Effectively Communicate With a Supervisor Study Guide

E-1. Effectively communicate with a supervisor in an ongoing manner. ● Engaging in regular communication with your clinical team. ● Taking an active role in effectively communicating all aspects of your daily interactions with your clients and caregivers. ● Understanding boundaries in relation to your supervisor’s time and responsibilities (knowing when it is appropriate to talk with your supervisor and when you should allow your supervisor time to observe, analyze data, or complete other tasks). ● Knowing what situations should result in immediate or more urgent communication with your supervisor and knowing what situations can wait until your supervisor attends session or observation or has a meeting with you to discuss the case or client. ● Speaking respectfully and professionally ● Accepting feedback and responding appropriately to feedback and communication from your supervisor. ● Expressing ideas and professional opinions with healthy assertiveness while also understanding your role in complying with your supervisor’s treatment planning. Your supervisor will check-in on you on a regular basis; if this is not occurring, you are encouraged to contact the C.A.B.A office directly and ask to speak to a senior clinical team member. E-2. Actively seek clinical direction from supervisor in a timely manner. It is your responsibility as a Registered Behavior Technician to seek out guidance and direction from your supervisor(s) when needed. If you are unsure of protocol or steps you should be taking in a wide range of scenarios regarding your clients, you must contact a supervisor in a timely manner in order to achieve clear guidance before your next session (in most cases). You can, and should, request overlap sessions in which you can receive in-person supervision as well. E-3. Report other variables that might affect the client in a timely manner. There are many factors that an RBT or other ABA service provider should consider regarding a client’s functioning. In the field of applied behavior analysis, setting events are sometimes neglected to be considered as influencers of behavior. Setting events are in a way broader experiences that a client may have. While antecedents could be seen as the trigger for a behavior or as the thing that happens right before a behavior occurs, a setting event is a larger situational experience. Some examples of setting events include: ● Illness ● Lack of sleep ● Biological needs (like hunger) ● Changes in the client’s home environment Setting events make it more likely that a specific behavior will occur. For example, if a toddler has a lack of quality sleep, they may be more likely to tantrum as a result of another child taking a toy away rather than if they had a good night’s sleep. When the toddler has slept well, maybe they are more likely to share rather than tantrum in response to other youth trying to play with the toys they were interacting with. E-4. Generate objective session notes for service verification by describing what occurred during the sessions, in accordance with applicable legal, regulatory, and workplace requirements It is important to complete session notes objectively and professionally. Objective refers to disclosing only facts and actual information or observations. This is in contrast to subjective information which includes adding your own personal thoughts and feelings into your session notes. When RBTs complete session notes, they should remember that the note will be included in that client’s permanent record and therefore the note should be accurate and professionally written. In a session note you could also mention that setting events or factors that may have influenced the client’s behaviors throughout session. However, be sure to only use subjective information and not to assume that you know why the child acted the way they did. For example, you may mention that the client’s parent reported at the beginning of session that the client only slept for five hours last night and that he had a fever last week. Remember that is is important to generate objective session notes also so that others (such as other RBTs thay may work with your client or your supervisor who oversees treatment planning) can be aware of what occurred during the session. E-5. Comply with applicable legal, regulatory, and workplace data collection, storage, transportation, and documentation requirements. There are laws and regulations regarding how to handle paperwork including data collection and documents specifically as it relates to how to store them and how to travel with them. If you provide home-based services, it is imperative that you be careful when traveling with client documentation. Be mindful of confidentiality laws. Carry as little client data and documents as you need while you travel. Whatever you do travel with should be carefully stored such as by locking it in a travel briefcase and possibly even in your car (think of it as locking the data twice - once in the briefcase and once in the trunk). However, again, this isn’t to be taken as legal advice. You should speak to a supervisor or knowledgable person in your area to learn about the specific regulations related to your location and workplace setting. In the United States, you must comply with all HIPAA policies and regulations. HIPAA requires that a client’s data and paperwork and identifying information be kept confidential and protected. You should store client data sheets, session notes, and paperwork in a secure location. You should always put them back after a session so that they are kept in that safe location.