocate for, and promote, oral health to individuals and groups across diverse community settings in a variety of formats
- Recognise and act upon the legal, ethical and safeguarding issues involving dental practitioners and patients as defined by the relevant professional regulatory bodies in Australia and overseas.
All unit profiles in the Bachelor of Oral Health are made available to the Australian Dental Council for on-going accreditation purposes.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - In-class Test(s) | • | • | ||
| 2 - Reflective Practice Assignment | • | • | ||
| 3 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | • | ||
| 4 - Professional Practice Placement | • | • | ||
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | ||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • | • |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | • | |
| 5 - Team Work | • | • | • | |
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | • | • | • | |
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | • | • | • | • |
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | • | • | • |
| 9 - Social Innovation | • | • | • | • |
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |