JCPSLP
Volume 16, Number 3 2014
121
students were clear in their belief that they needed to
further develop their clinical knowledge and skills, prior to
considering any research opportunities. Progression to
clinical practice enables the further development of
professional knowledge and consolidation of skills, and this
is considered (by this group of students) to be the best
foundation on which to develop future research. This aspect
of career decision-making illustrates clearly the students’
understanding of the practice–research nexus. Conceiving
this undergraduate research experience as a mechanism to
enable career planning is certainly not an overt purpose of
honours programs, but this ability is a desirable attribute in
new graduates.
The experience of honours enables students to
develop new perspectives on practice, to evaluate the
interdependence of practice and research in developing
practice knowledge, and provides a firm foundation from
which they can develop to become the future practitioner-
researchers in allied health (Robinson, 2011). In order to
maintain and extend the pool of practitioner-researchers
in allied health, it is important to encourage undergraduate
students to consider honours. This responsibility lies
principally with academic staff, but should also be a
concern for allied health practitioners. Collaboration
between academic staff and allied health practitioners
to form honours supervisory teams is a valid strategy
to develop relevant research projects. If students are
enabled to develop projects informed by both clinical and
occupational areas of interest, more students may be
encouraged to enrol in honours.
Honours provides students with an opportunity to extend
their experience beyond the standard expectation for
undergraduate allied health students of developing skills
as a critical consumer of research (Badger, Daly, & Clifford,
2012). Honours affords a “space” to reflect on practice
and to understand the potential of research in developing
new perspectives on practice. Through the challenge of
honours, an undergraduate student can visualise future
opportunities as an allied health practitioner.
I started to get worried a couple of months ago
because I thought is this it … is this the end for me …
and now it doesn’t feel like it is. The biggest thing I’ve
learnt is that this is only the beginning.
(Ellie)
Conclusion
This study explored the experience of ten undergraduate
allied health students as they progressed on their honours
journey. The purpose of the study was to illuminate the
complex phenomenon of honours, which is often conceived
fairly simply as research training. It is clear that the value of
the honours experience extends far beyond the acquisition
of research knowledge and skills. Honours as an
undergraduate research experience enables self-
actualisation and a different way of being, as students
develop new perspectives on practice and challenge the
practice–research nexus. The development of allied health
practitioners who are well positioned to contribute to
professional knowledge generation and evidence-based
practice will strengthen the research foundations of each
allied health profession. Honours graduates should be
valued as novice practitioner-researchers who have the
potential to improve the credibility of the allied health
professions through quality research, increasing the
professions’ position of influence and control over health-
care policy.
It is interesting to see the change in the way the students
contemplated the practice–research nexus as they reached
the end of their honours experience. Where previously
they had viewed the relationship between clinical practice
and research in practical and procedural terms, they now
experienced this relationship from a much more personal
perspective. Although students found it difficult to articulate
the meaning of honours, it was much easier for them to
conceive this shift in their being in the context of clinical
practice.
You just learn so much about reading articles,
researching and really analysing. I’m a lot more
reflective and I’m always asking why. It’s more trying to
understand, which is what I’ve been doing through this
whole process of honours. When I’m talking to patients
I’m a lot more succinct and my communication skills
have got a lot better. So you’re always learning and
gaining new skills even though it’s not specifically
taught to you or talked about by your supervisors …
you just pick it up yourself.
(Jess)
I think it just had a massive impact over the last couple
of years. I felt I was much more comfortable locating
evidence and applying this to my practice. I think you
have a greater appreciation for research after doing
it in terms of how it impacts on other clinicians and
on the patients and their families as well. It’s definitely
made me appreciate the value of research more.
(Holly)
This shift of focus over time from the accumulation of
research knowledge and skills, to a development of
“professional being” through practice, is congruent with
contemporary thinking about professional education
(Dall’Alba, 2004). An emphasis on a change of being
characterised by qualities such as receptiveness,
thoughtfulness and humility, rather than the acquisition of
either knowledge or skills, is how Barnett (2004) envisages
learning for an unknown future (p. 259).
Opening your eyes to the understanding of where
people come from. How their experiences are different,
how they view things is different and how they interpret
a questionnaire can be very different. So it’s kind of an
extra dose of all those understandings. It just brings it
all together a lot quicker than I think it would if I hadn’t
have done honours.
(Lauren)
The tension between clinical practice and research
is tangible for these allied health students, and seems
to centre on feelings about their general lack of clinical
experience. This tension between research and practice
is mirrored to some extent in the context of nursing
academics. Nurses moving from clinical practice into
an academic position, with the associated research
requirement, perceived this as leading to a loss of clinical
credibility (Kenny et al., 2004, as cited in Andrew, Ferguson,
Wilkie, Corcoran, & Simpson, 2009, p. 608). It is important
to understand the students’ perspective on the practice–
research nexus, as this is fundamental to determining their
early career decision-making.
Summary
Honours graduates may be perceived by allied health
practitioners to be more interested in research than clinical
practice. However, the overriding perception of this group
of honours students was that credibility as an allied health
professional is dependent on clinical experience. The
