Professional Self Management Plan Phase 3 with Online Consultation Transcripts

David Profitt
EDC 511
Professional Self Managed Plan Phase 3

For this last phase of the Self Managed Plan, we participated in Computer Mediated Consultations. These were different in that the person consulted and the person consulting may have never met, and never met for the purpose of consultation. All communication was electronic. Personally, I did not find this method of consultation useful as a single entity, however, there are individual aspects of computer mediated consultation that I would find useful in my personal practice. As a whole, the process seemed frustrating and drawn out. It felt like having a face to face conversation, then staring at the person for several hours waiting for them to respond to what you said. I also participated as a teacher for another student. I found that position to be even more drawn out, as I was constantly being asked questions I thought I had answered. After seemingly a few hundred emails, I was ready to quit.

The consultation in which I participated as the school psychologist involved a disorganized seventh grade student who was causing disruptions in class due to her never being prepared.

Assessment:

Though I knew it would not be possible, it was my goal to have each session of the consultation process (problem identification, analysis, and treatment evaluation) require no more than two emails from each person. I believe that if the correct questions are asked at each point in the process, it will not seem as tedious to the people involved. In my first attempt to do this, I used a paragraph form to ask a series of questions. Looking back, a list would have been better. A list would make it easier for the consultee to focus on and answer all the questions asked. I did, however, make sure to point out that taking the extra time to examine the problem after this first email would result in a more successful process and overall, would involve less work in emails during the consultation. Happily, even though I did not ask my questions in list form, they were answered in list form, so my intentions must have been somewhat clear.

After gathering some baseline data and summarizing our findings, I implemented the problem analysis portion of the process. I felt positive about the amount of data I garnered with just one set of questions and was eager to move on. I didn’t want the client to feel she was wasting time writing emails and not acting to solve the problem. For problem analysis, one is supposed to brainstorm possible interventions based on the data collected. I didn’t want to start listing what I thought would be good interventions so I told the teacher that I wanted to hear what she had to say first. I explained that she saw this student every day and may have a better idea of what would work. I assured her that I would add my thoughts to any ideas she gave, and that way, we could come up with the best intervention accessible. Before asking her to brainstorm ideas, I did ask if I was correct in my summary, and told her to move on only if she agreed with the summation of the circumstances. I also asked that she continue to gather data and to list her goals for the client so we would know if the intervention we decided on was working.

My consultee wrote back with her goals, but didn’t have much in the way of ideas for intervention. She did mention a planner the student had, so I expanded on this. This portion of the intervention plan took a few emails (7 total) as we needed to clarify and refine the plan’s specifics. This wasn’t too bad, but in the future, I would like to see this phase take no more than five total emails. The consultee agreed that the process seemed drawn out, so decreasing the interactions may lesson that annoyance.

The intervention we instituted worked (Ahh, the joys of fictional counseling ). I pretty much ended things there, assuring her that if there were any future problems, that she should feel free to contact me. Looking back, I realize I didn’t discuss the teacher’s thoughts on the whether or not the procedure we used would generalize for use with other students. It most likely would have, and had we discussed this, or had I pointed it out, she may be more likely to go ahead and implement a similar plan on her own if she ever has another overly disorganized student. Additionally, we did not discuss plan termination or continuation. In reality, the goal of the plan would have been to eventually not need the teachers’ signatures or mom’s signature to follow her organization plan.

Goal Setting and Strategy Plans:

Having never participated in an email consultation session in the past, I didn’t start with any pre-determined goals or objectives. This may have been a mistake, as incorporating my previous goals relating to my face to face consultations may have been useful. Because this was a different type of communication, I did not make a conscious effort to combine the facets of the two types of consultation. I will need to do so in the future. As for specific goals, through reviewing the comments made by my peers concerning the online consultation and examining the transcripts themselves, I believe there are two issues I need to address for the betterment of my future consultations. These are operationally defined as follows:

• Inundating the consultee on first response: To an extent, there is a disagreement of opinions here, as I believe it is necessary to ask all the relevant baseline, antecedent, behavior, and consequence questions at the onset. However, this response shows me the importance of assuring the client that this method will result in a more effective and quicker resolution to the problem. Also, it is important to assure the client that it is only with his or her help that the intervention will work. I will know that I have met this goal by reviewing future transcripts. Also, it could be beneficial, after good rapport is built, to simply ask the client if my introduction to the solution seemed overwhelming without explanation.
• Expanding on the treatment evaluation assessment: In this current project, I did not do an adequate job of discussing the possible relevance of the intervention to other students, nor did I discuss the method of intervention discontinuation. Both of these topics are important, and must be done in all future interventions, whether online or face to face. In my last Self Management Plan, I created a shortened version of the Observation Guide. I did not use this guide in the online interventions because I was not taking notes (I had everything written out in front of me). I have realized that using this guide to assure hitting on all the necessary points of the process will be beneficial. Seeing that every line of my Consultation Notes form is checked will show me what I have accomplished. I will also continue to use peer support in practice sessions to assure that I have met this goal. This goal is valid for both online and face to face consultations.

Evaluation plan:

For this rendition of my Self Management Plan, I will hold to much of what I have previously written. I continue to have the goal of continual improvement and always leaving a session with insight and specific goals for the future. I will only know I have arrived if I continuously know and realize that I still have additional roads conquer. Also, I will continue to use my peers, professors, and when appropriate, clients for feedback. Now that I am to be involved in real life consultations at UD’s Childhood Center, I will have the opportunity to discuss my techniques with my consultees using the Student Evaluation form provided in class. The comments and insight of the above people will point out areas of improvement I should focus on for work with future consultees.

In critiquing my technical performance, I will continue to use my consultation notes to determine if I stay on track throughout online and face to face consultation sessions. As written in my previous Professional Self Management Plan:

Checking off each section as I cover it in the session will show what was accomplished. After a session, I will also check to see if I know the problem, its antecedents, consequences, duration and the time the problem takes from the class. If I know these facts, then I will be sure I met the goal of obtaining this information.

In addition to this, I will check after the consultation ended to see if I know if the consultee was comfortable with the method of plan termination (if any) and if he or she has considered whether the intervention would be beneficial to others. Finally, as I have stated before, continuously finding new areas for improvement will always be my ultimate goal.

Filed under: EDC 510-511 Consultation in Schools and Practicum
Copyright: October, 2003 - David Profitt