Assignment 2: Practicum – Assessing Client Progress

Learning Objectives

Students will:

· Assess progress for clients receiving psychotherapy

· Differentiate progress notes from privileged notes

· Analyze preceptor’s use of privileged notes

To prepare:

· Reflect on the client you selected for the Week 3 Practicum Assignment.

· Review the Cameron and Turtle-Song (2002) article in this week’s Learning Resources for guidance on writing case notes using the SOAP format.

The Assignment

Part 1: Progress Note

Using the client from your Week 3 Assignment, address the following in a progress note (without violating HIPAA regulations):

· Treatment modality used and efficacy of approach

· Progress and/or lack of progress toward the mutually agreed-upon client goals (reference the Treatment plan—progress toward goals)

· Modification(s) of the treatment plan that were made based on progress/lack of progress

· Clinical impressions regarding diagnosis and/or symptoms

· Relevant psychosocial information or changes from original assessment (i.e., marriage, separation/divorce, new relationships, move to a new house/apartment, change of job, etc.)

· Safety issues

· Clinical emergencies/actions taken

· Medications used by the patient (even if the nurse psychotherapist was not the one prescribing them)

· Treatment compliance/lack of compliance

· Clinical consultations

· Collaboration with other professionals (i.e., phone consultations with physicians, psychiatrists, marriage/family therapists, etc.)

· Therapist’s recommendations, including whether the client agreed to the recommendations

· Referrals made/reasons for making referrals

· Termination/issues that are relevant to the termination process (i.e., client informed of loss of insurance or refusal of insurance company to pay for continued sessions)

· Issues related to consent and/or informed consent for treatment

· Information concerning child abuse, and/or elder or dependent adult abuse, including documentation as to where the abuse was reported

· Information reflecting the therapist’s exercise of clinical judgment

Note: Be sure to exclude any information that should not be found in a discoverable progress note.

Part 2: Privileged Note

Based on this week’s readings, prepare a privileged psychotherapy note that you would use to document your impressions of therapeutic progress/therapy sessions for your client from the Week 3 Practicum Assignment.

· The privileged note should include items that you would not typically include in a note as part of the clinical record.

· Explain why the items you included in the privileged note would not be included in the client’s progress note.

· Explain whether your preceptor uses privileged notes, and if so, describe the type of information he or she might include. If not, explain why.

The Assignment (4-5 pages):

Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

Add a section to the paper you submitted in Module 1. The new section should address the following:

• Identify and describe at least two competing needs impacting your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
• Describe a relevant policy or practice in your organization that may influence your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
• Critique the policy for ethical considerations, and explain the policy’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics.
• Recommend one or more policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients, while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies. Be specific and provide examples.
• Cite evidence that informs the healthcare issue/stressor and/or the policies, and provide two scholarly resources in support of your policy or practice recommendations.

In addition to Journal Entries, SOAP Note submissions are a way to reflect on your Practicum experiences and connect these experiences to your classroom experience. SOAP Notes, such as the ones required in this course, are often used in clinical settings to document patient care. Please refer to this week’s Learning Resources for guidance on writing SOAP Notes.

Select a patient who you examined during the last 3 weeks. With this patient in mind, address the following in a SOAP Note:

• Subjective: What details did the patient or parent provide regarding the personal and medical history? Include any discrepancies between the details provided by the child and details provided by the parent, as well as possible reasons for these discrepancies.
• Objective: What observations did you make during the physical assessment? Include pertinent positive and negative physical exam findings. Describe whether the patient presented with any growth and development or psychosocial issues.
• Assessment: What were your differential diagnoses? Provide a minimum of three possible diagnoses. List them from highest priority to lowest priority. What was your primary diagnosis and why?
• Plan: What was your plan for diagnostics and primary diagnosis? What was your plan for treatment and management? Include pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatments, alternative therapies, and follow-up parameters, as well as a rationale for this treatment and management plan.
• Reflection notes: What was your “aha” moment? What would you do differently in a similar patient evaluation?

TOPIC – Physician Assisted-Suicide

Prompt: In this activity, you’ll create an annotated bibliography by following the steps below and answering the questions as thoroughly as possible. The questions will prompt you to engage in a conversation with your sources. You will need to follow the steps below three times (for your three different sources).

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• Selected sources from the Opposing Viewpoints database or the Academic Search Ultimate database.
• • Applied the C.R.A.A.P test to the sources to determine if they are credible and reliable. (You can download a copy of The C.R.A.A.P. Test Worksheet. Remember, credible sources should score 35 points or more on the test.)

Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

1. Identify your sources, including author, title, and the database information or website.
2. Summarize your source. (Use the template below.)
   • It seems this source is arguing ____________________. This source is using this evidence to support the argument: ____________________.
   • A counterargument for one of the provided sources could be: __________________________________.
3. Credibility and Relevance
   • Explain the rationale for the credibility of the source by providing supporting evidence. (Use the template below.)
     • Personally, I believe the source is doing a (good job/bad job) of supporting its arguments because ____________________.
   • Explain the relevance of the source to your argument. (Use the template below.)
     • I think this source will be very helpful in supporting my argument because ________________________.

Guidelines for Submission: Your annotations must include at least three sources. Save your work in a Microsoft Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, and one-inch margins. Then, check your writing for errors.