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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

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JCPSLP Volume 16, Number 3 2014

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