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JCPSLP Volume 15, Number 2 2013 77
Vietnamese staff also commented on the novelty and value
of this educational approach.
The provision of clinical education was particularly
challenging. In addition to the typical problems of preparing
students and sites for placements, managing timetables
and learning goals, clinical educators needed to be sourced
from abroad. They required orientation and support to
understand students’ prior knowledge and experiences
and match these to the available patients and learning
opportunities. Further, the students had to juggle their paid
work roles in their hospitals with their student roles while on
placement in the same site.
The future of speech therapy
in Viet Nam
The future of speech therapy in Viet Nam will require
ongoing collaboration between all stakeholders, and the
graduates of the course. Identified needs in the short-term
include refinement of the speech therapy course, capacity
building of the host university to manage the curriculum and
the course, and ongoing professional support of the 2012
graduates to lead the emerging profession through
establishment of a professional association and
development of a continuing professional development
program, and acquire the academic skills and qualifications
needed to lead the course in the future.
Course changes for the second cohort
of students
A comprehensive program of evaluation has indicated the
need for revisions to the course in its second offering which
commenced in September 2012. Revisions include moving
foundational knowledge to term 1, threading Multimodel
Communication (as the sixth area of competency for
entry-level clinicians in the revised CBOS; Speech
Pathology Australia, 2011) throughout the course, and
creating opportunities for more interprofessional interaction
for the speech therapy students.
As students had been practising in health-related
fields for varying periods of time, it was anticipated that
they would possess therapeutic skills that reflected
this experience. However, observation of students in
clinical practice during term 2 revealed the level of basic
therapeutic skills (such as session planning, goal setting
and treatment evaluation) generally to be that of novice
clinicians as defined in the most recent CBOS (Speech
Pathology Australia, 2011). Further, students’ ability to
utilise theoretical knowledge to inform their clinical practice,
to plan, problem-solve and to undertake reflection so
as to facilitate changes to clinical practice was limited.
Consequently, clinical education will begin earlier in the
2012–14 course and the amount will be significantly
increased. Further, the last two weeks of every on-campus
term will be spent in tutorials applying the term’s theory
to clinical scenarios to assist the development of clinical
reasoning. Clinical educators will be better prepared to build
on coursework and previous clinical blocks to maximise
learning outcomes in the clinical education sessions.
Capacity building the future leaders of
the profession
TFA and former course director Marie Atherton assisted two
future leaders – Mrs Xuan (see below) and Mr Dien (see
below) – to successfully apply for scholarships from the
Hoc Mai Foundation, an Australian organisation providing
level of clinical performance and competencies for each
block of clinical education reflected those of the Speech
Pathology Australia Competency-based Occupational
Standards (CBOS; Speech Pathology Australia, 2001).
Clinical competence was targeted in the key speech
therapy domains of speech, language, fluency, voice, and
swallowing. However, during the clinical education blocks
students were not expected to demonstrate clinical
competence in all of the components of these key domains.
This was because the unique working arrangements of the
students (having to continue practising in their jobs as
physiotherapists, nurses or doctors), and difficulty
accessing clinical education opportunities outside their
individual workplaces limited students’ ability to access
clients reflecting all the key speech pathology domains.
Competency in those domains not assessed during the
clinical education blocks was assessed via completion of a
clinical portfolio, assignments, clinical case studies, and
viva exams. Further, students were expected to
demonstrate their ability to access relevant literature via
various means to develop their understanding of less
familiar client groups, and be able to identify colleagues and
experts to whom they may refer or from whom they may
seek further information.
Many challenges emerged during the establishment
of the speech therapy course, foremost of which was
managing cultural differences. Whether it be identifying
and working with key stakeholders both internal and
external to PNTU when negotiating course design and
subject content, when assisting local lecturers to develop
their understanding of speech therapy, or when working
with members of the PNTU IT Department to establish
reliable IT services, the subtleties and nuances of culture
interacted and on many occasions collided. It was of the
utmost importance to build meaningful relationships that
would enable an understanding of different perspectives,
culturally, linguistically, personally and professionally, and
the ability to acknowledge and then discard preconceptions
and assumptions. Being aware of the potential to “impose”
rather than collaborate, and working actively against
this was critical to developing relationships that fostered
collegiality and forged successful partnerships. Flexibility
and learning to accept what could and could not be
controlled was important.
The knowledge of PNTU staff and other key stakeholders
as to what speech therapy was and could offer the people
of Viet Nam was limited, so significant time was devoted
to educating stakeholders, and developing culturally
relevant subject content and teaching materials. Sourcing
Vietnamese lecturers for subjects such as linguistics,
psychology, anatomy and physiology was important in
ensuring cultural relevance and sustainability of the course,
but these staff required briefing about speech therapy
in order for their content to be appropriate and support
for their teaching approaches to be congruent with the
educational approach of the course. From its inception,
emphasis within the speech therapy program was upon
students as “active learners”. However, observation
of students undertaking classes with local lecturers at
PNTU revealed a more didactic approach to teaching. To
introduce an interactive style of teaching, opportunities
were created for local lecturers to observe the teaching
of visiting lecturers and to participate in joint teaching
sessions. Students reported this interactive learning to
be an aspect of the program they particularly enjoyed.
Le Thi Thanh
Xuan (top) and
Le Khanh Dien