Student Placements – Placement Guide

We hope this placement guide gives you a head start of all the things you need to know about working with us. We welcome any feedback or questions on the information you find here! We would like to thank all past students for their contribution to this guide.

Our Service

Our Values: 

Our aim:

Our services:

Client sessions

We are primarily a home visiting practice, working with families, children and teachers so the child can build their skills and confidence in the context they are required to use these.

Sessions can take place at home, school, day-care, and in the community. Our clinic space is at 5c 11 Erade Drive, Piara Waters – which we call Headquarters. Here we run some clinic sessions, parent workshops, psychology sessions and groups.

We work with families under a number of funding models including:

Therapy Intensives

Across the year we run therapy intensive opportunities for clients to attend. These are a great opportunity for targeted skill development, respite for the family and fun! Goals are set pre camp and scored using the COPM rating scale pre, one week post and 3 month follow up. The intensive programs are developed based on client goals, with therapy embedded through the activities all day and night. Descriptions of current programs can be found on our website and include:

Our Team

Kate Keisler

Stephanie Aylmore

Emily Burns

Sandra Clues

Evie Marchetti

Sarah Anns

Margaret Ho

Thomas Onions and Kirsty Johnson

Therapy assistants 

Lisa and Michelle  

Administration and Camp support

Email: admin@calmandconnected.com.au

We also have lots of volunteers and some therapy assistants that work with us from time to time- we would be lost without them!

Before you start your placement

Documents

Please complete the following online web-form prior to starting prac. It includes places to upload a copy of your WWCC and police clearance, as well as confidentiality agreements: http://calmandconnected.com.au/student-placement-form/

Pre readings 

Articles

Optional Articles

Sames, K. (2010). SOAP and other methods of documenting ongoing intervention. In K.M. Sames Documenting Occupational Therapy Practice (2nd ed., pp. 141-153). Pearson Education. 

Youtube Videos

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First day 

Start time

Usual work hours are 8am-4pm however these can change to suit the appointments of the day. For example if you have a later session finishing at 4:30pm, you would start at 8:30am. Your supervisor will let you know where to meet and at what time on your first day.  

Overview

On your first day of placement, we will:

Uniform 

You may choose to wear your OT uniform or smart casual clothing to prac each day. Speak to your supervisor about when smart casual clothing is appropriate to be worn (i.e. Sense Rugby groups, camps).  If not wearing your uniform, please wear long pants, high cut shirts with sleeves and enclosed shoes. 

Please wear your OT student badge at all times while on placement.

What to bring to placement

Placement Structure

Individual clients

We work with children and families in a range of places from schools, to homes to parks and pools- wherever they are needing to build skills at that time. This does mean a lot of driving some days! Your supervisor can organise with you times to meet to carpool to reduce the driving time, and also gives you a chance to debrief and pick their brains while you are on your way to and from appointments. Sometimes while we are debriefing (if you don’t get carsick) we will get you to practice writing up a SOAP note for that appointment. 

We work with children on a range of goals and from a range of backgrounds. You can speak with your supervisor about the children you will be seeing with them and what the family is comfortable with you doing. Some families are happy to have you come for individual sessions without your supervisor which is a great chance for you to learn. Others may be comfortable with you observing only, and others running a session in collaboration with your supervisor. Where we can we like you to be as independent as possible so we are always on the look-out for opportunities for you to jump in and have a go, and also have the independence and freedom to practice and build your own skills. 

Groups

We run a number of different groups which you will have the opportunity to be a part of if they are running while you are on placement with us. Groups include:

As you progress through placement, there are opportunities to run groups with the OT who usually runs this group observing or supporting you. This can depend on your placement goals and where the group is in terms of their goals while you are on placement. Typically we encourage students to plan and run one activity as part of a group initially then build up to running more of this group as you become more confident. 

Projects

While on placement, you will all be given a project to complete based on the needs and goals of the school or practice. You will be assigned this project on day one of placement which may be an individual project, or one to complete with other students.

Projects may include:

Supervision

Overview

Each student will participate in weekly:

At any time during placement you can contact your supervisor via phone or email and/or arrange additional supervision sessions as required. We also encourage you to support each other’s learning and experience on placement for additional further support.

Meetings with supervisor

You will meet one to one with your OT supervisor for approximately 30 minutes each week while on placement. In weeks 4 and 8 this time will be allocated for going through OT student’s SPEF-R.

Prior to this session, your supervisor will email you an agenda for their meeting with discussion points. You can add any questions, queries or other discussion points to this agenda and email it back to their supervisor. 

This time is an opportunity to check in and see how you are managing placement; discuss learning goals and progress towards these; any clinical questions that you may have. 

Education sessions

OT student supervisor will run 30 minute-1 hour education sessions each week while OT students are on placement (or the equivalent of). These sessions will reflect the current learning needs of OT students. You are more than welcome to suggest topics you would like to learn more about to your supervisor to speak about. We also strongly encourage you to work through the webinars we have made available to you in the workshop section (found from the home page).

Supervisor observation of OT student sessions

The OT student’s supervisor will complete a Clinical Supervision Feedback Form while observing the session (form can be found on Google Drive). Please complete  ‘Part A’ of this form prior to the session/group. 

Following the session, you and your supervisor will reflect on the session together as soon as possible. 

Student Reflection

Students are encouraged to reflect on every session, group, meeting e.t.c and identify strengths and areas for improvement. This may be in a way suited to the student’s needs and learning, including written, verbal discussions or debriefs. 

Peer Feedback

Students are encouraged where possible to provide feedback to one another. 

Prior to this session, the OT student running the session completes ‘Part A’ of the Clinical Supervision Feedback Form (found on Google Drive) and provide this to the student observing. The observer then adds feedback comments to this form during the session. Following the session the observer and student running the session can discuss and reflect on the session together.

Please keep copies of all your feedback forms and bring to your supervision sessions. 

Optional: Peer Reflection

Each week for approximately 20 – 30 minutes you can schedule in a peer reflection time if you feel this would benefit you and your learning. This time can be completed with one or more other OT students who are on placement with Calm and Connected currently. 

You can use the ‘Peer Reflection Template’ on Google Drive which follows Gibbs Reflective Cycle to guide their reflection and thinking. OT students are to fill out this template prior to the arranged peer reflection time.

During these times, you are encouraged to reflect on your own skill development, experiences and develop ‘action plans’ for their learning. It is useful to always come back to think of the ‘why’ behind situations, events, strengths, areas for development etc. For example ‘why did that work?’ ‘why didn’t students get what I intended out of the activity?’

Communication and Information Storage

Emails

You will be provided with a Calm and Connected email address for the length of your placements. Please use this to communicate with teachers, families and your supervisors are required using the below login information:

Username:

Echidna

At Calm and Connected we use Echidna as our Client Management Software to store client documents and notes as well as to record session notes. 

This can be found online at: https://www.echidnaonline.com.au/ 

Your log in information will be emailed to the email address you are allocated for your placement.

Google Drive

We use Google Drive to store resources and projects. No client information is to be stored in the resource folder within Google Drive. You will also have access to documentation templates and examples within this folder. 

For your student projects, we will create a ‘Student Project’ folder with your name on it for you to store all information and research relevant to your project and also all copies of final and draft projects. 

Documentation

After every meeting, observation session, client session and group you will be required to document the session using SOAP format in Echidna. All consent forms, goal setting forms, initial assessments, reports e.t.c also need to be uploaded to the client’s ‘attachment’  folder in Echidna. Please complete notes within 24 hours.

Timetable

All bookings and appointments can be seen within the ‘Appointments’ tab in Echidna. Please add all meetings, session times, observation times, group times and any other appointments and commitments relevant to placement onto this timetable. It is important to add all of these for your own use, as well as so other team members can arrange times to meet with you or attend sessions with you. If you are attending another student’s sessions/groups please block this time out in the calendar also. 

Please make sure this is up to date! It is important that we know where everyone is at all times in case of emergency we can account for everyone. 

If you can please use the activity type ‘OT Student Session’ for all client based sessions. You will need to manually change this when your supervisor invites you into a session. This is important as otherwise the family will be charged the full OT rate for you attending.

Confidentiality 

This database contains all clients who have accessed Calm and Connected services. It is imperative that you access only the client files of children you are working with. If you are found to have accessed other client’s files this will be considered a major breach of confidentiality and may be grounds to fail and/or be dismissed from your placement.

Google Drive

You will be given access to some Google Drive folders, including the Therapy Resources. This folder contains a number of different resources, filed under ICF headings for you to use to benefit students and teachers you work with while on placement. All other documentations can be found in this website log in.

Please ensure no confidential information is uploaded to Google Drive. 

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Many children have difficulty with everyday skills such as listening, sitting still, staying focused, or joining in with others.

The  Therapists at Calm and Connected provide mobile, clinic & online support to the adults surrounding a child and teach the child how to address the foundational skills that affect our ability to connect.

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