Abstract
Clinical education is the center of professional preparation in healthcare fields, linking theoretical knowledge with clinical practice in the minds and behaviors of student clinicians. Clinical education, supervised by educators who are licensed professionals, is essential in the process of creating new professionals. What does a professional training program do about clinical education when the world shuts down? This chapter addresses the context of a private, not for profit university's response to the COVID-19 public healthcare crisis in spring of 2019 and the process by which a graduate training program in speech-language pathology re-organized, and re-visioned, clinical education in that context. The process allowed an upper cohort of students to graduate successfully and on time, engaged a lower cohort of brand-new clinicians in meaningful clinical learning, and taught the program new lessons about what is important in designing clinical education.
TopBackground
ACU has a strong commitment to innovation, having launched a well-known mobile learning initiative in 2008 which put smartphones and mobile devices in the hands of every student, and provided training opportunities for faculty in using these technologies (Young, 2011). In the face of the COVID-19 crisis, the university’s senior leadership remained committed to using innovative strategies in prioritizing continued student learning. A main goal of the administration was to insure that, as far as possible, students were able to remain on their current trajectory for graduation. For the CEHS, being able to maintain progress for students meant that it was critical to continue clinical training experiences within the health professions programs housed within the college.
In order to support student progress, both university and college leadership committed to providing technical support for all faculty to conduct their courses online and to maintain personal communication with one another and with students. College leadership communicated with faculty in mid-March, asking them to explore what additional technologies might be helpful in supporting their continued work with students when face-to-face meetings were suspended. Additional technological supports such as headsets and professional video conferencing accounts were purchased for all faculty members.
As the center of clinical training for allied health programs at the university, the CEHS faced additional challenges. The CEHS is one of four academic colleges within the university, each of which houses multiple departments, centers, and/or institutes. The departments contained in the CEHS are Communication Sciences and Disorders, Kinesiology and Nutrition, Occupational Therapy, Social Work and Teacher Education. The Center for Speech, Language and Learning (CSLL) is housed within the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and provides speech and language treatment services to the community, while serving as a center for clinical training for speech-language pathology graduate students.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Growth Mindset: People’s belief that their most basic abilities can be developed through their own efforts and learning.
Clinical Training: Experience and instruction in supervised provision of direct patient care in a health care institution.
Pandemic: A disease prevalent across the world.
Accreditation: Being officially recognized or approved of by a professional accrediting body designed to ensure quality of programs.
COVID-19: An infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. Most people infected with the virus experience mild to moderate illness and recover without requiring special treatment. Older people and those with underlying medical problems may develop serious illness.
Clinical Education: Educational programs that provide developing professionals with practical and skills-oriented instruction under the supervision of a skilled practitioner.
Higher Education: Postsecondary education usually affording a named degree, diploma, or certificate of higher studies.
Educational Innovation: New educational products, processes, strategies, or approaches that improve significantly upon the current state and are scalable.
Ethics and Clinical Training: The application of the science and understanding of morality in training of healthcare or other fields with the goal of improving the quality of patient care.
Allied Health: A broad group of health professionals, distinct from medicine and nursing, who use scientific principles and evidence-based practice for the diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of acute and chronic diseases; promote disease prevention and wellness for optimum health and apply administration and management skills to support health care systems in a variety of settings.
Healthcare Education: Educational programming designed to aid students in gaining knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes for maintaining and improvising the health of their patients/clients.