JCPSLP Vol 16 no 3 2014_FINAL_WEB

Research

From the editors Jane McCormack and Anna Copley

Contents

109 From the editors

110 Understanding the world through ethnography: The experience of speech-language pathology practice in culturally and linguistically diverse settings – Sarah Verdon

117 Why should we value honours graduates? – Caroline Robinson

123 Participants, researchers and participatory research – Deborah Hersh 127 “Can you speak English?”: The effects of social communication impairment on the life of an adolescent with traumatic brain injury – Jessica Drummond, Michael Curtin and Lucie Shanahan

R esearch is central to our work as speech pathologists. Regardless of whether we work in clinical practice or academia, research informs what we do and how we do it. As clinicians, each interaction that we have with clients, families, and other professionals enables us to gather information that we can use to inform our clinical decision-making, and evaluate our practice. Similarly, as academics, our work is often focused on exploring the characteristics/needs of the populations with whom we work, or the outcomes of our practices, in order to ensure the services we provide are the most appropriate, timely, effective, and holistic. Our aims and methods will vary, depending on whether the focus of our research is client-based or a larger scale project, but findings contribute to the knowledge base within our field of practice. This issue of JCPSLP is focused on the theme of research. As such, it contains papers that explore modes of research within speech pathology, as well as papers that describe the outcomes of research studies in the field. Hersh and Verdon describe two different modes of research that are both valuable in informing health care practices. Hersh’s paper discusses action research, while Verdon’s paper provides a description of the way in which ethnography can be used in speech pathology, with examples from her PhD studies. In addition, Robinson explores the value of Honours studies in preparing health students to become research-practitioners. The research studies within this issue of JCPSLP utilised a range of methods to explore questions related to clinical and professional practice. Drummond and colleagues interviewed a client, her mother and a friend to explore their experiences of traumatic brain injury. Miller and colleagues used a combination of interviews and questionnaires with adults with dysphagia, allied health professionals, family members and disability support workers to explore perspectives of good practice in the provision of dysphagia support. Erickson used interviews and focus groups with speech pathologists to describe the barriers preventing them from using telehealth and strategies that would support its uptake, and Lewis used a questionnaire with speech pathology students to examine their perceptions of the value of ePortfolios as a learning tool. Finally, in her clinical insights paper, Zaga described the use of an auditing tool and focus groups with different professional groups to improve the dysphagia management of patients in hospital. We hope you enjoy reading about research and about the outcomes of particular research studies within this issue of JCPSLP . This is our final issue as editors of the journal and we would like to take the opportunity to thank those who have assisted in the publication of each issue (Lana Busby, Carla Taines, Bruce Godden and the Editorial Committee), as well as the authors and reviewers who have ensured that the content of each issue has been so interesting and stimulating for readers. We have really enjoyed the role as co-editors of the journal and wish David Trembath well as he takes on the position for 2015–16.

133 Dysphagia support in disability services: Stakeholder perspectives

– Rosie Miller, Nick Hagiliassis, Meredith Prain and Janet Wilson

139 Implementation of an ePortfolio: Perspectives of speech pathology students – Abigail Lewis and Katrina Strampel 147 Telehealth: Why not? Perspectives of speech-language pathologists not engaging in telehealth – Jodie May and Shane Erickson

152 Reducing error in a complex

system: Texture modified diet and fluid provision – Charissa Zaga and Joanne Sweeney

157 Webwords 50: Clinical research: A meeting of minds in SLP/SLT – Caroline Bowen 159 Top ten resources in an intensive, group-based intervention setting for young children with autism spectrum disorder – Katherine Pye

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JCPSLP Volume 16, Number 3 2014

www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au