For this assessment task, you will participate in a simulated, ‘mock’ case conference meeting, similar to that which regularly occurs in a range of different health and education facilities, such as hospitals, private practices, community health settings, and even schools. These meetings typically involve providing information about a particular client’s case, and then discussing the case with other health professionals to ensure that the client’s needs are met through a planned and coordinated approach to their health care.

During your simulated case presentation, you will be required to provide information about a client you worked with during your third year sessional placements (i.e., as part of SPCH13001 or SPCH13006). Your task is to envisage yourself as a Speech Pathologist who has been asked to attend a case conference meeting as part of the regular practice of that clinical setting. This simulated case conference meeting will include an audience made up of fellow students who you need to consider as representing the team of health professionals in a clinical setting (e.g., Occupational Therapists, Dieticians, Social Workers and/or Physiotherapist). You are encouraged to select a case that requires/needs interdisciplinary input.

You will have a maximum of fifteen minutes to share your information with ‘the team’ and respond to questions, so you must ensure that you are succinct and to the point, in order to cover everything that is required.

An additional requirement is that you ask questions of your peers when they are presenting their case. You can ask this question as a fellow speech pathologist, or take the role of another health professional (e.g., Dietician; Occupational Therapist) and ask a question that may be relevant to that discipline. You should demonstrate that you are actively listening to the information that others are sharing and that you have the skills to ask questions effectively in a case conference setting. The questions you ask should be open-ended (for example, rather than asking yes/no questions, such as “Did you also conduct a language assessment?”, you should ask questions that prompt for further information, such as “Which other assessments did you consider using but then rule out, and why?”). You need to ask a minimum of TWO questions across the cases presented.

You need to submit a 1-page written summary of your case via Moodle by 9:00am on 13 September 2021. Your summary will not be specifically graded but needs to include the key points you plan to discuss in your case presentation. You are able to submit your summary as written text or in a bulleted list. You will be unable to begin/engage in your case conference presentation without providing this written summary.

This is a must-pass assessment task that is worth 50% of your overall grade for this unit. You need to attain a minimum grade of 20/40 (50%) to pass this assessment task.

You will be graded on the information you provide about your case, your consideration of the ICF and evidence-based practice in your discussion of the case, your rationales and clinical reasoning, your communication style, your consideration of the various team members who might be/need to be involved in the case, and your ability to answer questions throughout the case conference. In addition, you will be graded on the quality of questions you ask of others during their case conference presentations.

A detailed rubric outlining specific expectations has been posted on Moodle. 

This term you will complete three sessional clinical placements. Each placement has a different pass requirement based on the learning you have completed in the course to date. This is a must-pass assessment task. To pass this unit, you must meet the pass criteria for all three sessional clinical placements. Details regarding these placements are outlined below: 

Placement 1

This placement will require you to attend clinic for one full day each week across the twelve week term. Your placement will provide you with the opportunity to develop your practical skills under the supervision of a fully qualified and experienced Clinical Educator (CE).

Your CE will assess your competence across the seven CBOS units and each of the four generic professional competencies at both the mid and final points of the placement through the use of the COMPASS Online assessment tool. In addition, you will be required to complete a self-assessment at each of these placement points through COMPASS Online.

At the commencement of your placement you will need to complete a learning contract which is to be reviewed by you and your CE as part of the mid-placement and final-placement assessments. By the end of your placement, you are expected to demonstrate intermediate level competence across each of the CBOS Units 1-7 an din each generic professional competency unit. Your placement this term will involve either a paediatric or an adult caseload. Your assigned caseload will be opposite to that which was assigned to you in SPCH13001 during Term 1.

Placements 2 and 3

Each of these placements will be six weeks in length and will focus on a specific range of practice area (i.e., voice, adult speech/language). These placements will take place at the CQUniversity Health Clinic and will be supervised by fully qualified and experienced CEs. Each of these placements will be graded using a rubric available to you via Moodle. To pass Placements 2 and 3, you must demonstrate approaching entry-level competency in each.

Further information regarding the expectations when participating in clinical placements such as dress code, attendance requirements and mandatory checks (pre-clinical requirements) can be found in the Speech Pathology Clinical Education Handbook. An electronic copy of this document will be made available through the SPCH13006 Moodle page. Note that all pre-clinical requirements mentioned in the Speech Pathology Clinical Education Handbook (and also stipulated on the online SONIA database) must be completed prior to commencing a placement and must remain current for the duration of the placement. Any student who fails to comply will not be permitted to commence their placement which will affect their ability to complete this assessment task. Further information and instructions regarding all mandatory checks (pre-clinical requirements) can be found on the SONIA database or obtained by contacting the Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) team via email: smas-clinicalplacements@cqu.edu.au.

The criteria differ for Placement 1 versus Placements 2 and 3. Criteria are outlined below.

Placement 1:

You will be assessed on the following four generic professional competencies through the use of COMPASS Online:

• Professional Competency Unit 1: Reasoning
• Professional Competency Unit 2: Communication
• Professional Competency Unit 3: Learning
• Professional Competency Unit 4: Professionalism

You will also be assessed on the following seven CBOS Units:

• CBOS Unit 1: Assessment
• CBOS Unit 2: Analysis and Interpretation
• CBOS Unit 3: Planning Evidence-Based Speech Pathology Practice
• CBOS Unit 4: Implementation of Speech Pathology Practice
• CBOS Unit 5: Planning, Providing and Managing Speech Pathology Services
• CBOS Unit 6: Professional and Supervisory Practice
• CBOS Unit 7: Lifelong Learning and Reflective Practice

Further information regarding each of these units can be found in the COMPASS Assessment Resource Manual, available through COMPASS online: https://compass.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/compass/portal/portal.jsp

In order to complete all of the requirements and pass this assessment task, you must:

• Complete a learning contract in the first three weeks of the placement and have this reviewed by you and your CE as part of the mid-placement and final-placement assessments.
• Complete a self-assessment through COMPASS online a minimum of two days prior to meeting with your CE at both the mid-placement and final-placement assessment points.
• Be assessed by your CE across all seven CBOS units and each of the four generic professional competency (GPC) units at the mid-placement and final-placement points.
• By the end of your placement, demonstrate intermediate level competence across each of the CBOS units 1-7, according to COMPASS Online results that are determined by your CE.
• By the end of your placement, demonstrate intermediate-level competence across each of the four generic professional competency (GPC) units, according to COMPASS Online results that are determined by your CE.

Placements 2 and 3

Due to the length of these two sessional placements (i.e., 6 weeks), students will be graded according to a rubric that includes elements related to CBOS Units 1-7, all four generic professional competency units, and the Professional Standards. This rubric, including the specific criteria against which you will be assessed, are available via Moodle. By the end of each of these two sessional placements, you need to demonstrate approaching entry-level competence as determined by your CE via the rubric.

Students must pass all three sessional placements to pass this assessment task. 

Both the pass and failure criteria that apply to clinical placements are described in detail in the Speech Pathology Clinical Education Handbook. Both CEs and students should familiarise themselves with these criteria. As stated in the Clinical Education Handbook, the Clinical Education Coordinator will make the final decision regarding a student's results based on all available evidence relating to the student's performance whilst completing the placement.

This assessment task has three parts:

1. Using your clinical experiences this term, identify and reflect on one specific area of strength and one area in which you need to improve. Your reflection should be written using the Description-Interpretation-Outcome framework. For each area, you need to:

• Briefly describe the area you identified (Description)
• Provide a clear rationale for why you selected it (e.g., analyse the learning experience that led you to identify it) (Interpretation)
• Reflect on the impact that your area of strength/area that needs improvement has had (or might have in future) on you as a clinician (Outcome)

2. Describe the link between reflective practice and ONE of the generic professional competencies (GPCs) described in COMPASS (reasoning, communication, learning and professionalism). That is, discuss how continuing to develop your reflective practice skills could potentially assist growth in one of the four GPCs. NOTE: You must select a different GPC than the one you included in your SPCH13001 reflective practice assignment.

3. Discuss how you can use reflective practice to apply the knowledge and competencies learned in one range of practice area or client age group, to another. For example, you may discuss applying and transferring knowledge from paediatric practice to working with adults or from speech to language, etc. This reflection should be written following the Description-Interpretation-Outcome framework.

The word limit for this assessment task is 2000 words. 

This is a must-pass assessment task. Students must attain a minimum of grade of 25/50 (50%) to pass this assessment task.

A detailed task description and marking rubric are available via Moodle. You will be graded on a number of elements related to two main criteria as outlined below: 

• Criterion 1 assesses the content of the three parts of your reflective practice assignment based on the task description. This criterion is marked out of 30 and converted to a mark out of 40.
• Criterion 2 assesses the formatting, writing style, grammar and APA referencing throughout the assessment task. This criterion is marked out of 25 and converted to a mark out of 10.

You must complete a Record of WIL Experiences form showing the clinical experiences/hours you accumulated at your term 1 sessional placement. At the completion of the placement, this form must be signed by both you and your CE. You must then submit the form via Moodle within one week of the completion of your sessional placements. The specific record form that is to be used and the instructions for completion is available on Moodle.

It should be noted that Speech Pathology Australia (SPA) does not specify the number of clinical hours that students must complete during the course of any Australian university’s Speech Pathology program. SPA instead places the focus on the minimum level of competence, skills and knowledge required for entry into the workforce as a qualified and competent speech pathologist. CQUniversity’s approach is consistent with SPA’s philosophy and therefore does not have a specific requirement regarding the minimum number of clinical hours each student must complete by the end of the Speech Pathology course. Submission of the record form for this unit is therefore a pass/fail assessment requirement. You should be aware that you are also expected to track this data and keep copies for your own records, as evidence of clinical hours may be required if you are requested to provide evidence of clinical experience when applying for work as a speech pathologist overseas.

In order to pass this assessment task, you must complete and submit a copy of the Record of WIL Experiences form provided to you by your Unit Coordinator within one week of completing your three sessional placements. You will need a separate Record of WIL Experiences form for each of your three sessional placements. Each form must be signed by both you and your CE/s. Instructions for completion are available on the record form that have been provided to you on Moodle.