Year
2024Credit points
10Campus offering
Prerequisites
SPHY301 Swallowing, Feeding, and Mealtime across the Lifespan AND SPHY302 Speech Pathology Practice 3A AND (SPHY303 Voice Disorders Across the Lifespan OR SPHY309 Language, literacy and cognition across the lifespan )
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.
| Learning Outcome Number | Learning Outcome Description | Relevant Graduate Capabilities |
|---|---|---|
| LO1 | LO1 Demonstrate professional conduct and critical reflective practice as required by the profession’s Code of Ethics and Professional Standards. | GC1, GC2, GC3, GC4, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC11, GC12 |
| LO2 | LO2 Demonstrate independence in assessment, analysis and interpretation, intervention planning and delivery when working with familiar practice areas. | GC1, GC2, GC3, GC4, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC11, GC12 |
| LO3 | LO3 Demonstrate transferability of knowledge and skills when working with unfamiliar or multifactorial caseloads. | GC1, GC2, GC3, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC11, GC12 |
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
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.
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
| Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment Tasks | Weighting | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|
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 | LO1, LO3 |
Assessment Task 2 Pass/Fail Completion of Professional Practice Placement including:
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 | LO1, LO2, LO3 |
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 | LO1, LO3 |
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.
Representative texts and references
Cook, K., Tillard, G., Wyles, C., Gerhard, D., Ormond, T., & McAuliffe, M. (2019). Assessing and developing the written reflective practice skills of speech-language pathology students. International Journal of Speech language Pathology, 21(1), 4-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2017.1374463
Lieberman, A. (2018). Counseling Issues: Addressing Behavioral and Emotional Considerations in the Treatment of Communication Disorders. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 27(1), 13–23. https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_AJSLP-16-0149
McAllister, S., Lincoln, M., Ferguson, A. & McAllister, L. (2013). COMPASS®: Competency assessment in speech pathology technical manual (2nd ed.). Speech Pathology Australia.
Speech Pathology Australia. Code of Ethics. https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/Public/Public/About-Us/Ethics-and-standards/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics.aspx?hkey=33c84f2c-2bf2-47b0-b201-d5f5616fb191
Speech Pathology Australia. Professional Standards for Speech Pathologists in Australia. https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/Public/Public/About-Us/Ethics-and-standards/Professional-standards/Professional-Standards.aspx?hkey=34af6d1a-2b96-411b-a4ed-90f0a8aae27c
Stagnitti, K., Schoo, A., & Welch, D. (Eds). (2010). Clinical and fieldwork placement in the health professions. Oxford University Press.
World Health Organisation. (2023). International classification of functioning, disability and health. https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/international-classification-of-functioning-disability-and-health