The program teaches graduates how to care for people experiencing pain or loss of function caused by a physical injury or disorder and for people with physical disabilities. Such disabilities and disorders can arise from a variety of causes including injury, disease, congenital abnormalities, ageing and degenerative processes.

The program includes basic science courses such as anatomy, physics, psychology and statistics, as well as relevant medical courses.

Throughout the program students visit hospitals, developing their understanding of the profession. During their final year, students undertake supervised clinical practice in affiliated hospitals and community situations.

Some clinic placements may be outside the Brisbane metropolitan area and students are expected to fund their travel, accommodation and daily living expenses. Students are asked to submit their interest and preferred areas for placements. It may be possible to arrange accommodation at local nurses homes for Queensland Health placements for a minimal cost. Placements are of 5 weeks duration and are usually conducted on a full-time basis and occur in the fourth year of the program.

This allows for sufficient planning for regional, interstate or international placements. Allocation will be as equitable as possible and issues of hardship will be dealt with at the discretion of the head of division.

Students wishing to undertake a clinical placement in an international location may be permitted to do so under certain conditions eg international students who wish to undertaken a placement in their home country. Students are responsible for personal arrangements such as visa, insurance, travel and accommodation and are liable for associated costs. Placements will not be organised or will be cancelled if a travel warning to the country/region applies. Interested students should discuss with the Clinical Education Placement Manager.

Graduates work in hospitals, community health centres and agencies, rehabilitation units, or in preschool and school programs. Alternatively, they may prefer to work in private practice offering treatments to a full range of patients or specialising in areas such as sports physiotherapy, manipulative physiotherapy, paediatrics, obstetrics, orthopaedics or other fields of particular interest. Additional employment opportunities exist for researchers, advisors or consultants in educational, industrial or government institutions.

To find out more about where a career in Physiotherapy can take you, visit the www.uq.edu.au/health/careers

A student is required to obtain #64 from Part A of the BPhty List. For honours, a student is required to obtain #64 taking a program modified as listed in Part B of the BPhty List.