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The Principles, Stated Plainly

Module 2: Core PRA Principles and the Practitioner Role · Lesson 1 of 3

13 min Back to module

Story opener

Two specialists visit the same participant on the same week. One leaves with a signed compliance checklist. The other leaves with a participant who chose his own next step. Both wrote a note. Only one did psychiatric rehabilitation.

Learning objectives

  • Be able to every principle should be visible in a chart note
  • Be able to principle drift is a workload symptom, not a character flaw

Lesson

Self-determination, dignity, cultural responsiveness, evidence-informed practice, and community inclusion form the spine of the field.

Each principle has an observable behavior. Self-determination means the participant chooses the goal and can change it. Dignity means you knock, you use the person's preferred name, you do not discuss their case in a hallway. Cultural responsiveness means the plan reflects how this person's family, faith, and community actually operate.

Principles fail quietly. They erode when caseloads rise and a specialist starts writing goals in the car before a visit. Build a personal checklist and run it weekly.

Maryland guidance & authority labels

Every statement below is labeled so you know what is binding regulation, what is only proposed, what is professional guidance, and what is our house standard.

  • PRA guidance

    PRA's core principles — self-determination, hope, individualization, partnership, and evidence-based practice — organize the CPRP competency domains you will be tested on.

  • Internal best practice

    When a principle and a caseload pressure collide, name the collision out loud in supervision instead of quietly abandoning the principle.

Common mistakes

  • Describing what you did without describing what the participant did.

    Do this instead — Record the intervention and the participant's observable response to it.

  • Treating regulation as a filing chore separate from practice.

    Do this instead — Let the required elements shape the session itself, so documentation writes itself.

Practical examples

Practical example

Instead of 'met with participant to discuss goals,' write: 'Reviewed the transportation objective; participant identified the #22 route unassisted and named one back-up plan. Verbal prompt needed once. Next session: practice the transfer at Mondawmin.'

Key takeaways

  • Every principle should be visible in a chart note
  • Principle drift is a workload symptom, not a character flaw

Reflection prompts

  1. 1Which part of this lesson describes something you are already doing differently in practice?
  2. 2What would an auditor see in your last five notes that contradicts this standard?

Bring your answers to supervision — the case-study workspace in this module saves written notes to your account.

Knowledge check

4 questions drawn from a bank of 7 · 75% to pass · instant feedback on every answer

1. Which statement is a key takeaway from "The Principles, Stated Plainly"?

2. A colleague does this: Describing what you did without describing what the participant did. What should they do instead?

3. A participant changes their vocational goal for the third time. The principled response is to:

4. A colleague does this: Treating regulation as a filing chore separate from practice. What should they do instead?