The Interactive Phone Call

The 8 Hour Florida Laws and Rules Course requires an interactive portion. While many courses use a classroom format, we do ours a little different. Our course is an at-your-own-pace and interactive hybrid: you are given the course document to read at your leisure, then take a short quiz. Once the quiz is completed, you’ll be prompted to schedule a one-on-one phone call. This interactive phone call tends to cause so much more worry than we intend. No matter how much we try to emphasize that there is no preparation required or exam, we don’t seem to be able to ease that worry.  At the beginning of the call, I always ask how close you are to being licensed in Florida.  So many times I receive an answer like, “This course is the last thing; you are the only thing between me and my license”. Our goal is to be helpful, not add on to your stress, so here is the full description of what you can expect during that interactive call. 

The State requires an interactive portion of the course to ensure the laws and rules can be applied in practice, as opposed to only reading a ton of information and answering quiz questions and never using the information again. The easiest way to ensure that understanding is to simply answer your questions about the course and talk through scenarios applicable to your practice area. Keep in mind that our 100-page document covers a lot of material about our profession, including different practice areas, settings, different populations. Not only is it unrealistic to memorize all the information during your 8 hour course, but doing so wouldn’t serve much purpose because it’s unlikely that a clinician will work in all practice areas, settings, and with every population. What’s most important is to grasp the things that do apply and think critically about the information to be able to integrate it into your practice. It’s perhaps equally important to know that you don’t know everything, no matter how seasoned you become. You can’t know everything. There will always be a situation you haven’t seen before. Do you have someone to consult with? A group of colleagues or a supervisor available to guide you? Do you know how to reach the Board or how to navigate the Florida Statutes to find answers? Being able to say “yes” to these questions is critical.

In all honesty, I am probably as nervous as the callers during the interactive calls. There are populations I’ve never worked with and settings I’ve never worked in. What if someone asks something I can’t answer? What if I’ve misunderstood a rule? Did a law change and I missed it? But isn’t that the beauty of our field? We work with so many unique situations and we all have such different experiences and perspectives. I love hearing the variety of questions on the calls, all based on the person’s individual thought process. The school counselors with specific questions about mandated treatment for minors or the abuse reporting requirement where all mandated reporters hearing firsthand information must report. The hospital social workers with questions about assisting a person who is elderly and has been adjudicated as having capacity to make decisions, but presents as dangerously neglecting self-care. The private practice practitioner who has never worked with people with legal histories before and has worries about mixing up subpoenas vs court orders.  The registered intern who is terrified of not remembering all the steps of the Baker Act. The clinician licensed in several other states who has never heard of something similar to Florida’s Marchman Act. Through our one-on-one call I’m able to talk with you about the topics you find most important and answer questions specific to you.

I welcome the opportunity to talk things through, point out areas for clarification, as well as refresh myself on the areas I haven’t used in a while or research a question I’ve never gotten before. The call is truly interactive in that we are working together to answer your questions and help you envision how you’ll use the information. I look forward to scheduling your interactive phone call.

AA Ross Family Counseling’s 8 Hour Florida Laws and Rules Course can be purchased on its own or is part of our Initial License Package, which also includes the 2 Hour Domestic Violence Course and 3 Hour HIV/AIDS Course.