JCPSLP Vol 17 No 1 2015_lores

Table 4. Participants’ perceptions of benefits associated with having students in private practice

Group B: those who had not taken students on placements

Category

Subcategory

Found in Group A: those who had taken students on placements

*

*

Benefits for the client

Long-term clients enjoy and benefit from the change from clinician to student

*

Exposure to new and fun ideas

*

Able to offer clients more for less cost

*

*

Increased learning and professional development

Access to current literature and new ideas, helping to promote EBP The opportunity to reflect on own practices and clarifying own clinical processes and thinking Opportunity to utilise skills otherwise un-utilised (e.g., teaching and facilitation of adult learning)

*

*

*

*

Rewarding/ enjoyable for the clinician Increased productivity and diversity of service

*

Reduced workload overall

*

Additional help with running groups and programs

*

Capacity to offer increased range of service delivery and services

*

*

Resource development

*

Running of projects including quality improvement

*

Potential recruitment of employees

*

*

Growth of the profession

Fulfilling a professional responsibility

*

*

Making a positive impact on future generation of clinicians

*

Improving the profile of the profession

* = found in data from this group

(Participant 4), but were able to reduce the amount of time clinicians spent on paperwork, leading to an overall workload reduction for the clinicians. Group A clinicians also reported that having students deliver treatment freed their time to get other tasks done (e.g., emails, phone calls and planning): “you have an extra pair of hands round the place” (Participant 4). Another benefit reported by Group A only was that having students in private practice provides an opportunity for future recruitment: “I find a key benefit is that you get to see how they work. Do they fit the culture?” (Participant 5). This finding is consistent with that of Sloggett et al. (2003), who reported that students were seen as good recruitment potential by the occupational therapists in their study. Given the increase in private practice reported earlier, with future growth anticipated as a result of initiatives such as the NDIS, being able to employ graduates who are ready for work is likely to be a beneficial outcome for private practitioners who take students on placements. Speech pathologists who had supervised students expressed high levels of satisfaction with student placements they had provided. They conveyed a sense of enjoyment and reward in having students in their practices. All but one of the clinicians reported that they planned

to continue to take students on placement in the future. These clinicians also spoke about their clients’ satisfaction with their interactions with students, and their perceptions of student satisfaction with private practice placements. Typical comments appear in Table 5. Conclusion This article reports on a study of the views of speech pathology private practitioners regarding the barriers and benefits of supervising student placements in private practice. We interviewed two groups of private practitioners: those who had taken students (Group A) and those who had not (Group B). We found that regardless of whether private practitioners had taken students or not, they all agreed that private practice settings had a role to play in the preparation of graduates for this setting. The participants also reported that this setting had unique things to offer students on placements; for example, experiences with service delivery models different to the public sector (e.g., no limit on client access to services), opportunities to build business and practice management skills, and an opportunity to learn from the underutilised resource of very experienced clinicians. As stated by

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JCPSLP Volume 17, Number 1 2015

Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology