JCPSLP Vol 23 No 3

Creative clinical education

Reflections on clinical education by students and new graduates: What can we learn? Julia Hardy, Abigail Lewis, Joanne Walters, Anne E. Hill, Simone Arnott, Adriana Penman, Stacie Attrill, Ruth Nicholls, and Sally Hewat

Placements have an important role in the competency development of speech-language pathology students. Using data from 121 student questionnaires and a new graduate focus group, we used thematic analysis to explore clinical education from the perspective of speech-language pathology students and new graduates. Five themes were identified: university factors, placement factors, student factors, learning in real world, and transition to work. Findings suggest curriculum design and the quality of placements are important factors for student learning and new graduate transition to the workplace. C linical education provides practice-based learning opportunities for learners, in this case students, to acquire the required knowledge, skills and attitudes to practice as competent speech-language pathologists (SLPs) (Sheepway et al., 2011, 2014). Clinical education is also commonly described as practice education, clinical supervision, work-integrated learning, and professional practice. The context of clinical education is rapidly changing in Australia: the establishment of new university programs is increasing demand for student placements (HWA, 2014) and the demands of the workforce are changing (SPA, 2016) with an increased focus on interprofessional and collaborative practice (Davis et al., 2021). In addition, policy reforms in education, health, aged care and disability are changing the models and settings in which practice occurs (Foley et al., 2021; Lewis & MacDonald, 2017). As a critical part of the curriculum in SLP qualifying programs, clinical education may include clinical placements, pre-placement preparation, simulations, skill classes and tutorials. Placements enable students to develop professional identity and employability skills, as well as socialising students to authentic workplace contexts (Daniels & Brooker, 2014; O’Leary & Cantillon, 2020). While placements are integral for developing and advancing the future SLP workforce and the profession (SPA, 2020), SLP students and new graduates commonly report feeling ill- prepared for their placements and ill-equipped to enter the workforce (O’Leary & Cantillon, 2020; Quigley et al., 2020). Given the significance of clinical education to the profession, Speech Pathology Australia (SPA) funded a

strategic project: Speech Pathology Clinical Education in Australia, aiming to identify current best practice, explore future opportunities, and make recommendations for future innovation. The project used a modified Delphi technique (Hsu & Sandford, 2007), gathering data iteratively over ten stages, from a range of stakeholders, using a combination of surveys, focus groups, workshop discussions and professional forums. The current study reports on data gathered from two stakeholder groups: students and new graduate SLPs. Students and new graduate SLPs are uniquely placed to provide feedback on clinical education and the impact of their placements on developing competency and preparing for the workforce. Students and graduates have raised concerns about their preparation for both placements and/or transition to the workforce. Findings from this study may be used to refine university curricula and clinical education, strengthen knowledge and expectations of educators, and increase future students’ confidence to navigate their competency development and transition to the workforce. Within the context of the broader project, this study had two aims: 1. To explore the clinical education experiences and perspectives of SLP students 2. To explore the clinical education experiences, perspectives and transition to the workforce of recent SLP graduates. Method This study used a qualitative research design with thematic analysis of free text responses from survey and focus group data. Ethics approval was granted by the University of Newcastle Human Research Ethics Committee (Approval SLP students were recruited by emailing student members of SPA and by university course coordinators sharing the national online survey link with their student cohorts. Of the 121 students who completed an online student survey, 67 were enrolled in a Bachelor and 54 in a Master program. All Australian states that offered SLP university degrees at the time of data collection were represented. Overall, 10% of students had not completed a placement, 16% had completed one placement, 8% had completed 2 placements, 66% had completed 3 or more placements. The year level of students was not recorded. Additionally, 9 new graduate SLPs participated in a focus group; 5 attended an online group and 4 provided written responses. No. H-2017-0096). Participants

KEYWORDS CLINICAL EDUCATION NEW GRADUATES PLACEMENTS SPEECH- LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY STUDENTS

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN PEER- REVIEWED

Julia Hardy (top), Abigail Lewis (centre) and Joanne Walters

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JCPSLP Volume 23, Number 3 2021

Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology