Key information about the structure and content of training

Last Updated on 15/08/2024

Programme delivery

The vast majority of the DClinPsy curriculum is delivered via face-to-face methods at Lancaster University, which will also be the employment base with Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust.

In-person attendance at both teaching and placements is a requirement. The programme cannot be attended online ‘live’ from a distance due to the learning requirements for trainee clinical psychologists. Where appropriate, adjustments are made for individuals to attend a small proportion of in-person teaching via remote methods. However, all trainees must be prepared to attend the majority of their learning face-to-face.

Travel Requirements

Although a driving licence is not required there is a likelihood of significant daily travel as part of the training programme. Placements are sourced from services across the North West area of England (i.e. Lancashire, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cumbria). The programme cannot guarantee the length of commute to be undertaken as part of programme activities.

Emotional demands of training

We want to acknowledge that during the process of training and throughout our careers as Clinical Psychologists we will hear, experience and witness distressing and stressful events which we will have to manage and process. At times our own experiences may resonate and make it difficult to sit with the distress of others in certain circumstances. At those times we need to be aware of our own responses and our need to be appropriately resilient when dealing with others’ distress. This may mean that we have to recognise a need to seek appropriate support and/or at points remove ourselves for a period of time from our working contexts (this can include stepping out of teaching) to give ourselves an opportunity to process our own responses.

Although it can be very hard to draw the programme’s attention to difficulties, it is everyone’s responsibility in terms of the need to adhere to the HCPC code of conduct and ethics. In the profession we all have a duty to monitor ourselves and recognise when we are repeatedly finding it difficult to manage the distress of others and/ or our own distress. For example, if a trainee were finding learning sessions consistently distressing this would be impactful on their utilisation and engagement with the learning environment, which could ultimately impact service users. This could also impact negatively on moving towards qualification. It is therefore the responsibility of the trainee to notice when this is happening and raise the issue their clinical tutor.

There are professional competencies that we expect you to develop during your training – resilience and reflective ability – that we would want to support you in developing, in the face of any of these challenges, stresses and demands that you experience within your participation in learning As a training community and profession we provide each other with a variety of sources of support and we must recognise when we need to utilise that support. You can find more information on sources of support in the online handbook.

Consent to participation in clinical learning

It is a requirement of the Health and Care Professions Council that when students participate as service users in clinical learning they have given informed consent to this. Whilst you would rarely be “service users” within teaching, we want to expand this to include consent for all personally challenging activities within the curriculum. For this consent to be meaningful it is important to set out the programme’s expectations.

Programme expectations in relation to clinical learning

The programme expects that trainees will actively participate in all aspects of the academic programme, including:

  • Experiential exercises
  • Workshops on clinical topics
  • Seminars (including clinical seminars, academic seminars, reflective practice seminars and modality specific clinical seminars)
  • Role-play as part of the above activities (including taking the role of both therapist and client)

Where a trainee finds participation difficult they are entitled to withdraw, but the programme expects them to do this in an appropriately professional manner. If their level of personal distress is very high and results (for example) in prolonged withdrawal from specific areas of learning, it is expected that the trainee take appropriate action, including the appropriate absence reporting processes where necessary. Trainees will be required to discuss this with their Clinical Tutor at the earliest opportunity who will discuss the most suitable strategies for managing the situation. It is outlined in the revised British Psychological Society’s standards for the accreditation of doctoral programmes in clinical psychology (2024) that there is an expectation that trainees undertake full and complete attendance and engagement in teaching. Notwithstanding authorized absences that arise due to sickness or other exceptional circumstances, or due to limited exceptions to account for a programme’s policy on annual leave, the default position is that all teaching is mandatory.

Where teaching is missed for any reason, the education provider should have processes that require trainees to ‘catch up’ with missed material. The ‘catch up’ process should reflect the aims and content of the missed teaching material, giving particular consideration to missed skills practice.

The ‘catch up’ process should differentiate between short- and long-term absences, and the process should give regard to circumstances under which teaching should be repeated rather than subject to the ‘catch up’ process.

Disclosure of personal information

During academic learning there should be no pressure on trainees to disclose personal information which they feel uncomfortable revealing and especially personal information which they do not see as relevant to the task of training. However, the nature of the programme means that discussion of personal feelings in relation to professional development is often appropriate and necessary, and there is an expectation that trainees will be open to discussion of these feelings if these are relevant to their clinical work and professional development.


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