What is it about?
This article discusses new and very important research completed with speech-language pathology supervisors of graduate students. It compares the percentage of billable time in their work day (productivity) during the time they are working alone to the time they are supervising a student. Our research was the first of it's kind in the US and showed that the percentage of billable time did go down when the supervisor was working with a graduate student, but it didn't stay low for very long (not past the 7th week).
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Why is it important?
There is a huge shortage of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in the US right now which is not anticipated to get better any time soon. One reason for this shortage is the number of SLPs attending and graduating into the work force. While there is no shortage of students eager to get into graduate programs, there are limited slots for students in each program. One of the reasons for these limited slots is the number of clinical spots available for training (specifically in medical settings) possibly due to the believed impact a student has on the supervisor's percentage of billable time. If we can better identify the real impact on billable time, maybe more clinical placements will be available which may lead to more SLPs in the workforce!
Perspectives
This research is so very important because we haven't had anything like it in the past. There has just been the assumption that productivity was impacted. This research specifically identifies that impact and how long it lasts.
Jennifer St Clair
Loma Linda University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Impact of Clinical Education of Student Clinicians on Speech-Language Pathologists' Productivity in Medical Settings, Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, August 2022, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA),
DOI: 10.1044/2022_persp-21-00330.
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