Speak Out draft text june 2016

Professional Development

Reflecting on a decade of CPD involvement Kate Bridgman shares her personal experience of CPD as an attendee, a SPA CPD committee member, a SPA CPD presenter and an international Conference presenter. had years of work and study behind the ideas and interventions they were sharing. Following my new grad year I was fortunate enough to join the CPD committee. What a group. They were all lovely and had such good ideas. I was very much the snacks and water girl, but loved the contacts and to hear of speechie stories from everyone’s workplaces. Over the years I have seen many a wedding photo and baby bump—and have even had my turn in sharing photos and a baby! I have developed a great network of colleagues and many of us have worked with each other along the way. As I have become more involved in the CPD process, both on the committee and as a presenter, I have a better understanding of just how incredible the National Office team are. Earlier this year I spent two days in a National Office think-tank, tasked with the job to explore SPA’s Future Learning Strategy. As I sat around the table, I was both humbled and in awe of the people we have driving the future of our profession in Australia. In recent years I have had the opportunity to travel to international conferences. While it’s fun (completely

I’m about to clock up my first decade as a speechie. No two years yet have been the same, and as I get older, I’m certainly not wiser. With each year I want to know more, understand more, do better and be better. First it was to “fix” my clients, then keep up with grown-up speechies, and now to get it right in front of students. As a new grad I remember attending my first SPA CPD event. Catching the train into the city, signing in and then watching, amazed at how everyone seemed to know each other. Greetings were a mix of hugs and, ‘I think I know you, have spoken to you, read a report from you’ exchanges. It was like being a kid at a dinner party, trying to be grown up but not quite hitting the mark. As a student I wasn’t strong in my theory subjects. I loved placement and very much learnt by doing, which was really by imitating what I saw my CEs do that worked. But once I got a taste for attending CPD events I was hooked. A whole day on a topic that I was immersed in at work was completely different. I came to understand the evidence in evidence based practice, about how clinical research gave context, and how we had a profession full of speechies who

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June 2016 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

Speak Out