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Clinical education
www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.auJCPSLP
Volume 15, Number 2 2013
65
Keywords
clinical
education
clinical
educators
experiential
learning
professional
development
Julia Stewart
Speech and language
therapists learning to be
clinical educators
Julia Stewart
therapy) (Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, 2004; British
Association of Occupational Therapists, 2008), there are
no similar schemes in place for SLTs. Training for the latter
remains unaccredited, despite recognition that this would
improve the status of CEs (McAllister & Lincoln, 2004).
The study
The doctoral research presented in this paper used an
interpretative approach, based on narrative inquiry, to
explore the experiences of 10 SLTs from the south of
England. The participants were SLTs who support students
on clinical placement. An open invitation for participants was
sent to local placement coordinators. Purposive sampling
was then used to recruit participants who brought diversity
through a range of factors such as: age, clinical experience
and location. Each participant was given a pseudonym (see
Table 1). Ethical approval was provided by Exeter University.
Due to the nature of the purposive sampling all of the
participants knew of the researcher and her role as a
university tutor with responsibility for clinical education.
This paper considers the factors which might
be important to speech and language
therapists (SLTs) as they learn to be clinical
educators. It draws on an interpretative study
that asked ten SLTs in the UK to explain how
they felt they had developed the skills
necessary to supervise students’ learning.
The themes of talk, collaboration, reflective
practice and experiential learning were
central to the stories told by the participants
and highlight the diverse range of skills which
SLTs draw on to support the limited formal
clinical education training they receive.
O
ver a decade ago, McAllister (2001) suggested
that clinical education was underresearched in the
United Kingdom. This paper addresses this gap. It
explores the professional development of SLTs as clinical
educators, specifically focusing on how clinicians learn to
be clinical educators (CEs) once they have qualified as SLTs
and are ready to supervise students themselves.
Recent research in the area of clinical education has
considered how language is used by both students and
CEs in student–supervisor conferencing (Ferguson, 2010);
the use of different placement and supervisory models in
current clinical practice (Sheepway, Lincoln, & Togher, 2011)
and issues and innovations in clinical education (Cruice, 2005;
McAllister, 2005; Stansfield, 2005). The focus in all of these
articles is typically directed towards student learning and
professional development or to the teaching and assessment
methods employed, rather than on the CE’s development.
Within two years of graduating SLTs are often asked to
act as CEs and supervise student SLTs. The role of the
CE is to supervise, teach, support and assess the student
in the clinical environment. As such, it is recognised as
a complex and demanding role. CEs in the UK typically
attend a short preparatory training day before supervising
their first student. However, some previous research
has suggested that the training and support provided
to developing CEs does not adequately prepare them
for the role (Higgs & McAllister, 2005; Stansfield, 2001).
While both physiotherapists and occupational therapists
in the UK have introduced accredited clinical educators’
schemes: the Accreditation of Clinical Educators Scheme
(ACE) (physiotherapy) and the Accreditation of Practice
Placement Educators’ Scheme (APPLE) (occupational
Table 1. The participants
Participant
Years experience as
Years experience as a
a SLT
clinical educator
Aida
32
29
Amy
21
12
Ann
18
10
Justine
7
5
Paula
5
0
Rose
3
2
Marie
15
13
Beatrice
25
21
Lucy
5
3
Jane
14
10
Participants told their stories during semi-structured
interviews which took place in a quiet room either at
participants’ place of work or the researcher’s university.
Interviews lasted approximately an hour and were audio
recorded for later transcription. The interviewer opened
the conversation with “Tell me how you learned to be a
clinical educator” and then allowed each participant to tell
their story as they wished with minimal prompts or further
questions.
A thematic analysis approach was used by the author to
identify key concepts both within and across these stories.
This article
has been
peer-
reviewed