You will be required to attend and participate in a block placement. This block placement is typically five days per week across six weeks or four days per week across eight weeks. This timing may vary depending on the placement site. The start and finish dates of placements will vary across students. Information regarding these dates, as well as the duration and nature of the placement, will be provided to you by your Clinical Education Coordinator and/or Unit Coordinator either prior to or during the term.

In order to complete this placement, you may be required to travel and participate in a placement that is outside of the Central Queensland region or even outside of Queensland. You are required to support yourself financially whilst attending your placement, to source and fund your own travel and accommodation, and to cover any other costs associated with attending the placement.

Your adult block placement will provide you with an opportunity to further develop your competence as a Speech Pathologist under the supervision of one or more Clinical Educators (CEs), in a clinical setting (e.g., community health facility, a hospital, private practice, or an educational setting). This particular placement will be focused on adult clinical practice, but you may also gain some additional experience working with children, depending on the nature of the placement.

During your placement, your CE, a qualified Speech Pathologist, will assess your competence across the seven Competency-Based Occupational Standards (CBOS) units and each of the four generic professional competencies (GPCs) at both the mid and final points of the placement, through the use of the COMPASS online assessment tool. The specific assessment details and requirements are as follows:

• You and your CE/s must complete a mid-placement assessment using COMPASS On-line. This will be completed with your CE/s at the mid-point of your placement, however you will also be required to complete a self-assessment (also using COMPASS On-line) prior to meeting with your CE/s for this assessment. The mid-placement assessment is formative in nature, which means that although it does not count towards your final mark at the end of the placement, it provides you with a formal opportunity to discuss your strengths and areas for improvement - that is, the areas to focus on for the second half of the placement. It also provides your CE/s with an opportunity to formally raise any concerns with the Clinical Education Co-Ordinator (CEC).

• You and your CE/s must complete a final-placement assessment using COMPASS On-line. This will be completed at the end of your placement. Again, you will be required to complete a self-assessment using COMPASS On-line prior to meeting with your CE/s. This final assessment is summative in nature, meaning that it provides the CE/s with the opportunity to give final marks and feedback regarding the entire placement. At this point you are required to be at entry-level across each of the four generic professional competencies as well as all seven of the CBOS units. The behavioural descriptors for the entry-level student can be found in the COMPASS Assessment Resource Manual which is available on COMPASS On-line and will also be posted on Moodle. The pass criteria for entry-level block placements are also described in the 2022 Speech Pathology Clinical Education Handbook.

• You are required to complete a learning agreement at the beginning of your placement - this is a learning agreement that is reached between you and your CE/s, generally in the first week of the placement. It enables both you and your CE/s to identify and discuss any particular areas which need to be focussed on and developed throughout the placement. The agreement is to be reviewed at the mid and final points of your placements, in order to determine whether the goals you have set for yourself have been achieved.

• You must also complete and submit any additional documentation that is required by the CE or placement organisation, such as written reports and information for client files.

Further details regarding learning contracts and COMPASS can all be found in the 2022 Speech Pathology Clinical Education Handbook, which is available on Moodle. In addition, the handbook describes the expectations of students who are completing placements, including information regarding dress code, professional conduct, confidentiality, and managing a range of issues during placements. You should ensure that you are familiar with the content of the Clinical Education Handbook prior to commencing any placement.

This assessment item has pass/fail criteria and must be passed in order to achieve a pass grade for this unit.

Also note that in order to commence this block placement, you must have met all pre-clinical requirements (i.e., mandatory checks) and these must remain current for the duration of your placement. Information regarding pre-clinical requirements can be obtained from the Work-Integrated Learning Office via email: smas-clinicalplacements@cqu.edu.au. Different workplaces may also have additional pre-clinical requirements that relate to their particular workplace/facility/organisation, such as training related to the use of telepractice or infection control, or specific vaccinations such as the influenza vaccination (this is particularly the case when working with vulnerable populations, such as the elderly and immuno-compromised individuals). It is up to you as the student to ensure that you have met all of these requirements, otherwise you may not be able to attend a placement and complete this assessment task.

You will be assessed on the four generic professional competencies and the seven CBOS (Occupational) competencies through the use of COMPASS  On-line.

The generic professional competency units are:

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

The CBOS units are:

• CBOS Unit 1: Assessment
• CBOS Unit 2: Analysis and Interpretation
• CBOS Unit 3: Planning Evidence-based Speech Pathology Practices
• 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 On-line: https://compass.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/compass/portal/portal.jsp. This manual will also be available on the SPCH14007 Moodle website.

Prior to meeting with your CE/s to complete your mid-placement and final-placement assessments, you must first complete the self-assessment component through COMPASS On-line. You must also bring the learning contract that was developed at the commencement of the placement, for you and your CE/s to review, as this will aid the discussion you have about the progress you have made and any objectives you may have achieved.

At the final-placement assessment, your COMPASS results must indicate that you have demonstrated entry-level competence across each of the eleven CBOS and generic professional competency units.

A range of important policies, procedures and additional information regarding work-integrated learning (placements) can be found in the 2022 Speech Pathology Clinical Education Handbook. Students should ensure that they are highly familiar with the content of the handbook and that they abide by the rules and guidelines included in this document.

For this assessment task, you will be required to complete a viva (an oral assessment in the form of a dynamic interview) based on an adult clinical scenario this viva will be conducted via Zoom. At the start of your viva, you will be provided with basic written case information about an adult who is presenting with communication difficulties and/or swallowing difficulties. You will then have 5 minutes to review and consider this written information prior to commencing your viva.

After the 5 minutes of review time has passed, you will sit down with your assessor/s (this may involve a panel of up to three people) in an interview-type scenario that will require you to respond to a range of questions related to assessment and intervention for the client described in the case. Throughout this viva, you will be provided with additional information and asked to indicate if/how that information affects your decision-making process and recommendations.

Each section of your viva is timed but not all sections are assessed. A brief outline is provided below, with additional details provided on Moodle.

• Section 1A (No assessed). Review background information (5 minutes)
• Section 1B (Assessed). Assessment planning (10 minutes)
• Section 2A (Not assessed). Review assessment results (10 minutes)
• Section 2B (Assessed). Interpret, diagnose, and report on assessments (10 minutes)
• Section 3A (Not assessed). Plan speech pathology intervention or service response (10 minutes)
• Section 3B (Assessed). Plan speech pathology intervention or service response (10 minutes)
• Section 4A (Not assessed). Professional Conduct (Domain 1) and Reflective Practice and Lifelong Learning (Domain 2) (5 minutes)
• Section 4B (Assessed). Professional Conduct (Domain 1) and Reflective Practice and Lifelong Learning (Domain 2) (5 minutes)

During the viva, you must independently demonstrate your skills, knowledge, and competence in adult clinical practice across CBOS and the new Professional Standards. Overall, this viva requires you to independently integrate information, to problem-solve in real-time, and to make decisions regarding assessment and intervention and the overall management of a client, with reference to the ICF and within the ethical guidelines of the speech pathology profession. You must also demonstrate your use of effective thinking, reasoning and reflective skills and provide clear and appropriate rationales for decisions that carefully consider evidence-based practice.

Your oral viva may be video recorded for assessment purposes.

This is a must-pass assessment task. To pass this assessment, you must demonstrate entry-level competency for EACH criterion in each assessed section of the viva.

You will be assessed using criteria outlined in CBOS Units 1 to 3 and the new Professional Standards.

This is a must pass assessment task. To pass this task, you need to demonstrate entry-level competency in adult clinical practice for EACH of the criteria against which you are assessed. Each criterion will be assessed as at entry-level or not. Demonstrating entry level competency requires that you independently complete each part of the task, without prior knowledge of the case information and without the need for specific prompts (either prior to, or during the viva) in order to complete the task. Therefore, you will not be provided with a detailed list of each criterion against which you will be assessed. However, a brief description of each of the assessed sections of the rubric is provided below:

Section 1: After independently reviewing background information of a case, you will need to develop an assessment plan and justify that plan as it relates to the case information, the particular circumstances of the client, and evidence based practice. In this section you will be assessed on 4 criteria related to identification of the client's needs, description and justification of your assessment plan, and problem-solving.

Section 2: You will need to analyse and interpret assessment data, identify gaps in information, and discuss likely outcomes for the client. In this section, you will be assessed on 4 criteria related to your synthesis of information, use of evidence, identification of gaps and discussion of likely client outcomes.

Section 3: Review a summary of the adult's diagnosis and develop a holistic intervention plan or service response in which you will need to describe and justify with the assessor. In this section you will be assessed on 4 criteria related to your use of assessment results and client needs in planning, selection of appropriate intervention supported by evidence, and your clinical reasoning.

Section 4: Reflect on the case and the decisions you made and discuss learning goals. This section also includes criteria related to overall communication and professionalism shown throughout the viva. In this section, you will be assessed against 4 criteria related to reflective practice, identification of goals, communication and professionalism.

NOTE: Since this is a pass/fail assessment task, it does not qualify for a supplementary assessment. However, if you do not meet the pass criteria for the adult viva task, you will be provided with one opportunity to re-sit the entire oral examination assessment. The re-sit will be of an equivalent format and use the same assessment criteria as the original assessment task. If you do not meet the pass criteria for the re-sit, you will receive a fail grade on the assessment task.

Late arrivals: You should aim to arrive/log in at least 15 minutes prior to the assessment commencement time. In the extraordinary circumstance that you are late, you will be permitted late entry to your assessment of up to 10 minutes after the assessment commencement time. The period of lateness will be deducted from your overall assessment time. If you are denied access to the assessment due to lateness (i.e. arriving/logging in beyond the permitted late entry period), you should make an online application for a deferred assessment (which may or may not be granted in line with CQUniversity policy). If your application for deferred assessment is denied, you will receive a "fail"  for your assessment item and you may be eligible for a supplementary assessment in line with CQUniversity policy.

This portfolio task is focused on reflective practice and life-long learning within the context of adult clinical practice. To complete this portfolio, you will need to write two reflections that follow the Description-Interpretation-Outcome framework as outlined below:

• Description - Explains what happened and provides the reader with information that specifies the focus of the reflection (or what is being examined). Descriptions should be comprehensive enough to provide the reader the with content necessary to understand the context of the reflection, but still succinct.
• Interpretation – Analyses what is most important or relevant about the topic/area that is being reflected upon. This analysis may focus on interpreting the importance/value/significance relevance of something, clarifying the nature of learning, reviewing a past event to analyse learning over time, expressing a personal viewpoint, highlighting similarities or differences between events/learning, etc. You may need to provide support/evidence for your reasoning.
• Outcome – Outlines what was learned and how that experience/learning may influence/change your perspective, outlook, or actions in the future.

Your written reflections need to demonstrate deep and critical thinking, that is, you need to show that your experience has changed you and/or your view/clinical practice. To do this, you need to move beyond the incident or experience you are focusing on and consider multiple perspectives. You need to show insight into how the learning that occurred may impact on other contexts/situations.

For both reflections, you will need to include tangible evidence to support your reflections where appropriate (e.g., copies of prior reflections, feedback from your CE, de-identified session plans, templates for resources, etc.). This evidence can be provided in an Appendix and should be organised and labelled such that it can be easily linked to your reflection.

The word limit for this assessment task is 1500 words. That is, the assessor will not read or mark past 1500 words. This includes in-text referencing but does not include your reference list or evidence provided in appendices.

REFLECTION 1 - Reflect on the strategies identified in your reflective practice portfolio in SPCH14009 in Term 1 to progress your learning and clinical practice in an area of focus/improvement

For this section, you are required to Identify one specific area where significant learning occurred during your adult-focused block placement (e.g., skills related to assessment administration; the role of other health professionals in a multidisciplinary team; the implementation of an evidence-based therapy approach you were previously unfamiliar with). The learning may have taken place during a specific event/incident or it may have been part of an ongoing learning experience across the duration of the placement. Using the Description-Interpretation-Outcome framework, you need to write a reflection that is focused on adult clinical practice. (NOTE: You will be required to reflect on the use of the second of these strategies in your portfolio in SPCH14006). This reflection requires you to:

• Briefly describe the area you identified as needing improvement and why you had selected it as an area of focus.
• Describe your implementation of one of the strategies you identified as part of your SPCH14009 reflective portfolio including a discussion of how it was implemented. Within your discussion, critique the degree to which it was implemented (i.e., interpretation).
• Demonstrate your critical thinking, reasoning, and deep reflective skills through your interpretation regarding whether or not the use of this strategies was effective/successful.
• Discuss if/how you would alter this strategy for further improvement in this area (i.e., outcome). Explain your rationale.

REFLECTION 2 - Identify and reflect on one key area of learning relating to your SPCH14007 placement.

For this section, you are required to Identify one specific area where significant learning occurred during your adult-focused block placement (e.g., skills related to assessment administration; the role of other health professionals in a multidisciplinary team; the implementation of an evidence-based therapy approach you were previously unfamiliar with). The learning may have taken place during a specific event/incident or it may have been part of an ongoing learning experience across the duration of the placement. Using the Description-Interpretation-Outcome framework, you need to write a reflection that is focused on adult clinical practice. This reflection requires you to:

• Describe what you learned and how you learned it.
• Analyse what your experience was as the learning took place (i.e., Interpretation). For example, how were you feeling? Were there aspects you found particularly interesting or challenging? Did the experience affirm something you already knew in a different context or extend your knowledge/thinking?
• Reflect on the impact this learning experience has had (or might have in future) on you as a clinician (i.e., the outcome) working in adult clinical practice. Be sure to specifically relate your reflection to adult clinical practice.

This portfolio task is focused on reflective practice and life-long learning within the context of adult clinical practice. To complete this portfolio, you will need to write two reflections that follow the Description-Interpretation-Outcome framework that is outlined in the task description on Moodle.

REFLECTION 1 - Reflect on the strategies identified in your reflective practice portfolio in SPCH14009 in Term 1 to progress your learning and clinical practice in an area of focus/improvement. You will be assessed on your description, interpretation and analysis, and discussion of outcomes related to the implementation of the strategy discussed.

REFLECTION 2 - Identify and reflect on one key area of learning relating to your SPCH14007 placement.

Both reflections will assess your use of the Description-Interpretation-Outcome framework in relation to your discussion of your identified area of learning.

In addition, you will be assessed for your inclusion of evidence where expected, your organisation and presentation of the portfolio, your writing style, and use of APA-7 referencing. A detailed rubric is provided on Moodle. 

Your written reflections need to demonstrate deep and critical thinking, that is, you need to show that your experience has changed you and/or your view/clinical practice. To do this, you need to move beyond the incident or experience you are focusing on and consider multiple perspectives. You need to show insight into how the learning that occurred may impact on other contexts/situations.

For both reflections, you will need to include tangible evidence to support your reflections where appropriate (e.g., copies of prior reflections, feedback from your CE, de-identified session plans, templates for resources, etc.). This evidence can be provided in an Appendix and should be organised and labelled such that it can be easily linked to your reflection.

The word limit for this assessment task is 1500 words. That is, the assessor will not read or mark past 1500 words. This includes in-text referencing but does not include your reference list or evidence provided in appendices.

As you complete your block placement as part of this unit, you are required to track and record your work-integrated learning experiences by logging your hours on the "Work Integrated Learning Log" provided to you on Moodle. The instructions required to complete this process can be found in the 2022 Speech Pathology Clinical Education Handbook as well as on the record form itself. To help ensure the accuracy of this hours record, it is strongly recommended that you record your time on a daily basis.

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 (The Speech Pathology Association of Australia Limited, 2005). 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 however 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 an electronic copy of the Speech Pathology Work-Integrated Learning Log, within two weeks of completing your adult clinical block placement. Instructions for completion can be found in the 2022 Speech Pathology Clinical Education Handbook as well as on the record form itself.

As part of this unit, you will be required to attend a 3-day residential school scheduled for 31st August - 2nd September  2022. These three days have been designed to further prepare you for entering the workforce as an entry-level speech pathologist. Attendance at this residential school is mandatory. Throughout each day of the residential school, you will be required to complete a number of small tasks. These tasks will be outlined on Moodle prior to the residential school. 

Throughout each day of the residential school, you will be required engage in the content and complete a number of small tasks . These tasks will be outlined on Moodle.

You must complete ALL assigned tasks during the residential school to meet the pass requirements of this task.