JCPSLP November 2017

and in counselling students is also useful with respect to provision of supervision and pastoral care in an international setting. Phase 3. Debrief and dissemination An essential component of NUSpeech in phase 3 is the opportunity to debrief, and/or reflect on action, following sessions and each evening with the UON clinical educator. The importance of opportunity to debrief is also recognised following students’ return to Australia. Debrief, reflection after action, and competency assessment After returning to Australia all students are required to attend a one-day post-placement debrief which involves formal and informal reflection activities and an externally facilitated focus group. This allows students to discuss their experiences, skill development, complete end placement COMPASS® (McAllister et al., 2013) and to reflect after action on their clinical practice. Dissemination From 2015 students have been required to inform and share their experience with the wider student cohort and local speech pathology community. This dissemination of the experience took place via information sessions to students interested in undertaking an international placement and development of promotional resources. Information and projects were also formally presented to university staff, students, and local and interstate speech- language pathologists at the inaugural showcase of the University of Newcastle Speech Pathology (Honours) Innovation Flagship. It is important that this information is disseminated to the wider community of speech-language pathologists to highlight the value of international placements, enforcing the development of graduate attributes for students and recognising skill development. Recognition of skills development and graduate attributes By 2015, the benefits to all key stakeholders of this international clinical placement experience for students enrolled in the Bachelor of Speech Pathology (Honours) at the UON were well recognised. Many of the previous graduates attribute much of their employability and success in the workplace to skills and knowledge gained during their international placement. Unsolicited comments included: Just letting you know that I had two job interviews last week and I was offered both positions but I chose to accept a full time position at a school for children with Autism in Melbourne. My experience in VietNam was a massive positive for the interviews and both panels seemed very impressed with my experience and the skills that I was able to develop through the Kianh Foundation School. Thank you for all your support and assistance over the past year, without the South East Asian Stream I might not have been successful for this position. The importance of sustainability The World Health Organization (2016), in relation to evaluation of a specific health project, defined sustainability as the ability of a project to continue to function effectively into the future. Sustainability is an issue for all organisations and stakeholders involved in international clinical placements.

Placements need to be viable and cost effective for the universities, able to provide valuable teaching and learning opportunities, and accessible to all students. Further, any services provided as part of an international clinical placement need to be beneficial to the partner organisation and therefore must be meaningful, effective and sustainable in the long-term. Hence, the service delivery models used should promote capacity building including mentoring, collaborative intervention practices, education and training. The services provided should continue in some capacity after university staff and students leave the placement site and return home. Short-term mobility (STM) funding provided through the Australian government’s New Colombo Plan has ensured viability of the placement over the past three years and enabled equitable access for any students enrolled in the Bachelor of Speech Pathology (Honours) program at the UON. In addition, it has provided the opportunity to enhance relationships between the partner organisations, and further develop the placement and service delivery models that are sensitive to the environment (location, setting, culture, language, stage of development, etc.). The STM funding also provided opportunity for expansion on student and supervisor preparedness including formal language lessons. placement model is to conduct formal evaluation exploring the perspectives of all key stakeholders as well as continue to develop and support culturally responsive, locally driven and sustainable international clinical placements for the future. In 2016 NUSpeech was replicated and expanded to include interdisciplinary learning across the speech-language pathology and occupational therapy disciplines in Fiji (aka SPOTinFiji). The NUSpeech team will also seek to further explore evidence-based practice and applicability to working in majority-world context. The 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals seek to achieve sustainable economic, social and environmental development, everywhere (UN-DESA, 2015). It is hoped that through continuous improvement of a model of clinical education for international placements, formal evaluation, and further research into sustainable health practice in a majority-world context, NUSpeech may contribute in a small way to major initiatives such as this. References Amery, R. (2011). Developing cultural competence through international clinical experience. (Unpublished honours thesis). University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia. Atherton, M., Dung, N. T. N., & Nhân, V. H. (2013). The World Report on Disability in relation to the development of speech-language pathology in Viet Nam. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology , 15 (1), 42–47. Balandin, S., Lincoln, M., Sen, R., Wilkins, D. P., & Trembath, D. (2007). Twelve tips for effective international clinical placements. Medical Teacher , 29 (9–10), 872–877. Brownie, S., Bahnisch, M., & Thomas, J. (2011). Exploring the literature: Competency-based education and competency-based career frameworks . University of Queensland Node of the Australian Health Workforce Future directions The next stage of the NUSpeech international clinical

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JCPSLP Volume 19, Number 3 2017

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