Year
2022Credit points
10Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unitPrerequisites
SPHY305 Speech Pathology Practice 3B
Unit rationale, description and aim
Graduates need to be well prepared for entry into the workplace with a sound understanding of expectations and processes. Speech pathologists are required to understand and comply with workplace systems, policies, legislation, regulations, guidelines and codes of conduct, including
professional guidelines. Furthermore, speech pathologists must consider implications for client services and advocate appropriately for the needs and rights of people with communication and/or swallowing disorders. Workplaces will vary in their purpose, client population, facilities, context, service delivery strategies, pace,
work hours and conditions.
Employers seek graduates with professional and personal skills, attributes, and attitudes that will enable them to be successful in their workplace. Graduates need to possess a clear understanding of their own work readiness and how to seek and obtain employment. Graduates with poor work readiness are at risk of undue stress, low job satisfaction and unsatisfactory performance. It is therefore relevant to explore work readiness to prepare speech pathology graduates for successful work entry.
This unit contains a learning outcome from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Curriculum Framework (HCF, 2014) specifically addressing the HCF cultural capability- Respect.
This unit aims to prepare students to work in a variety of settings by developing their understanding of workplaces, professional expectations and how to negotiate job recruitment processes.
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.
On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:
LO1 Formulate personal, professional and occupational competencies required to be successful in the workplace. (GA5, GA9)
LO2 Apply theories and strategies that guide care of mental, emotional, and physical health and well-being for self and others in the workplace to the negotiation of work conditions. (GA2, GA4, GA9)
LO3 Collaboratively design a speech pathology service with consideration of its purpose, policies and practices, and guidelines from regulating bodies. (GA2, GA6, GA9)
LO4 Design strategies for delivering culturally safe health care with respect to individual, cultural and linguistic diversity. (GA5) HCF 3.3
Graduate attributes
GA2 - recognise their responsibility to the common good, the environment and society
GA4 - think critically and reflectively
GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession
GA6 - solve problems in a variety of settings taking local and international perspectives into account
GA9 - demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media
Content
Topics will include:
The peak professional body for speech pathologists in Australia: Speech Pathology Australia
- Membership benefits
- Position statements
- Clinical guidelines
- Resources for members
- Professional standards
- Ethics
Caseload management and service delivery
- Service delivery models
- Teamwork and interprofessional practice
- Decision-making
- Inequities
- Advocacy
- Culturally responsive practice
Workplace settings: Purpose, scope and policies of sectors employing speech pathologists across Australian jurisdictions and contexts
- Health
- Education
- Disability
- Private Practice
- Rural and Remote
Workplace, practices, guidelines and standards
- Attributes and skills required by employers
- Hierarchies and administrative structures
- Occupational Health and Safety
- Bullying, discrimination and harassment
- Awards and unions
Work Readiness
- The concept of work readiness
- Measurement and evaluation of work readiness
- Work readiness as a self-reflective, self-management process
Job seeking processes and career development
- Job applications
- Job interviews
- Negotiating conditions
Positive workplace environments
- Characteristics
- Strategies for creating positivity
- Strategies for dealing with difficult people/situations
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This unit applies a flexible, blended learning approach to accommodate the varied placement schedules of fourth year students. Students will engage with content from a variety of sources including input from industry partners, published literature and government and organizational websites. Interactive learning sessions will be available in face to face and online modes. Students will be guided to consider application of workplace and work readiness concepts to self and others; and the purpose and nature of key service delivery sectors in Australia.
The unit involves 150 hours of learning inclusive of a combination of face-to-face and online delivery, interactive and independent learning, and assessment tasks.
Assessment strategy and rationale
This unit adopts an authentic assessment approach by requiring students to demonstrate knowledge and application of professional workplace and service delivery parameters, work readiness, self-management and job-seeking processes. The assessment strategies for this unit include two individual assignments with written and oral components and a group presentation.
Authentic individual tasks with both written and oral components will require students to demonstrate their ability to write a job application and participate in an interview. First, students will respond to an advertised position and consider how their personal attributes, experiences and work readiness relate to the job and person description. Learning outcomes 1 and 2 will be assessed in this task.
The second assessment task will require students to reflect on their personal work readiness and preferred work environment and to negotiate suitable employment conditions. The negotiation of employment conditions will be in response to a mock job offer which presents some challenges for self and the common good. Learning outcomes 1 and 2 will be assessed in this task.
The third assessment will provide opportunity for students to collaboratively develop a proposal for a new or alternative speech pathology service and present it as a pitch to a service manager. Students will need to consider culturally safe service provision for both Australia’s First Peoples and migrant populations. Service development is rarely a solo task but will synthesise contributions from a team of developers. The assessment will thus require individuals to demonstrate how they have contributed to each phase of project development. Learning outcomes 3 and 4 will be assessed in this task.
Overview of assessments
| Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment Tasks | Weighting | Learning Outcomes | Graduate Attributes |
|---|---|---|---|
Assessment 1: Individual written task. Applying for a Job. Enables students to apply for a speech pathology position through a written application. | 45% | LO1, LO2 | GA2, GA4, GA5, GA9 CBOS Alignment Occupational 5.1, 5.3, 5.5, 5.6, 6.1, 6.2, 7.1, 7.2 Professional 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1. 3.3, 4.2, 4.4, |
Assessment 2: Individual oral task. Job interview. Enables students to reflect on their personal work readiness, participate in an interview and negotiate suitable employment conditions. | 30% | LO1, LO2 | GA2, GA4, GA5, GA9 CBOS Alignment Occupational 5.1, 5.3, 5.5, 5.6 6.1, 6.2 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4 Professional 1.2, 2.1, 2.3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 4.2, 4.4, 4.5 |
Assessment 3: Group oral presentation task. Service Development. Enables students to demonstrate capacity to develop a new or extended service development proposal within a small team, with consideration of relevant guidelines. | 25% | LO3, LO4 | GA2, GA5, GA6, GA9 CBOS Alignment Occupational 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.8, 6.1, 6.2, Professional 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.2, 2.3, 3.3, 4.1, 4.3, 4.4 |
Representative texts and references
Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. (n.d.) retrieved June 2022: https://www.agedcarequality.gov.au/providers/standards
Australian Government (n.d.) Students with disability. retrieved June 2022 https://www.dese.gov.au/swd
Caballero, C., Walker, A., & Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, M. (2011). The Work Readiness Scale (WRS): Developing a measure to assess work readiness in college graduates. Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability, 2(2), 41-54.
Keleher, H., & Reynolds, L. (2019) 4th Edition. Understanding the Australian Health Care System. Elsevier.
National Disability Insurance Scheme. (n.d.) retrieved June 2022: https://www.ndis.gov.au/
Speech Pathology Australia. (n.d.) retrieved June 2022: https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/
Clinical guidelines retrieved June 2022: https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/SPAweb/Members/Clinical_Guidelines/SPAweb/Members/Clinic%20al_Guidelines/Clinical_Guidelines.aspx?hkey=0fc81470-2d6c-4b17-90c0-ced8b0ff2a5d
Speech Pathology Australia (SPA) Ethics retrieved June 2022: https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/SPAweb/Members/Ethics/SPAweb/Members/Ethics/Ethics.aspx
Position statements retrieved June 2022:
Private practice essentials retrieved June 2022: https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/SPAweb/Resources_For_Speech_Pathologists/Private_Practice_Essentials/SPAweb/Resources_for_Speech_Pathologists/Practice_Essentials/Practice_Essentials.aspx?hkey=875abb10-00b4-437c-b991-001268d43054
Workplace and policy websites for federal and state government departments, non-government organisations and private practice