SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY Te Kura Maatai Hinengaro Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Psychology

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1 SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY Te Kura Maatai Hinengaro Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Psychology PSYC 562: ADVANCED PRACTICUM Trimesters 1 and 2 (January to December) Course Outline 2013 Co-ordinators: Associate Professor Tony Ward, Clinical Director (Room EA512, extn 8230) Tony.Ward@vuw.ac.nz By appointment Wendy Kelly, Clinical Practice Advisor (Room 514, extn 6033) wendy.kelly@vuw.ac.nz Hours of work: Monday half day, Tuesday and Friday. Sarah Lilley, Clinical Practice Advisor (contact details TBC) Sarah.lilley@vuw.ac.nz Hours of work: Tuesday and Friday all day and one half day TBC. During the course of PSYC 562, students will be informed of any additional information in Group Supervision, via or through Blackboard postings. Detailed information about placement responsibilities is contained in the Clinical Psychology Programme Manual: Information for Probationary Year (Honours), and First and Second Professional Year students and placement supervisors. 1. Clinical Supervisors Clinical Psychologists in a range of settings will be involved as placement supervisors. Placements may be local or as far afield as Palmerston North, the Wairarapa or Hawkes Bay. There are a range of both paid and unpaid placements and students cannot be guaranteed a paid placement or their first choice of placement, due to interns being selected through an interview process. 2. Objectives The overall objective is to continue each student s professional development through to successful completion of the final oral examination. The aim of PSYC 562 is for students to gain clinical experience so that they begin to integrate their academic knowledge with 1

2 clinical skills, learn how services operate, consider ethical and safety issues and develop a strong professional identity. Learning about cultural issues and Maori mental health issues will follow on from PSYC 561. Students will be expected to consider cultural issues for every client and this will be actively examined at the end of the year. For specific objectives, see Section 12: Assessment. 3. Paper Requirements The first mandatory course requirement for PSYC 562 is the successful completion of 1500 hours of internship. For further detail on successfully completing placements and conditions for failing a placement, see the Guidelines for the Completion of Placements section of the Clinical Psychology Programme Manual. The second requirement is attendance at group supervision and paper case presentations, unless a medical certificate is provided, or prior arrangements are made with the Clinical Director. Students usually have two placements throughout the year from January to June and from July to December. The placements are 4 days per week for a minimum of 750 hours on each placement. Students need to notify the Clinical Practice Advisors if they take sick leave, annual leave or conference leave to ensure the 750 hour requirement is met. During each placement, the student will usually complete 10 psychological assessments and take responsibility as primary clinician for a minimum number of 6 clients. Students are not expected to complete all treatments during the term of the placement. These figures are negotiable to a limited extent, depending upon availability and type of client, and work flows of the service, student and supervisor. You can negotiate the number that is feasible in your setting with the Clinical Practice Advisors. However students whose supervised experience does not reach these levels may not be ready to undertake the final oral examination. 4. Paper Case Practice Paper case practice gives you an opportunity to prepare and deliver a paper case as you will in the practice and Diploma exams. Paper case practices are scheduled prior to both the mid-year practice examination and the Diploma examination. Attendance at these is required. Students will be ed a paper case to prepare in 30 minutes, at a suitable time for them. The student then presents the paper case to a group of 2 or 3 students and 1 or 2 clinical staff for 20 minutes and then receives feedback on their performance. Each student in the group receives a different paper case. 5. Thesis Students must submit their MSc, MA or PhD thesis before enrolling in PSYC 562 (which takes place in December of the previous year). The 2013 Calendar states: 2. The course of study for the diploma shall consist of courses worth 210 points, including: Part 1: PSYC 561; and Part 2: PSYC 562; two of PSYC 571, 572, 573 2

3 3. Entry to Part 2 requires the candidate to have submitted for examination the thesis for the degree referred to and normally completed Part 1. The degree referred to is the Masters or PhD. Students must offer evidence that their Masters/PhD supervisor considers that the student has made sufficient progress towards a full and final version of their thesis by October 15 and has submitted a full and final version by 15 December of the year previous to beginning the internship placement. The corresponding dates for a June Diploma exam are 15 April and 15 June. 6. Professional Behaviour Before commencing an intern placement students must forward their NZ Psychologist Board registration number and their Medical Protection Society (Insurance) number to the Clinical Practice Advisors. On placement, students are expected to behave professionally. Evaluation sheets are completed by the supervisor midway through the placement and by both the supervisor and student at the end of placement (see section 9 Evaluation for further details). All professionals and clients are to be treated with respect and care, and as you would like to be treated yourself. As part of the process of recommending intern students for intern registration to the Psychologists Board, clinical staff carefully evaluate each student on academic and professional grounds over the course of PSYC 562. Much of a professional s reputation is built on the way they behave rather than the actual work they do with the client. Professional behaviour and reputation can be built from the time of your first placement but requires some planning. 7. Clinical Responsibility Overall responsibility for clients must remain with supervisors, but students take graded responsibility under supervisors guidance. Guidelines on the expectations of the roles of the placement supervisor, the student and the university are contained in the Guidelines for the Completion of Placements section of the Clinical Psychology Programme Manual. 8. Supervision Clinical supervision will be provided by the placement supervisor. Guidelines for a supervision contract are in the Clinical Psychology Programme Manual. Students are expected to attend a group supervision meeting fortnightly with the Clinical Practice Advisors at the university. Supervision for distance students will be a mix of attending the supervision groups and over the phone. Cultural supervision will be provided at intervals. A Clinical Practice Advisor will also provide some individual supervision, using tapes of clinical work. The Clinical Practice Advisors will advise students about any other individual supervision meetings on placement e.g., meetings between the student, placement supervisor and Clinical Practice Advisors, once these are arranged. 3

4 9. Evaluation Students will show copies of their personal file to each placement supervisor to inform them of previous progress. The file will contain copies of evaluation sheets summaries of clinical diaries and client logs These assist the student, supervisor and the Clinical Practice Advisors to review students experience, to clarify supervision goals and to consider specific requirements for further experience. Supervisors complete two Evaluation forms during the placement - the first one three months after placement commencement, and the second just prior to the conclusion of the placement. Evaluation forms are usually discussed with the student before being sent to the Clinical Practice Advisors. This discussion may occur at a joint meeting between student, supervisor and Clinical Practice Advisors, at the placement. Students need to obtain a passing grade for their final evaluation from the placement supervisor in order to be eligible to sit the oral examination at the end of the placement. The Clinical Practice Advisors must have received a copy of the evaluations prior to the student sitting the associated examination. 10. Examination Criteria In order to sit each oral examination, the student must have met the mandatory paper requirements to date. In determining whether the student meets the pass standard for each oral examination, the examiners have to be sure that the student grasps the essential features of the clinical, personal, interpersonal, cultural and institutional problems presented by a referral. is clear about the specific investigations that may be required, and why these are to be undertaken. can recommend such measures of intervention as are feasible in the circumstances. formulates the assessment information and develops an intervention plan with reference to a coherent theoretical framework (usually cognitive-behavioural with adults, developmental/systemic with children). understands the reliability, validity and utility of assessment methods employed, the evidence base of any therapy recommended and the likely efficacy of recommendations made. presents written material clearly, logically, succinctly, and is able to defend it with due regard to the general body of knowledge in clinical and community psychology. displays a sound understanding of any ethical and safety issues pertaining to the 4

5 case. is both safe and competent to practice clinical psychology, with a degree of independence appropriate to each examination. 11. Examinations For students who start placement in January, clinical work will be examined orally in early December 2013, with a practice examination in May/June. The final examination must be passed to complete PSYC 562. For students who begin their internship in July 2013 the Diploma exam may be convened in June 2014, at the discretion of the Director, if there are sufficient students to justify an exam being held. Practice exam panel: Mid-year panel. The examination panel for the practice examination will consist of two academic staff members. The placement supervisor does not attend. Final exam panel. This panel is made up of two external examiners, one from another university clinical psychology programme, and the other a senior clinical psychologist from the community. VUW clinical staff are also present, one acting as examination coordinator and any others as internal examiners. The student s current clinical placement supervisor is required to be present for the first oral examination. The placement supervisor does not act as an examiner (i.e., take part in the decisionmaking about whether the student has passed the examination); the final decision about whether a student passes the examination is made by the external examiner(s). Examination preparation requirements To be eligible to sit the oral examination, students must have undergone the following preparation: A. Approximately three weeks before examination the placement supervisor and student will complete the second Evaluation Form for that placement, and send it to the Clinical Practice Advisors. As part of this evaluation the placement supervisor will certify that the student has completed and passed the placement and is considered ready to sit the examination. B. The Clinical Practice Advisors, after consultation with the placement supervisor, must also be satisfied that the student is eligible to be examined in terms of hours completed, work completed, and standard of work and the other mandatory paper requirements. C. The student will submit to the Clinical Director, by handing them directly to the Clinical Administrator, three copies of three reports of work completed with clients, not fewer than one concerned with therapy, along with a copy of the Clinical Diary and Client Log by the end of the week prior to the examination. One of these three reports will concern a Māori client and contain a section on cultural issues. All client surnames and dates of birth are to be deleted from these reports before handing in. D. Sometime during the second placement, the student will make a back-up videotape of an initial assessment interview with a client. This will be viewed during the final examination, by all of the examiners, if the examination client 5

6 refuses consent to be taped on the examination interview day, or if there is some other problem with that videotape. The back-up tapes do not need to be made under examination conditions. However, it is important that they are audible. Please check the quality of sound before recording. The date for handing in the back-up tape will be specified in the examination timetable. The examination process The information contained below on examination process is intended as a guide, and is based on procedures in recent years. The exact requirements will be outlined in an examination document made available to all candidates closer to the time of the examination. A. The examination assessment. The Client assessment and report preparation will take place between Tuesday and Friday of the exam client week. On the Tuesday before the oral examination, the student will be referred a client for assessment. The placement supervisor will give the student the referral letter one hour before the initial interview. During this hour, the student will examine relevant documents and make final preparations for the interview. Students may use a maximum of four hours face-to-face time for client assessment (e.g., clinical interview, testing), with an additional one hour (maximum) available for gathering supplementary information, if relevant to the assessment (e.g., phone calls to GP, teachers, observations, file reviews). A psychological assessment report will be submitted on the Friday of that week, at the same time as the client assessment began (e.g., if you saw a client at 10am on Tuesday, then the report is due 10am Friday). The report is not to exceed 5 pages, of single-spaced Times New Roman, 12 point font, with margins of 2.5cm. This includes any testing scores, interpretation and recommendations for further assessment. A one-page appendix may be attached, that lists scores of any measures administered (but with no interpretation or additional text). The report should have the client s surname and DOB deleted, but with their age in years included. The expectation is that the assessment will enable you to produce preliminary working hypotheses and potential diagnostic outcomes, a tentative formulation, and recommendations for further assessment and treatment. It is not expected that the assessment be comprehensive. Examiners will consider how the four hours of assessment were structured to prioritise testing of referral hypotheses, and recognition of further relevant information that will be required for the client s on-going management. The first hour of client interview is videotaped and will be viewed by examiners prior to the oral examinations. The Clinical Practice Advisors will provide and set up the video camera for the examination interview or arrange for supervisors to do this role if the student is on placement outside the Greater Wellington area. The supervisor arranges for the client to sign consent forms. B. The practice oral examination. In the practice exam, each student undergoes a single, 60 minute practice oral examination. The examinable material includes, but is not limited to, the assessment and corresponding psychological report and one paper case 6

7 referral. Students receive a copy of the paper case referral an hour before the oral examination. C. The final oral examinations. For the final examination there are two 40 minute oral examination sessions, usually on consecutive days. The first focuses on the client assessment and report. The second 40 minute oral examination on the paper case referrals usually takes place the following day. An hour before the second oral examination, the student will receive two paper case referrals to prepare for the examination. The two paper case referrals for the final examination will cover the two main areas taught during the clinical programme. They are (1) adult mental health and (2) child, adolescent and family mental health. D. In preparing examination paper case referrals, candidates may consult any texts they choose but otherwise are under examination conditions (use of electronic devices and/or access to the internet is not permitted). They must not discuss these paper case referrals with anyone before the oral. They may only bring into the exam room notes that they have prepared while doing the paper case. The student will be expected to speak in the examination without relying on notes. However, candidates can bring notes into the examination, and should also bring a copy of the assessment report along with all raw test results, and other assessment material should the external examiner(s) request to see those. 12. Assessment The PASS/FAIL decision will be based on the work covered in the oral examination (i.e., interview, report writing, paper cases). The quality of placement work may be taken into account, usually only in cases where the performance is borderline. The final decision about whether a student has passed the oral examination(s) is made by the external examiner (academic) in the end of year examination. If a student fails the oral examination the university and clinical supervisor will review the quality of her/his clinical work during the placement and will decide how much additional practical experience is required. There is an opportunity to repeat the placement and re-sit the examination, placement availability permitting. Final examinations will generally only be held at the end of the calendar year. Final examinations may only be sat twice. Final examinations are exempt from the Aegrotat Pass provisions in the Examinations Statute. Please see pp in the Calendar. For the final Diploma examination candidates will be formally notified of the result by the Registry, as for all University exams. Earlier informal notification is at the discretion of the Clinical Director. Formal feedback about examination performance over and above the outcome is only available to candidates who do not pass. 7

8 GENERAL UNIVERSITY POLICIES AND STATUTES Students should familiarise themselves with the University s policies and statutes, particularly the Assessment Statute, the Personal Courses of Study Statute, the Statute on Student Conduct and any statutes relating to the particular qualifications being studied; see the Victoria University Calendar or the University s policy website, Student and staff conduct The Statute on Student Conduct together with the Policy on Staff Conduct ensure that members of the University community are able to work, learn, study and participate in the academic and social aspects of the University s life in an atmosphere of safety and respect. The Statute on Student Conduct contains information on what conduct is prohibited and what steps are to be taken if there is a complaint. For information about complaint procedures under the Statute on Student Conduct, contact the Facilitator and Disputes Advisor or refer to the statute on the Victoria policy website at: The Policy on Staff Conduct can be found at: Academic grievances If you have any academic problems with your course you should talk to the tutor or lecturer concerned; class representatives may be able to help you in this. If you are not satisfied with the result of that meeting, see the Head of School or the relevant Associate Dean; The VUWSA Student Advocate is available to assist in this process. If, after trying the above channels, you are still unsatisfied, formal grievance procedures can be invoked. These are set out in the Academic Grievance Policy which is published on the Victoria website at: There is also a leaflet explaining the grievance process available from the AVC(Academic) website at: Students with Impairments Refer to the Meeting the Needs of Students with Impairments Policy, available on the University s policy website. The University has a policy of reasonable accommodation of the needs of students with impairments. The policy aims to give students with disabilities the same opportunity as other students to demonstrate their abilities. If you have a disability, impairment or chronic medical condition (temporary, permanent or recurring) that may impact on your ability to participate, learn and/or achieve in lectures and tutorials or in meeting the course requirements, please contact the course coordinator as early in the course as possible. Alternatively, you may wish to approach a Student Adviser from Disability Support Services (DSS) to discuss your individual needs and the available options and support on a confidential basis. DSS are located on Level 1, Robert Stout Building: 8

9 telephone: The name of your School s Disability Liaison Person is in the relevant prospectus or can be obtained from the School Office or DSS. Student Support Staff at Victoria want students to have positive learning experiences at the University. There are a number of support services available to help you directly if your academic progress is causing concern or if there are elements in your life that are affecting your ability to study. These include: Your course coordinator or programme director; Staff in your Faculty Student Administration Office Student Dedicated learning support through Student Learning Support Service; Kaiwawao Māori ;Maanaki Pihiphipinga; Disability Support Services and Victoria International; Wider holistic support through the Health Service; Counselling Service; Financial Support and Advice; Accommodation Service and Career Development and Employment. Find out more at or studentservices@vuw.ac.nz; VUWSA employs a Student Advocate who deals with academic problems and provides support, advice and advocacy services, as well as training and supporting class representatives and faculty delegates. The Education Office is located on the ground floor, Student Union Building. education@vuwsa.org.nz or tel or Academic integrity and plagiarism Academic integrity means that university staff and students, in their teaching and learning are expected to treat others honestly, fairly and with respect at all times. It is not acceptable to mistreat academic, intellectual or creative work that has been done by other people by representing it as your own original work. Academic integrity is important because it is the core value on which the University s learning, teaching and research activities are based. Victoria University s reputation for academic integrity adds value to your qualification. The University defines plagiarism as presenting someone else s work as if it were your own, whether you mean to or not. Someone else s work means anything that is not your own idea. Even if it is presented in your own style, you must acknowledge your sources fully and appropriately. This includes: Material from books, journals or any other printed source The work of other students or staff Information from the internet Software programs and other electronic material Designs and ideas The organisation or structuring of any such material Find out more about plagiarism, how to avoid it and penalties, on the University s website: 9

10 Use of Turnitin Student work provided for assessment in this course may be checked for academic integrity by the electronic search engine Turnitin is an online plagiarism prevention tool which compares submitted work with a very large database of existing material. At the discretion of the Head of School, handwritten work may be copytyped by the School and subject to checking by Turnitin. Turnitin will retain a copy of submitted material on behalf of the University for detection of future plagiarism, but access to the full text of submissions is not made available to any other party. Where to find more detailed information Find key dates, explanations of grades and other useful information at Find out about academic progress and restricted enrolment at The University s statutes and policies are available at except qualification statutes, which are available via the Calendar webpage at (See Section C). Further information about the University s academic processes can be found on the website of the Assistant Vice- Chancellor (Academic) at Class Representative A class representative will be elected in the first class, and that person s name and contact details will be available to VUWSA, the Course Coordinators and the class. The class representative provides a communication channel to liaise with the Course Coordinators on behalf of students. 10