Unit rationale, description and aim
Speech pathologists require knowledge and skills for working with different populations and in a range of different settings. This unit is focused on building students' professional practice skills when working with a range of clients, including those who experience conditions that impact their communication and/or swallowing.
This is the fifth of seven professional practice units in the Bachelor of Speech Pathology and provides students with the opportunity to consolidate, assimilate and transfer previous learning in a professional practice experience for communication and/or swallowing practice areas. In this unit students will demonstrate increasing independence with familiar caseloads and conditions and work with educators to support clients with multifactorial needs and contexts.
Therapeutic communication skills will be consolidated to equip students for active and sensitive engagement with all stakeholders. Students will continue to build their skills in professional, reflective practice and professional reasoning skills to further transform their professional identity and capabilities
Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
LO1 Demonstrate professional conduct and critical ...
Learning Outcome 01
LO2 Demonstrate independence in assessment, analys...
Learning Outcome 02
LO3 Demonstrate transferability of knowledge and s...
Learning Outcome 03
Content
Professional Conduct
· Scope of practice (e.g., the role of an AHA vs SLP student)
· Applying the Code of Ethics
· Therapeutic communication
Reflective Practice and Lifelong Learning
- Critical reflective practice
- Using the COMPASS behavioural descriptors to guide self-ratings on placement
- Learning goal setting
- Transferability
- Professional Identity
- Preparation for 4th year
Speech Pathology Practice
- Assessment across practice areas
- Goal selection with multifactorial cases
- Providing feedback to clients
- Intervention delivery and outcome measurement
Assessment strategy and rationale
All professional practice units are pass/fail only and students must meet/pass all of the assessable components to pass any professional practice unit. Student results are ultimately determined by the Lecturer in Charge (LIC) after considering all of the assessment results. Various assessment tools are used throughout the Bachelor of Speech Pathology to evaluate student competency during placements. These include the Professional Practice Assessment Tool (PPAT), professional practice placement (which includes the Competency Assessment in Speech Pathology (COMPASS) tool (SPA, 2006) completed by the professional practice educator and the student to assess directly observed performance on the professional practice placement component of the uni) and a case presentation.
Professional Practice Assessment Tool (PPAT): Students will submit the PPAT including a reflection on their development of competency and professional identity as well as goals for future development of professional skills. Students will be expected to demonstrate their ability to reflect critically on their performance as well as to consider the transferability of their skills to new contexts. The PPAT is one means of providing evidence for competency development.
Professional practice placement: All aspects of the student’s performance are assessable during the placement period, as competency is developed and assessed dynamically from the first to the last day of placement by the Professional Practice Educator (PPE). Student performance is assessed against behavioural descriptors of the COMPASS ® assessment tool which forms the basis of the rubric used for placement assessment. During the placement, the student is provided with formal formative feedback midway through the placement, and summative feedback at the end of the placement period using the COMPASS®. Students will also be required to submit a self-assessment at both mid and final placement. Students must complete all reasonable tasks assigned by their PPE (mandatory tasks). In order to ensure the assessment is suitably moderated, it may be necessary for the LIC to contact the Professional Practice Educator (PPE) if there is apparent disparity between written or verbal comments regarding the student performance relative to the assessment tool results, or any other inconsistencies. If a student's performance on placement does not meet the satisfactory/pass standard (i.e., demonstration of increasing independence) the student will fail the unit.
Case presentation: All units of the Bachelor of Speech Pathology Program aim to assist students in meeting the Professional Standards for Speech Pathologists in Australia. A central component of these standards is the development of transferable knowledge and skills. Students will have the opportunity to demonstrate transferring knowledge and skills through an assessed case presentation.
To successfully complete this unit students must demonstrate achievement of every unit learning outcome and pass hurdle tasks.
Overview of assessments
Assessment 1/Hurdle Task Professional Practice As...
Assessment 1/Hurdle Task
Professional Practice Assessment Tool
Students reflect on development of competency and provide evidence of development of critical reflection skills, professional identity and goals for learning.
Hurdle
Pass/Fail
Assessment Task 2 Pass/Fail Completion...
Assessment Task 2 Pass/Fail
Completion of Professional Practice Placement including:
- Completion of mandatory tasks
- a satisfactory grade on COMPASS®
At final placement, the student’s overall rating must be at Intermediate. All four of the Professional Units 1-4 and Competency Units 1-4 must be rated as Intermediate.
Student must have self-rated their competencies on the COMPASS at mid and final placement
Pass/ fail
Assessment Task 3 Pass/Fail Case Presentation St...
Assessment Task 3 Pass/Fail
Case Presentation
Students present a case and respond to questions to demonstrate clinical reasoning, critical reflection and transferability.
Pass/Fail
A student who fails the Professional Practice Assessment Tool (PPAT) on their first attempt will be offered the opportunity to re-submit the assessment task. If the task is passed on the second attempt, the student will pass the unit. If the assessment task is failed on the second attempt, the student will fail the unit.
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
In this unit, students are encouraged to increase their overall independence during practice, and begin to manage caseloads with less support than previous professional practice experiences. Students are expected to demonstrate progression in their knowledge, skills, attitudes, and identity as a speech pathologist throughout the unit.
This unit comprises 150 hours of learning and teaching, approximately 100 hours of which is dedicated to professional practice placement. Placement is conducted external to the University, or within on-campus ACU Health Clinics. These activities are integral to the development of competency as a speech pathologist, and enable the student to further develop their skills, knowledge and attitudes within a ‘real world’ context. Students are supervised by a qualified speech pathologist who supports their learning and development. In addition, the professional practice placement experiences in this unit are supplemented by tutorials, group and individual discussions and self-directed learning activities which foster peer learning, reflective practice and shared problem solving, as well as exposing students to workplace contexts which they might not individually experience during the course.
All content, is designed to further develop the student’s professional identity as a speech pathologist and to ensure that they continue to build their professional practice skills across relevant practice areas for speech pathologists.