Welcome to SONIA Online - Sydney School of Health Sciences 
 (Speech Pathology)


ANNUAL INFLUENZA VACCINATION
Annual influenza vaccination is mandatory for all students who are attending a placement between 1 June and 30 September each year.
It is strongly recommended that every student has a flu vaccination as soon as possible as it can take 2-3 weeks after the administration of the influenza vaccination to become fully effective.

How to submit your Annual Influenza Vaccination evidence:

  • Email evidence of the annual Australian influenza vaccination administered after 1 March to:   [email protected] noting the only acceptable evidence as below.
  • The subject line should be the following:  Your Student ID followed by the word "FLU" eg: SID19887636 FLU
  • Documentation must be sent as a PDF, photographs will not be accepted
  • Your NSW Health ClinConnect student profile will be updated to show that you have had the annual influenza vaccine.


EVIDENCE OF COVID
If you contract COVID and it impacts on your placement (requiring you to have time off) you must provide proof.
A registered positive RAT with NSW Health, or your PCR test result notification will be acceptable.  A medical certificate is not required.

IMPORTANT PLACEMENT VERIFICATION INFORMATION
Important information regarding student verification for Speech Pathology students:

1st year MSLP/UG have access to 2 instances of SONIA - each instance has a different purpose
FMH - VERIFICATION (NSW Health requirements) and FMH - Speech Pathology (FMH requirements)

FMH - Verification: Upload the documents listed below to the relevant field under the Checks tab
* Student Summary Sheet
* Police Check
* Immunisation (completed Vaccination Record Card with evidence of protection against certain infectious diseases)
* Influenza (required annually for placements from June to Sept.)
* COVID 1
* COVID 2
* COVID Booster
Email: [email protected] with questions regarding these checks

All students have access to SONIA FMH - Speech Pathology

All students have to do the following in  FMH - Speech Pathology
Upload * Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Certificate annually under the Checks tab
Enter * Working with Children Check number (WWCC) eg. WWC0123456A
Complete * Student Placement Declaration (once for entire degree) under the Forms tab
Email shs[email protected] with CPR, WWCC, Student Declaration and placement related queries

Our NSW Health student verification processing partner, Sydney Local Health District, is currently experiencing delays which is causing longer than expected turnaround times between student document submission and NSW Health compliance status updates in ClinConnect.

Current processing time is 10-15 working days.

Please ensure that you submit the correct documents on time to avoid further delays.

Useful Student Links

Scholarships, Grants and Memberships 

HETI – Health Education and Training Institute Grants (Rural placements);  HETI Rural Allied Health Undergraduate Scholarship

ACEN – Australian Collaborative Education Network Scholarships

SARRAH – Services for Australian Rural and Remote Allied Health Student Membership

University Scholarships - Domestic Student; International Students; Faculty of Medicine and Health 

University Financial Support – If you experience financial difficulties that impact on your studies, you may be able to apply for financial support. The University has a number of bursaries and interest free loans to assist with essential study and living costs.

Counselling and Psychological Services (CAPS) – Professional and confidential psychological and mental health services are free and available through CAPS 

Student Uniforms 

Student Accommodation

HETI Accommodation List

University Department of Rural Health (UDRH) – Covering Central NSW Mid-North Coast (Tamworth, Taree, Armidale, Moree, Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour); Broken Hill

University Centre of Rural Health (UCRH) – Covering Northern NSW from Grafton to Lismore. Click here for more information

Three Rivers UDRH – For placements within the footprint of Albury, Dubbo, Orange, Wagga Wagga, Griffith, Temora, Tumut 

Please also see the list of documents on the top right hand of this screen for more accommodation options
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Placements Privacy Disclosure for Students Template 

Important Privacy Information for Students 

The Placements & Work Integrated Learning team is sometimes asked to provide additional basic information about you to the placement organisation. We usually only provide your name and your student identification number. The purpose of providing additional information is so that if needed, the placement organisation can contact you for important pre-placement communication. You may still be required to present any original compliance documents to the site on the first day of placement. 

The additional information we may be asked to provide about you to placement organisations is: 

·         Your university email address 

·         Your mobile phone number 

·         Your date of birth 

·         If you have a current National Police Certificate (National Criminal Record Check) 

·         Information about your verification status 

·         Your Working with Children Check number or similar information for other state/territories 

We have also been asked to make your contact details available to other students of this faculty, who may be going on a placement in the same organisation as you or in the same rural town. This is to allow the opportunity for you to support each other during the placement period. The contact details we may provide to the other students would be your name, university email address and mobile phone number. 

Some placement organisations may also ask you for your home address. We will not release this information. Unless it is necessary for them to undertake a National Criminal Record Check on you as part of their organisations policy, you are not obliged to provide your home address to them. If a "home" address is needed for any other purpose for the placement, you may use the street address of the faculty, which is: Level 8, Susan Wakil Health Building D18, Western Avenue, The University of Sydney, NSW (New South Wales), 2006. 

Our general communication with you will be via your university email, phone, SMS and other University systems.  

Please note that SMS notifications will only be sent in specific high priority circumstances. No links will be provided via SMS and you will not be asked to provide personal details to us from an SMS. 

We take your privacy and the privacy legislation very seriously. If you do not want to the Work Integrated Learning team to provide any or some of this information as indicated above, please notify us via email at [email protected]  We will not release any other information about you to the placement organisations or other students without your written permission.