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Clinical education

www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

JCPSLP

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