Pre-placement documentation  

Pre-placement documentation includes evidence of your eligibility to undertake placement at RCH. This typically includes your immunisation status, Police and Working with Children Checks, course-related checks (e.g. Hand Hygiene certificate, AHPRA registration, First Aid certificate), as well as specific RCH forms. This documentation needs to be obtained and submitted to RCH prior to your placement commencing.  

• For Nursing and Allied Health students: your education provider (i.e., University) has responsibility for submitting all pre-placement documentation to RCH, on your behalf. 

• For Medical students: you will receive further information from RCH about the pre-placement documentation that you are required to submit.  

In some instances, you may also be required to present specific documents to an RCH Placement Supervisor or Placement Coordinator on your first day of placement. If this applies, you will receive further direction about this from RCH and your education provider.  

Getting to RCH

Public Transport 

Trams 58 and 59 stop at the RCH main entrance on Flemington Road (i.e., tram stop 19). Tram 57 also stops nearby, on the corner of Flemington Road and Abbotsford Street, North Melbourne. It will then take you approximately 5 minutes to walk across Flemington Road to the RCH main entrance.  

From late 2025, the new Parkville metro tunnel train station is due to open and will be a short 10-15 minute walk to RCH.  

Please refer to the Public Transport Victoria website for more information, timetables and to plan your journey. 

Cycling  

The RCH has a secure bike storage facility with 500 spaces and access to change room facilities. The bike storage facility can only be accessed with an RCH access card, which will be provided to you during placement. The bike storage facility is located within the East Building, Lower Ground, with entry via Flemington Road. Please ensure that you do not chain your bikes to seating, railings or other fittings around the hospital grounds. 

Car Parking 

For directions relating to car parking onsite, please refer to the RCH website.

Students are entitled to the casual staff daily parking rate, which is $15 (subject to change) when parking in the RCH car park and at 48 Flemington Road. To receive this discount, you will need to visit RCH Security Control Room each day (Lower Ground floor in the East Building, next to Emergency) and collect a staff casual parking voucher which you can use upon payment via the parking ticket machines. 

There is also limited on-street, all-day paid parking on Flemington Road. Please do not park in any 2- or 3-hourly parking spots.  

Alternatively, you can usually park for free at the State Netball and Hockey Centre in Parkville, with entry via Brens Drive. From there, it will take approximately 15-20 minutes to walk to RCH via the adjacent walking track, or you may catch Tram 58 from the State Netball Hockey Centre/Royal Park station (tram stop 25) to the RCH main entrance (tram stop 19).  

Getting around RCH 

In your first week of placement, we recommend that you view the "Getting around The Royal Children's Hospital for new clinical staff" video to familiarise yourself with the different areas in the hospital. Please note that you will require access to the RCH Learning Management System, Learning HERO, to be able to view this video.  

Pre-placement activities 

We recommend that you undertake the following activities to ensure that you are well prepared for placement at RCH.  

• Research the organisation – have a look at the RCH website and find out more about the hospital’s departments, services, vision, values and strategic goals.    

• Find out about your caseload – familiarise yourself with which paediatric patient populations you may be working with and read up on the types of health conditions that you may see.  

• Refresh your knowledge – take time to revise your study notes and any aspects of paediatric care that have been covered at university. You can also review relevant topics within the RCH clinical practice guidelines. There is further information on physiological and psychosocial differences between children and adults in the further reading section of this page.