Practical tips for getting through the AHPRA 4+2/5+1 log books

Let's face it the AHPRA log books are no fun. They can take ages to complete, they're required just about every week, and can feel quite repetitive over time.
However, there are some ways to make your life a little easier for powering through them. Spoiler: They don't just go away! So take some steps right away to avoiding falling behind. Here are 8 tips below:

If you wanted some more light-hearted tips for coping with the internship see here

1) Talk to your supervisor about their requirements for the log book right away, ideally before you start in your internship.
You need to know what's required as early as possible. Talk to your supervisor about their expectations. If there's anything you don't understand, ask for clarification.

2) Gather the data from key places

The ideal way to keep up with your log book is probably progressively as you do the work through your work day. However, if you need a reminder or prompt:

a) Check your calendar for what you did during the week

b) Check you client emails and texts for your meetings, appointments. Ensure you put all meetings and work into your calendar

c) Check your notes and billable listings/client invoices

d) Check your invoices for a record of your PD

3) Set aside time regularly to do the log books and stay organised.

It can be very hard to find time to do log books on top of your workload and personal commitments but let's call a spade a spade. Time does not magically appear - you can set aside time before or after your work day, or do them in a batch at the end of the week. It's difficult letting things slide by more than a week because then it's tricky to remember what you did in the week.

4) Day 'off'

Further to the point above, if you have the ability to do a less than full time week, time off could be dedicate to the internship which could include time completing the log books, and other internship tasks (e.g. the Case reports).

5) Make use of the tools and resources around you.

AHPRA provide an example log book on the forms page

6) Consciously take steps to avoid falling behind

Falling behind can make your life extra difficult. It can be hard to remember what you did, you'll stress out your supervisor and this can make it impossible to complete your progress report until you've caught up.

Log books are a required part of the internship so if you fall particularly far behind, I suggest taking leave from work to catch up.

7) Talk to peers

Speaking to other provisional psychologists may help you understand how others managing the log books.

8) Shameless self promotion

You do not just have to use the AHPRA log book. It can be very fiddly and requires a huge amount of unnecessary extra work.

The Psychology Squared log book will save you hundreds of hours as it has these features:

a) Track your internship progress. You can see pretty graphs and percentages of your progress

b) Automatically generates the numbers you need for your progress report

c) Auto-calculates totals for client direct and client related time, PD, supervision

d) Allows you to create a client master list so you don't have to keep writing new client information

e) Hints and tips on what constitutes client related and client direct activities

f) Lots more :)

See here: It's just $33 (inc GST)