‘Supporting Practice Educators: An Interdisciplinary Practice Education Study Day’

Practice education is an essential component of the undergraduate degree programme, BSc Clinical Speech & Language Studies, enabling students to graduate meeting the standards of proficiency as specified by CORU. The practice education programme facilitates the integration of theory to practice and the development of clinical competencies to ensure students join the Speech and Language Therapy profession as competent entrants.
This year’s event was organised by the Practice Education Coordinators of five TCD undergraduate programmes, including Clinical Speech and Language Studies. Over 150 practice educators from the disciplines of Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Radiation Therapy, Human Nutrition and Dietetics, and Speech and Language Therapy attended.
Keynote presentations, with interactive components, were delivered on the topic of quality feedback (Dr. Mike Wride, Centre for Academic Practice & eLearning, TCD) and responding to students in distress (Dr. Mark Robinson, Student Counselling Service, TCD). Afternoon sessions shared experiences of optimising the student experience and were delivered by Anne-Maria Scanlon (Physiotherapy), Marie Cox (Speech and Language Therapy), Julie Flanagan (Occupational Therapy) and Theresa O’Donovan (Radiation Therapy). Finally, Dr. Denise Lawler (School of Nursing & Midwifery, TCD) spoke about improving quality in practice education.
Feedback from the study day was very positive and the organisers look forward to the next Trinity-hosted study day in 2020.