Overview

The Importance of Clinical Education

This module will provide you with an understanding of the importance of clinical education in speech-language pathology and audiology graduate programs. You will review the current landscape and consider national initiatives related to the clinical education process, in particular, the recognition of clinical education as a distinct sub-set of knowledge and skills deserving of targeted professional training. You will explore current national standards, practice documents and guidelines related to clinical education. In addition, you will be introduced to several technology tools that we will use in this course to bring participants together in a learning community despite this course’s self-paced format. You will begin using the Participant Workbook that accompanies this course to help you reflect on what you have learned, identify areas for improvement, and strategize ways to take action. Lastly, you will take a short quiz to check your learning.

By the end of this module, participants will be able to:

  • Describe the current landscape of clinical education
  • Articulate the actions needed to improve the clinical education process
  • Describe the standards/expectations associated with clinical education in graduate programs

Continuing Education Information

AAA Logo CAPCSD is approved by the American Academy of Audiology to offer Academy CEUs for this activity. The module is worth a maximum of 0.40 CEUs. Academy approval of this continuing education activity is based on course content only and does not imply endorsement of course content, specific products, or clinical procedure, or adherence of the event to the Academy's Code of Ethics. Any views that are presented are those of the presenter/CE Provider and not necessarily of the American Academy of Audiology.

ASHA brand
This program is offered for 0.40 ASHA CEUs (Introductory level; Related area)

Instructional Personnel Disclosures

 
  Financial NonFinancial

Judith Brasseur

 Receiving compensation from CAPCSD as an Independent Contractor None

Mark DeRuiter

 Receiving compensation from CAPCSD as an Independent Contractor Receives salary and honoraria as an employee of the University of Minnesota. Serves on the CAPCSD Board of Directors

Elizabeth McCrea

 Receiving compensation from CAPCSD as an Independent Contractor None

Learn

Note to Participants

This is the first module in the first of what will be a series of professional development courses. As such, the “LEARN” materials for this module are numerous and you may find that reading and watching all of the suggested resources takes longer than the estimated 2 hours/module timeframe. While we certainly encourage you to engage with all the presented materials, you may also choose to focus on those materials that are of greatest interest to you and most applicable to you professionally.

Read

Audiology

An Evidence-Based Guide to Clinical Instruction in Audiology, Elaine Mormer, Catherine Palmer, Cheryl Messick, and Lindsey Jorgensen

This article provides a review of literature supplying evidence for important concepts, elements, and approaches to the clinical instruction process.

Knowledge, Skills and Training Considerations for Individuals Serving as Supervisors, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)

This report provides recommendations for the training of clinical supervisors in regard to overarching skills and knowledge as well as specific training necessary for supervision of targeted groups of supervisees, including students in clinical training programs, audiology students in the culminating externship, speech-language pathology graduates in the clinical fellowship, professionals transitioning from one area of practice to another, and support personnel.

Clinical Education Guidelines for Audiology Externships, American Academy of Audiology

This document definse and outlines the competencies of the preceptor, and the roles and responsibilities of both the preceptor and the university for the externship year.

Practice Portal, ASHA

The scope of this Practice Portal page is the clinical education and supervision of graduate students in audiology and speech-language pathology in university and off-site settings. Many of the principles included in this page also apply to the mentoring and supervision of speech-language pathology clinical fellows and professionals transitioning to a new area of practice, as well as to the supervision of support personnel.

Speech-Language Pathology

White Paper: Preparation of Speech-Language Pathology Clinical Educators, CAPCSD

Review the Introduction from this white paper which highlights some of the identified needs in clinical supervision training and implementation.

Knowledge, Skills and Training Considerations for Individuals Serving as Supervisors, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)

This report provides recommendations for the training of clinical supervisors in regard to overarching skills and knowledge as well as specific training necessary for supervision of targeted groups of supervisees, including students in clinical training programs, audiology students in the culminating externship, speech-language pathology graduates in the clinical fellowship, professionals transitioning from one area of practice to another, and support personnel.

Practice Portal, ASHA

The scope of this Practice Portal page is the clinical education and supervision of graduate students in audiology and speech-language pathology in university and off-site settings. Many of the principles included in this page also apply to the mentoring and supervision of speech-language pathology clinical fellows and professionals transitioning to a new area of practice, as well as to the supervision of support personnel.

Watch

Clinical Education in Speech Pathology, Flinders University
This video offers some additional information about speech pathology clinical placements.

Student Perspectives on Effective Clinical Education, ClinEdAus
In this video, two speech pathology students discuss the characteristics and practices of their clinical educators.

Speech-Language Pathology Education: Working in your School Clinic, LinguaHealth
In this video, a clinic director speaks about the importance and benefits of graduate students working in their school clinics.

Supervision and Clinical Education, Dr. Catherine Palmer
In this video, Dr. Palmer discusses the terms supervision and clinical instruction.

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Apply

Note to Participants

Throughout this course you will be asked to engage with content and with colleagues through free-standing social media tools (e.g., VoiceThread and Padlet). These tools are not moderated and are not directly affiliated with CAPCSD. We do however, expect you to conduct yourself professionally in these forums and follow established rules of netiquette. You may disagree with the thoughts shared by others, but please keep comments polite and respectful, and remember… we learn best when we are encouraged to consider other viewpoints. Also, as this content is about clinical education specifically, NEVER post personally identifiable information about your students or patients/clients.

Please report any abuse directly to CAPCSD here: dortiz@capcsd.org.

The "10 Design Principles for Clinically Based Preparation" (detailed on pages 5-6 of NCATE's "Transforming Teacher Education Through Clinical Practice" report) describe the importance of utilizing technology to, "promote enhanced productivity, greater efficiencies, and collaboration through learning communities. Technology should also be an important tool to share best practices across partnerships, and to facilitate on-going professional learning.” The following activities will allow you to explore various technologies utilized in this course.

Activity 1: Explore VoiceThread

Throughout this course we will be making extensive use of a tool called VoiceThread. This tool allows groups of people to come together to discuss images, documents, and videos using voice, text, or video comments.

NOTE: You will need to register for a free account to add your voice and ideas to this Voicethread. Once you have registered and verified your account from your email, then you can sign in. Create your identity before adding your voice. To learn how to add your comments to this voicethread, explore this tutorial. The video shows how to comment using audio but you can scroll down to learn about the other ways to add your thoughts to the Voicethread.

Next, participate in the VoiceThread below by listening to the prompt and then adding your voice, video recording, or text.

Activity 2: Share on Padlet

Another tool we will use throughout the course is Padlet. Padlet is a virtual wall that allows people to express their thoughts on a common topic easily. It works like an online whiteboard where people can put any content (e.g., images, videos, documents, text) anywhere, together with anyone, from any device.

On this Padlet wall, articulate what you see as the personal and professional benefits of being a clinical instructor.

Activity 3 (OPTIONAL): Select a Tool to Curate Web-based Resources

Throughout this course you will explore many websites and resources that could be useful to you as a clinical educator and that you may want to share with the students you mentor. There are many tools that make it possible to save, organize, share and access your resources. Select one of the free tools mentioned below. Each tool is different but all allow you to organize web-based resources using keywords or tags so you can access your collection of resources from any computer or mobile device. Review the three options below and select one that you will use throughout the remainder of the course to organize and add new web-based resources that you discover in this course.

  • Diigo
    Diigo is a social bookmarking tool that allows you to save and organize any web-based resources using a toolbar on your browser that quickly allows you to tag resources so you can find them easily when you need them. Watch the video Highlight & Share the Web! Social Bookmarking 2.0 to learn more about Diigo
  • Pearltrees
    Pearltrees is a visual and collaborative library that makes it easy to collect, organize and share web-based resources. Pearltrees organizes web content into trees, which makes it an excellent tool for visual learners. For a primer on how Pearltrees works, watch this overview and explore this example “tree” from ASHA.
  • Pinterest
    Pinterest helps you to visually curate web content. You can create as many boards as you want and you can also join other's boards and collaboratively contribute to one board. Pinterest has a bookmarklet that you can drag to the bookmarks toolbar to make it easy to add to your boards as you navigate the web. Read this guide to learn how educators are using this tool and view this example of how a speech and language pathologist uses Pinterest to organize resources.

Once you have selected your curation tool, add the following resources so that you can easily reference them as needed.

Reflect

This module has focused on the importance of clinical education in preparing speech language pathology (SLP) and audiology students for their future careers. As a clinical educator, you will be responsible for providing this service to your students. Reflect on the following question in PART I of your Participant Workbook:

What are three challenges you have faced as a clinical educator that you would like to address through this course?

You may want to refer back to this list of challenges as you work through the rest of the course to help guide your approach to the resources and information provided throughout the course.

Assess

Complete a quiz to assess your understanding of the key concepts from this session. You must receive a minimum score of 80% to receive CEUs.

Extend

The resources listed in this section are optional selections for those who wish to continue their study on this topic.

Read

Technical Report: Clinical Supervision in Speech-Language Pathology, ASHA

Off-Campus Supervision: Twelve Balls in the Air and Clinical Education Too!, Seton Hall University, Elizabeth McCrea, Ph.D, CCC-SLP, Wren Newman, SLP.D., CCC-SLP

Hall M, Mcfarlane L, Mulholland S. Positive clinical placements: perspectives of students and clinical educators in rehabilitation medicine.International Journal Of Therapy & Rehabilitation [serial online]. October 2012;19(10):549-556. Available from: Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed February 29, 2016.