You will be required to attend and participate in a block Work Integrated Learning experience. This WIL experience is typically five days per week across six weeks, or 4 days per week over 8 weeks, but in some instances, 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 Practice Education 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 Practice Educators (PEs), in a clinical setting (e.g., community health facility, a hospital, private practice). This particular placement will be focused on adult clinical practice, but you may also gain some additional experience working with paediatric individuals, depending on the nature of the placement.

During your placement, your PE, 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 PE/s must complete a mid-placement assessment using COMPASS Online. This will be completed with your PE/s at the mid-point of your placement, however you will also be required to complete a self-assessment (also using COMPASS Online) prior to meeting with your PE/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 PE/s with an opportunity to formally raise any concerns with the CQU Practice Education Coordinator (PEC).
• You and your PE/s must complete a final-placement assessment using COMPASS Online. This will be completed at the end of your placement. Again, you will be required to complete a self-assessment using COMPASS Online prior to meeting with your PE/s. This final assessment is summative in nature, meaning that it provides the PE/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 Online and on Moodle. The pass criteria for entry-level block placements are also described in the 2024 Speech Pathology Practice 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 PE/s, generally in the first week of the placement. It enables both you and your PE/s to identify and discuss any particular areas which need to be focused 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 PE or placement organisation, such as written reports and information for client files.
Further details regarding learning agreements and COMPASS can all be found in the 2024 Speech Pathology Practice 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 Practice 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: WIL - HMAS <wil-hmas@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  Online.

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 Online: 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 PE/s to complete your mid-placement and final-placement assessments, you must first complete the self-assessment component through COMPASS Online. You must also bring the learning contract that was developed at the commencement of the placement, for you and your PE/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 2024 Speech Pathology Practice Education Handbook. Students should ensure that they are  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.

After the 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. 

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 (Not assessed). Review background information 
• Section 1B (Assessed). Assessment planning 
• Section 2A (Not assessed). Review assessment results 
• Section 2B (Assessed). Interpret, diagnose, and report on assessments 
• Section 3A (Not assessed). Plan speech pathology intervention or service response 
• Section 3B (Assessed). Review of plan speech pathology intervention or service response 
• Section 4A (Not assessed). Transferability of Knowledge and Professional Conduct 
• Section 4B (Assessed). Transferability of Knowledge and Professional Conduct 

During the viva, you must independently demonstrate your skills, knowledge, and competence in adult clinical practice across CBOS and the 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 will be video recorded for assessment purposes.

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

This is a must pass assessment task. To pass this task, you need to demonstrate "ready to practice" competency in adult clinical practice for 14 of the 16 criteria against which you are assessed. Each criterion will be assessed as "ready to practice" or not "ready to practice". Demonstrating "ready to practice" 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: You will review a summary of the adult's diagnosis and develop a holistic intervention plan or service response, you will need to describe and justify your plan 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: You will be presented with an alternate scenario for the case, you will be asked to describe how you would transfer your existing knowledge to that scenario. This section also includes criteria related to overall communication shown throughout the viva. In this section, you will be assessed against 4 criteria related to reflective practice as it applies to transfer of knowledge and professional communication.

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 log in at least 10 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., 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 :

• complete two learning tasks from the Residential Schools (Part A)
• submit two reflections that follow a reflective practice framework (Part B)

Part A requires you complete two tasks from SPCH14006 and SPCH14007 Residential Schools (as outlined on the SPCH14007 Assessment 3 rubric on Moodle). These tasks are to be completed in the scheduled residential schools. The Assessment 3 rubric on Moodle will outline the dates required for each task.

Task 1 Personal learning goals and strategy for progressing the goal (maximum 200 words). You are required to submit a personal goal (in the SMART goal format) that addresses your skill set regarding applying for jobs and a strategy to progress that goal.

Task 2 Short reflection (maximum 400 words) you are required to write a short reflection on the transferability of clinical and professional skills from your SPCH14007 Work Integrated Learning experience into your SPCH14006 Work Integrated Learning experience.

Part B requires you to submit two critical reflections, using a reflection framework, based on your Work Integrated Learning experience.

The word limit for Part B 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 your experiences with working with people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander or culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities and how it will impact on your practice as you move into the workforce.

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

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 complete all of the tasks that have been outlined in the task description on Moodle.

• Part A Both tasks, completed in the residential school, will assess your learning goals and strategies and your application of the Description-Interpretation-Outcome framework in relation to the assigned topic. 

• Part B Both reflections will assess your critical reflection, using a framework, in relation to your discussion of your identified area of learning.

Your Part B 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 Part B reflections, you will need to include tangible evidence to support your reflections where appropriate (e.g., copies of prior reflections, feedback from your PE, 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.

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.

As you complete your block placement as part of this unit, you are required to track and record your work-integrated learning experiences by recording your hours on the document provided to you on Moodle. The instructions required to complete this process can be found in the 2024 Speech Pathology Practice Education Handbook as well as on the record form itself. 

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 2024 Speech Pathology Practice Education Handbook as well as on the record form itself.