Unit rationale, description and aim
Psychologists play a vital role in supporting well-being with individuals and groups across a range of settings. In Australia, there is a growing demand for skilled professionals who can provide specialised evidence-based assessment, intervention, and support in various contexts including acute mental health settings, educational environments, and in the community. In order to provide effective psychological assessment and interventions on placements, provisional psychologists require a solid grounding in fundamental clinical skills that are critical to practicing safely and ethically with clients and developing their skills as clinicians. As such, this unit is designed to help provisional psychologists develop the professional competencies required during their supervised psychological practice.
Students will develop their professional knowledge and competence in foundational clinical skills including clinical interviewing, observing and recording behavioural observations, case formulation, risk assessment, record keeping, communicating with third parties and providing feedback to clients. There is a focus on skill acquisition within the context of diversity and cultural competence.
The aim of this unit is to provide students with the necessary clinical skills to support their client work during professional placements.
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.
Describe the principles of foundational clinical s...
Learning Outcome 01
Implement clinical interviewing, assessment, formu...
Learning Outcome 02
Recognise with respect, the roles of the interprof...
Learning Outcome 03
HCF 17.3 Advocate for equitable health care for Ab...
Learning Outcome 04
Design practical strategies to enable ongoing self...
Learning Outcome 05
Content
Topics covered include:
- Reflective and reflexive practice
- Record keeping requirements
- Clinical interviewing
- Case formulation
- Treatment planning
- Monitoring client progress
- Client motivation and compliance
- Report writing
- Cultural considerations in clinical practice
- Working with other professionals
- Providing feedback to clients
- Terminating with clients
- Risk assessments
- Culturally safe practices for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
Assessment strategy and rationale
The assessment strategy for this unit allows students to demonstrate their acquisition of knowledge, as well as the application of that knowledge. In order to best enable students to demonstrate unit learning outcomes and to develop graduate competencies, standards-based assessment is utilised, consistent with University assessment requirements. A range of assessment strategies are used including: (1) submission of a written clinical report to assess students' ability to gather and synthesise pertinent background information from clients; (2) submission of a practicum skills portfolio to assess students' ability to maintain appropriate record keeping practices and to reflect on their developing clinical practice; and (3) a practical examination in the form of an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) that is used to examine students' ability to respond appropriately in a simulated clinical environment. In this final assessment, students are expected to demonstrate foundational clinical skills in the context of a presented clinical scenario.
Assessment Tasks 1 and 2 are graded hurdles, while Assessment Task 3 is an ungraded hurdle. As such, students must pass all assessment tasks in order to pass the unit because it is critical that students demonstrate an appropriate level of knowledge and skills in foundational clinical skills prior to working with clients: a failure in any of these assessment tasks is likely to translate to an unacceptable level of risk to clients the student will come into contact with on subsequent practicums. Students will be given an additional attempt to pass the task if the first attempt is failed, with a maximum grade of 50% for the task if failed on the first attempt.
Overview of assessments
Assessment Task 1 - Clinical Report This assignm...
Assessment Task 1 - Clinical Report
This assignment allows students to demonstrate their understanding of cultural issues in assessment, particularly as they pertain to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, integrate data from professionals from various disciplines, and write a clinical case report.
50%
Graded Hurdle
Assessment Task 2 - Practicum Skills Portfolio T...
Assessment Task 2 - Practicum Skills Portfolio
This portfolio allows students to demonstrate their capacity to maintain appropriate record keeping practices and to demonstrate reflexive practice: the self-examination and critical reflection that psychologist engage in to understand how their own attitudes, beliefs, values, and experiences might influence their practice and interactions with others
50%
Graded Hurdle
Assessment Task 3 - Practical Examination (OSCE) ...
Assessment Task 3 - Practical Examination (OSCE)
This practical examination allows students to demonstrate foundational clinical skills.
Hurdle (Pass/Fail)
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
Students enrolled in postgraduate psychology units are provisionally registered psychologists who are required to deliver psychological services to clients as part of their training. This unit prepares students for the client work and includes attendance in simulation activities in the internal psychology training clinic. This unit therefore uses an active learning approach consisting of class discussion, case-based learning, and participation in an intensive simulation program over 12 weeks. The unit is consequently delivered in face-to-face mode consisting of 3 contact hours per week. Knowledge and principles introduced in lectures are applied within the simulation program, which requires students to role-play the full range of foundational clinical skills and to reflect on their learning experiences in weekly discussions. These strategies allow students to meet the aim, learning outcomes and graduate attributes of the unit, by providing students with appropriate access to the required knowledge of the unit content, and opportunities to practice the acquired skills in a clinical setting. Learning and teaching strategies reflect respect for the individual as an independent learner. Students are expected to take responsibility for their learning and to participate actively within group activities.