This project examined a pedagogical activity designed to strengthen foundational clinical micro skills and communication in students (psychology, social work, counselling) working in a Mental Health Team in a student led clinic. Through the creation and use of simple, student crafted artificial intelligence (AI) client personas. The aim of the project was twofold: first, to provide students with a low stakes, accessible environment for repeated practice of clinical micro skills; and second, to qualitatively evaluate students’ learning experiences, perceived skill development, and reflections on the use of AI within clinical training.
Content: Students participated in a structured skills development intervention embedded within their coursework. They were guided to design brief AI client personas using simple text prompts that specified presenting concerns, emotional tone, relational style, cultural and social context, and complexity. Students engaged in short, time limited simulated dialogues in which they practised attending behaviours, empathic reflections, paraphrasing, summarising, and open ended questioning. Each practice episode was followed by feedback from the AI persona. The student then implemented the feedback into subsequent interactions with the persona. Students were prompted to observe and be deliberate about their thoughts and reflections as they considered their next therapeutic move. Sessions finished with small group discussion facilitated by teaching staff. The activity emphasised clinical intentionality, process awareness, and ethical considerations, including transparency, privacy, and the limitations of AI generated material.
Goals: Present a pedagogical activity to (1) enhance students’ confidence and competence in core micro skills, (2) strengthen their reflective capacity and attunement to client communication, (3) introduce a simple and scalable method for supplemental skills rehearsal, and (4) examine the educational value of AI supported practice in clinical training.
Qualitative Evaluation: Following the activity, students participated in a reflexive qualitative evaluation comprising written reflective entries, de identified dialogue excerpts, and an optional focus group. A reflexive thematic analysis was conducted to identify themes related to perceived impact, usefulness, challenges, and the role of AI personas in supporting experiential learning. Findings demonstrated how simple AI mediated rehearsal can illuminate the “quiet skills” underlying effective clinical communication and complement traditional supervision and role play.

A core goal of postgraduate psychology education is the development of professional competencies required for registration, which underpin safe and ethical practice. Achieving these outcomes requires effective supervision of practical skills and the provision of individualised feedback (Falender & Shafranske, 2017). However, growing demand for the mental health workforce has driven increased enrolments across Australian psychology programs (Butler et al., 2024), creating challenges for delivering high quality clinical education at scale—particularly in sustaining effective supervision/feedback within larger cohorts.

One approach to address these challenges is the use of a flipped classroom model delivered with small class sizes (Bastastini et al., 2018). In flipped learning, students engage with core content prior to class, allowing in class time to be devoted to practical skill development. Research in higher education—predominantly involving undergraduate cohorts—suggests that flipped learning enhances student engagement, critical thinking, and application of knowledge (Bishop & Verleger, 2013; Chen et al., 2018), while evidence from adjacent clinical training contexts, including medical education, indicates that flipped approaches can also improve clinical skill development (Shi et al., 2024). However, flipped learning alone may be insufficient when cohort sizes remain large, as opportunities for supervision/feedback remain constrained. Accordingly, class size is a critical consideration. Evidence from health professions education demonstrates that small group learning optimises learning and promotes collaboration and team based competencies (Burgess et al., 2020), which are central to safe practice (Falender & Shafranske, 2017; Rodolfa et al., 2013). Nonetheless, empirical evidence on the combined use of flipped learning and small class sizes in postgraduate psychology training is limited.

In 2026, Flinders University implemented a flipped classroom model with small class sizes (n = 20-24) for face-to-face practicals in its postgraduate psychology training programs. The primary aim of this project was to examine whether participation in Semester 1 topics delivered using this model enhanced fifth year students’ foundational competencies required for the commencement of professional placement. The project focused on three outcomes: (1) knowledge and understanding of safe and ethical practice; (2) progress towards professional competencies; and (3) clinical self efficacy and perceived readiness for professional placement—key indicators of early professional competence. Using a preliminary pre–post, within cohort design, this project evaluated changes in outcomes associated with engagement in the flipped classroom model and explored moderating and mediating factors related to student characteristics and instructional support. This presentation reports preliminary findings from the 2026 cohort and implications for postgraduate psychology training.

Daniel P. Sullivan, PhD, DBSM¹, & Mark J. Boschen, PhD, FAPS¹
¹Griffith University
Correspondence: daniel.sullivan@griffith.edu.au
Psychologist psychopharmacotherapy prescriptive authority (RxP) is an extended scope of practice for psychologists to actively consult on and manage medication matters in their practice. RxP was first trialled over 30 years ago in the US, and is now legislated in seven US states, with legislation pending in several other jurisdictions. In Australia, RxP has been discussed periodically for several decades, however no previous work has been published on Australian psychologists' opinions on this type of scope extension. Utilising question sets (modified for the Australian context) from early studies in the US, this study of N=166 practicing psychologists and university psychology heads of school/program is the first to demonstrate strong support for RxP in the Australian professional and academic psychology community. Respondents were drawn from convenience and snowball samples, including provisionally registered trainee and fully qualified psychologists. After weighting responses (and trimming extreme weights) to match profession demographics as published by the Psychology Board of Australia. 69% (72% unweighted) of respondents agreed that psychology representative organisations should support RxP, and 65.8% (68.8% unweighted) agreed that they would personally seek prescribing privileges if RxP were introduced. Equitable access to care appeared as a key driver of support, with 76.9% (77.9% unweighted) agreeing RxP was needed due to a shortage of psychiatrists, and 85.4% (87.7% unweighted) agreeing RxP would enhance treatment access for certain subsets of society. Furthermore, 83% (87.7% unweighted) agreed that RxP would improve treatment access for those in rural and remote Australia, and First Nations Australians. Despite high levels of support for RxP, 63% (57.8% unweighted) of respondents believed psychologists should only prescribe in collaboration with other disciplines. Regarding training models, 79% of (76.6% unweighted) participants agreed that RxP training was most appropriate following attainment of the base psychology qualifications and general registration. Of a small sample of university heads of school and training directors (N=12), 75% reported it likely that their university would develop and offer coursework in RxP if it were to be enacted in Australian psychology regulations. This study is the first to demonstrate high rates of support for RxP amongst Australian psychologists and psychology academic leaders. Future qualitative work is required to understand the reasons for both support and opposition to RxP in Australia to thoughtfully and safely inform any changes to training and routine scope of practice.