Speech-language pathology clinical education in Malaysia: current practice and future direction

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Clinical education is essential in training future speech-language pathologists and developing the profession. To date, there is limited information about clinical education in Malaysia. The aim of this study was to describe the experience of speech-language pathology clinical educators in Malaysia when providing clinical education, and to obtain their views on innovative models of clinical education that can be applied in Malaysia.

Method: Ten speech-language pathology clinical educators were involved in semi-structured individual interviews for this study. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse interview data. Following analysis, two themes were identified which were strategies used and challenges faced by clinical educators when providing clinical education. In terms of the implementation of innovative models of clinical education, a majority of participants showed a preference for the block placement and mentoring models.

Results: Findings from this study provide an insight to the challenges faced by clinical educators in Malaysia, and how these challenges are similar and different from those faced elsewhere in the world. Participants opinions on innovative models of clinical education will allow universities in Malaysia to employ these models to meet the increasing needs of placements and overcome some of the other challenges faced by clinical educators.

KEYWORDS:

• Malaysia
• clinical education
• clinical supervision
• speech-language pathology
• clinical education models
• clinical educators

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.