Assessment strategy and rationale

Assessment tasks in this unit have been purposefully designed to prepare for and replicate authentic clinical practice, with an “assessment for learning” approach to provide evidence for judgement of learning and to reinforce, facilitate and support learning and its application. The assessment tasks have been designed to provide a broad range of tasks aligned to andragogic principles of adult learning, facilitating choice and self-direction for the post graduate student. The design enables timely judgement to ensure students have appropriate knowledge and skills prior to application in subsequent workplaces.

To satisfy the practicum requirements mandated by ESSA for accreditation as an exercise physiologist, students will produce a Professional Practice Portfolio (Assessment Tasks 1 and 2) for each clinical experience unit. This comprises two distinct features (Assessment Tasks 1 and 2).

The first feature of the Professional Practice Portfolio relates to assessment of student performance on clinical placement using the Clinical Performance Assessment Tool (CPAT). The CPAT is an important assessment tool developed for the Master of Clinical Exercise Physiology that assists with the identification and evaluation of student competencies and professional clinical performance. Specifically, assessment of performance will enable students an opportunity to demonstrate the development of essential clinical competencies as they relate to performance and provision of ethical, culturally safe, person centred and effective exercise physiology services. The CPAT is a hurdle task in each clinical experience unit. As a student practitioner, you will be offered one clinical placement per clinical experience unit. Your performance of essential clinical competencies practiced on placement will be assessed by your primary clinical educator. Performance assessment occurs at both mid-placement (as formative assessment) and the end of placement (summative assessment). To demonstrate achievement of the first learning outcome and satisfy the minimum professional practice requirements mandated by ESSA for accreditation, you must be assessed as competent at the end of placement. Supplementary placement within each Clinical experience unit, including the opportunity for further performance assessment, is not permitted. A complete and signed copy of your final CPAT must be submitted electronically for review by an ACU professional practice coordinator within five (5) days of completing placement. Feedback from clinical educators will also be used to inform the facilitation of subsequent clinical education and specific experiential learning activities as student practitioners transition toward entry-level exercise physiologists.

The second feature of the Professional Practice Portfolio is the Placement Summary Report (PSR). The PSR enables students to reflect on the application of enhanced knowledge, clinical skills, attributes and experiential learning in the clinical workplace. Students will document the critical elements of placement that contribute to their continuing development of essential clinical competencies within the AEP Scope of Practice. The PSR seeks to 1) identify the range of placement activities performed by students within the AEP scope of practice, and 2) deduct explicit examples from placement where student practitioners demonstrated the minimum professional requirements of clinical exercise physiology relative to performance of AEPs. The PSR is a hurdle task in each clinical experience unit. It must be reviewed and signed by the placement supervisor/clinical educator within five (5) days following placement completion. A signed copy must be submitted electronically for review by an ACU professional practice coordinator and marked as complete to satisfy this hurdle requirement. A student may be asked to rewrite parts of their PSR. Should this occur, a student will be given an additional five (5) days to resubmit the revised PSR. .

The third assessment task (Case Conference Presentation) enables students an opportunity to critically analyse their role within the broader context of Australian healthcare and articulate their understanding of AEP scope of practice, professional standards and elaborate on their clinical rationales using common professional dialogue. Students will present, reflect upon, and defend their proposed service provisions and associated decision-making in relation to a de-identified clinical case. Students will receive formative feedback on the quality and content of their presentation to inform preparations for future practice and assessment tasks in subsequent clinical experience units. Should a student's case conference task be deemed unsatisfactory, they will be given feedback and asked to 1) re-present the case conference OR 2) complete a supplementary hurdle task prescribed at the discretion of the assessor(s). Students will be given no more than TWO attempts to successfully complete this hurdle task, which is inclusive of the supplementary hurdle task.

To pass this unit and meet the learning outcomes, a student must pass each hurdle task.