Taking it to the streets: Field placements in undergraduate psychology Alison Kulak, Bryan Rooney,

1
Taking it to the streetsField placements in
undergraduate psychologyAlison Kulak, Bryan
Rooney, Annabel Evans
2
Taking it to the streets...

• Overview of Concordia University College
• Rationale for developing the Program
• Implementing the Program
• Lessons thus far
• Evaluating our progress
• Ongoing concerns

3
Overview of Concordia University College

• Recently began offering 4-year degree in ?
• Small university college
• Faculty are familiar with students

4
Rationale for developing the program

• A perceived niche
• Resource Availability
• Health Services Changes
• Community Survey

5
Implementing the ProgramPrerequisites

• Statistics and Methods Courses
• General Ethics Course
• Writing Course
• Personality Theory and Abnormal Psychology
• Behavior Change or Clinical Psychology
• Current Security Clearance

6
Implementing the ProgramCore Courses

• Ethical Issues in Professional Psychology
• Psychometrics
• Communication and Counseling (group and
  individual)
• Assessment (personality and cognitive)
• Field Placements in 3rd and 4th year

7
Implementing the ProgramPlacement Settings

• Hospitals (rehabilitation, psychiatric,
  geriatric)
• Schools (testing, career counseling, behavior
  analysis and management)
• Private Practice (testing, counseling)
• Youth Centres (behavior management, counseling)
• Corrections (testing, counseling, community
  conferencing)
• Community agencies (family preservation, in-home
  support, child youth care)

8
Implementing the ProgramSeminar allows students
and faculty to...

• Discuss placement experiences in confidence
• Detect potential problems early
• Engage in collective problem solving
• Participate in workshops and seminars
• Foster group cohesion

9
Implementing the ProgramThe Placement
Coordinator

• Establish placements via site visits (ongoing
  activity)
• Conduct interviews with site supervisors
  students
• Match students to sites
• Ensure students know of special requirements for
  the placement (e.g., CPR, child welfare
  clearance)
• Conduct mid- and end-of-term on- site evaluations
• Troubleshooting as-needed

10
Lessons thus far

• Student related concerns
• accepting questionable students
• time commitments
• Supervision related issues
• supervisory arrangements
• evaluations

11
Evaluating our Progressthe Sites
12
Evaluating our ProgressStudent Outcomes

• Employment
• All students seeking employment have found it.
  E.g., as psychology assistants family support
  workers child youth care pastoral counseling
  research assistants.

13
Evaluating our ProgressStudent Outcomes

• Admissions to Graduate Programs
• Acceptance rate of roughly 90 to
  Graduate programs in
  Counseling (U of A and U of C)
  Clinical Psychology Family
  Studies Speech Language
  Therapy

14
Ongoing Concerns

• Admission criteria and appeals
• Number distribution of placement hours
• Communication