SPCL 7932 Practicum II (Lynch): Documentation and Standards

• Time spent at your practicum site involved in staff meetings should be divided up according to the activities.  Time spent presenting a case should be recorded as ‘Group Supervision’. When you are listening to a case presentation at your practicum site, it counts as ‘Group Supervision.’

• Readings related to practicum, such as readings assigned by the field supervisor, should be counted under ‘Professional Reading.’  If your reading pertains to a specific client, it may fall under “Treatment Planning” if applicable. 

• Hard copies of hours need to be turned in at mid-term and end of term (cumulative for the entire semester). In addition, electronic copies of the Excel spreadsheet need to emailed to the instructor at mid-term and end of term.

• There is no such thing as consultation with your supervisor.  All time spent discussing cases with you supervisor falls under the appropriate supervision category (i.e. 1:1 or group supervision, etc).

Assessment
A psychological instrument used to evaluate a client.  Various types of assessments are intelligence assessments, such as the WISC-IV, and personality assessments, such as the TAT and BASC. Make sure to record the specific assessments administered and the number of each administered.  Also be sure to record if you scored the instrument, if you interpreted the instrument, if you incorporated it into a report, as well as the time spent giving feedback to a client on their assessment scores.  There are separate sections for each activity on the hours documentation sheet.  This category includes any assessment experience, excluding practice administrations (for example, you should NOT count administrations that you gave to classmates in an assessment class).

• Psychodiagnostic test administration: Include achievement, intelligence, symptom assessment, projectives, personality, objective measures, and career assessment.

• Neuropsychological Assessment: Include intellectual assessment in this category only when it was administered in the context of neuropsychological assessment.

Assessment Feedback
Time spent providing feedback to a client on the results/findings of a psychological test.  This does not include time spent scoring, interpreting, or writing reports on the results of an assessment, but rather the actual face-to-face time spent discussing the findings with the client.

Consultation
Consultation can be characterized as a helping, problem-solving process involving a help giver (the consultant), a help seeker (the consultee), and another (the client, organization, etc.). In many practicum settings, consultation may take place between the consultant (i.e., practicum student) and the teacher with the aim of improving service to a client (i.e., student), but the client may or may not be present for the consultation. Examples of individuals who may receive consultation are other mental health professionals, medical staff (including psychiatrists), family members, peers, correction agents, etc.  Time spent discussing a case with your Supervisor is almost never counted as ‘Consultation’ but rather is ‘Supervision.’

• Distinction from supervision:  Typically related to consultation is that the consultee has the power or the decision-making ability to decide not to use the consultant's feedback, suggestions, recommendations. A consultant does not usually have evaluative power regarding the student whereas a supervisor does have evaluative obligations.

Didactic Training
“Didactic" means, "intended to teach". Basically this category is any directed practicum classroom, staffing, in-service, grand rounds (in a medical setting), seminars, and conference activities aimed at teaching therapy related information, skills, theory etc. It is not supervision or consultation or outside reading or face-to-face client contact. Didactic Training falls under “Support Activities”.

Face-to-Face
Time spent in a session with the client.  Time spent in direct contact with their clients involved in administration of an assessment, (such as administration of the WISC-IV) should also be included in this category.  However, time spent scoring or interpreting the report should not.  For the “Total hours face-to-face” columns, count each hour of a group, family, or couples session as one practicum hour.  For example, a two-hour group session with 12 children is counted as two hours.  For the “Number of different ...” columns, count a couple, family, or group as one (1) unit.  For example, meeting with a group of 12 adults over a ten-week period counts as one (1) group.  Groups may be closed or open membership; but, in either case, count the group as one group.

Group Supervision
Actual hours of group focus on specific cases.  Didactic portions should not be recorded as supervision, but rather as a support activity.  This may be part of a staffing at your site, but didactic training should not be included in this category.  The hours recorded in the group supervision category should be actual hours of group focus on specific cases.  For example, if you present on the “Psychosocial Issues of LD” using examples of cases, it is a didactic activity.  Similarly, in a hospital setting, Grand Rounds that consists of in-service education on specific topics would not be considered supervision for the purposes of documenting practicum hours, but would be considered a support activity.

Outcome Assessment of programs or projects
Engaging in research directly applicable to clinical services at your site.

Peer Supervision
May be regularly scheduled, face-to-face supervision with peers (i.e. doctoral-level practicum students or specialist-level practicum students) with specific intent of overseeing the psychological services rendered by the student.  Students should not confuse “Peer Supervision” with “Supervision of Other Students.”  A site supervisor must be available to consult and supervise the peer-supervision group. Though the site supervisor does not need to physically be in the room with the peer supervision group, ALL decisions regarding cases must be supervised by the site supervisor.

Practicum hour
A practicum hour is a clock hour, not a semester/quarter hour.  A 45-50 minute client hour may be counted as one practicum hour.  When calculating practicum hours, you should provide the exact number of hours accrued or number of clients / patients seen.  Use your best judgment, in consultation with your site supervisor, practicum instructor, and academic training director, in quantifying your practicum experience.

Professional Reading
Any reading that is directly related to practicum should be counted in this category.  It includes, but is not limited to time spent reading research directly related to a client, or time spent reading test manual to become familiar with an assessment (time spent scoring an assessment is recorded under “Assessment” “Scoring”).   Professional Reading does not include assigned readings for courses.

Program Development/Outreach Programming
Actively participating in activities such as designing a new treatment violence prevention program or participating in outreach to classrooms to promote mental health, etc.

Supervision of Other Students
When a specialist level student provides supervision to a less experienced student.  This activity is separate, but often confused with “Peer Supervision.”  “Peer Supervision” is when several individuals who are at the same level of training (such as a group of EdS students) get together to provide supervision on cases.  (See definition of “Peer Supervision” above).

Supervision 1:1
Regularly scheduled, face-to-face individual supervision with specific intent of overseeing the psychological services rendered by the student.  Supervision is an intervention provided by a more senior member of a profession to a more junior member or members of that same profession. This relationship is evaluative, extends over time, and has the simultaneous purposes of enhancing the professional functioning of the more junior person(s), monitoring the quality of professional services offered to the client(s) she, he, or they see(s), and serving as a gatekeeper of those who are to enter the particular profession” (Bernard & Goodyear, 1998).

Support Activities
Time spent gathering information about the client, but not in the actual presence of the client.  For example, time spent on chart review, writing process notes, gathering information from other professionals about cases, video/audio tape review, time spent planning interventions, assessment interpretation, report writing, etc..  In addition, it includes hours spent at a practicum setting in didactic training (e.g. grand rounds, seminars).  This category is further divided into the above mentioned categories.

Systems Intervention / Organizational Consultation / Performance Improvement
e.g., consulting with management about crisis management following violent outburst by an employee, consulting with teachers and school counselors following the death of a student or providing training to supervisors who are trying to help their employees adapt to using new technology.

Note: The above-listed definitions, instructions, and Excel spreadsheet were adapted from forms created and generously shared by the School Psychology Program at Michigan State University.