Unit rationale, description and aim
Speech pathologists are required to engage in professional, ethical, and evidence-based practice, drawing on skills in reasoning and reflection to provide appropriate services for individuals, families and communities that address communication and swallowing needs and enable human flourishing. This unit is the final of seven Professional Practice units and enables students to apply their knowledge and skills from all previous theoretical and professional practice units to demonstrate readiness to enter the profession.
In this unit, students undertake an extended period of professional practice experience, consolidating their knowledge and skills in assessment, analysis and interpretation, intervention planning and implementation of intervention with the population and contexts of practice. It is a SPA requirement that competency in working with both child and adult populations is demonstrated in penultimate or final 4th year placements. Consequently, in this unit, students will work with a different population than in the previous professional practice unit (SPHY415).
This unit contains a learning outcome from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Curriculum Framework (HCF, 2014) specifically addressing the HCF cultural capability-Self Reflexivity.
Additionally, students will demonstrate skills in professional conduct, reflective practice and lifelong learning, showing transferability of skills and knowledge across contexts and populations.
The aim of this unit is to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in working with children or adults across the continuum of care, at the level required for entry into the profession, to enable a successful transition into the workforce.
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.
Demonstrate professional, ethical, and evidence-ba...
Learning Outcome 01
Demonstrate theoretical knowledge and skills to en...
Learning Outcome 02
Critically reflect on the transferability of knowl...
Learning Outcome 03
Design practical strategies to enable ongoing self...
Learning Outcome 04
Content
Topics will include:
Competency and Range of Practice Areas of focus:
- Skills required for entry to the profession
- Assimilating and applying previously learnt knowledge and skills to workplace settings, populations and practice areas.
Professional Conduct (Domain 1)
- Worldview and sociocultural perspectives: Diverse world views
- The role of speech pathologists in advocating for consumers and the profession.
- Ethical challenges and the Speech Pathology Australia Code of Ethics.
- Independent use of sound EBP processes to support professional reasoning and decision-making
- Communication which demonstrates professional reasoning and professional and clinical knowledge and skills
- Communicating with the consumer, family and support members, and other professionals in practice
- Working collaboratively and respectfully when working in teams
Reflective Practice and Lifelong learning (Domain 2)
- Using critical reflection skills independently in clinical practice beyond graduation.
- Professionalism
- Identification of points of difference as a graduate speech pathologist of ACU
- Reflect on future opportunities to apply learnt knowledge and skills.
- Using Critical reflection to develop goals for professional development.
- Using reflexivity to guide culturally responsive practice
Speech Pathology Practice (Domain 3)
- Development of the speech pathology workforce and profession
- Encouraging diversity
- Using clinical data to explore service quality with colleagues
Assessment strategy and rationale
Assessment 1: Completion of professional practice assessment. Students participate in a professional practice experience on which they are assessed with the COMPASS® assessment tool. COMPASS® is a psychometrically validated assessment instrument that provides a measure of speech pathology student competence, and is recommended by Speech Pathology Australia. COMPASS® has been developed to assist in the evaluation of speech pathology students’ performance in the workplace, to identify their learning needs and to determine their readiness to enter the professional workforce.
Assessment 2: Final year conference presentation. This unit is a capstone unit and, as such, students are expected to demonstrate consolidation of four years of university theory and professional practice in a professional degree. This is assessed through the delivery of an oral presentation at the School of Allied Health conference. Specifically, students are required to report upon the management of a client demonstrating theoretical knowledge and skills in the assessment, analysis and interpretation, planning intervention, and the implementation of intervention at a level required for entry into the profession. Furthermore, they are expected to critically reflect on their management and contextual factors that influenced their reasoning and service delivery. This task shows an authentic assessment approach with students required to demonstrate critical reflective practice.
Assessment 3: Professional development plan and critical reflection. Students will identify their professional development goals and learning plan at the start of their placement, and opportunities for application of learnt knowledge and skills based on a reflection of current strengths in knowledge and skills and areas for improvement. At the conclusion of their placement, students will prepare a critical reflection which will explore their development relative to their goals and opportunities, discuss their own perspectives and those of others during their placement and identify professional learning supports they will need as they enter the profession. Students will specifically address their development of cultural capability and practical strategies that will enable ongoing reflexivity. The critical reflection will also provide the opportunities to develop a plan for learning goals beyond graduation and entry into the profession. The plan will identify learning goals, activities that will be undertaken to address those goals and a timeframe for completion.
In order to be successful in this unit, students must pass all assessment items. A students who fails Assessment 1 (completion of professional practice placement) will not be given a second attempt at this assessment. A student who fails Assessment 2 (final year conference presentation) and/or Assessment 3 (professional development plan and critical reflection) 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.
Overview of assessments
Assessment 1: Completion of professional practice...
Assessment 1: Completion of professional practice placement
This task enables students to complete a professional practice placement including:
• Completion of mandatory tasks
• A grade on COMPASS at entry level
Ungraded Hurdle
(pass/fail)
Assessment 2: Final year conference presentation&...
Assessment 2: Final year conference presentation
This task enables students to report and critically reflect on evidence-based speech pathology practice including assessment, analysis, planning, and intervention.
Ungraded Hurdle
(pass/fail)
Assessment 3: Professional development plan and c...
Assessment 3: Professional development plan and critical reflection
This task enables students to prepare a professional development plan outlining learning goals, activities and timeframes for completion which will allow for critical reflection of learning on placement.
Ungraded Hurdle
(pass/fail)
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This is the final professional practice unit, and as such, is the final opportunity for students to gain workplace exposure prior to entering the profession. The blended approach to this unit acknowledges that students will be experiencing a range of contexts, supervision styles and practice areas and populations throughout the semester.
This unit is comprised of approximately 250 hours of professional practice experiences, which are conducted external to the University or within on-campus speech pathology clinics. These experiences are integral to the development of speech pathology skills, knowledge and attitudes within a ‘real world’ context. Students are supervised by qualified speech pathologists who support learning and development of competencies. In addition to the professional practice experiences, approximately 50 hours of learning activities including tutorials, group and individual discussions, self-directed learning activities and assessment tasks are completed. These activities foster peer learning, reflective practice, professional reasoning and shared problem solving, and expose students to workplace contexts which they might not individually experience.
All content is designed to assist the development of students’ professional skill and identity as a speech pathologist readiness to enter the profession.
Professional Standards for Speech Pathologists in Australia
In connection to the learning outcomes, the Professional Standards for Speech Pathologists in Australia (Professional Standards) detail
- the knowledge, skills and attributes a speech pathologist practising in Australia must demonstrate and apply, at any point in their career, as relevant to their speech pathology role and work context
- the knowledge, skills and attributes a graduating speech pathology student must demonstrate and be able to apply by the time they complete their entry-level degree.
The Professional Standards should not be read in isolation. Speech pathologists should also be cognisant of, and comply with, relevant legislation, Speech Pathology Australia policies and the Speech Pathology Australia Code of Ethics.