Speech Language Pathology is a diverse field where students learn and gain competency to practice over 9 areas including speech, language, cognition, voice, pragmatics, fluency, AAC, swallowing and hearing. Clinicians can also practice in a variety of settings from schools to medical environments. While in the MA-SLP program at Ohio State, students are exposed to all these practice areas and many different settings in order to hone their skills and interest levels over the course of 6 semesters.
As part of the first semester of the Clinical Seminar course, first-year MA-SLP students participated in a lab experience in the Technology Learning Complex within the College of Nursing. It is a state-of-the-science facility that combines specialty laboratory features with virtual reality capability. Each room is equipped for a dedicated focus (e.g., pediatric and neonatal care, intensive care), but is flexible enough to be used in a variety of ways.
In this class, students had the opportunity to identify medical equipment and learn about its function and operation for their 6 “patients.” They were able to gain exposure to higher-fidelity medical patient scenarios in a low-stakes environment in that there were no medically fragile patients attached to the tubes, lines and drains.
Feedback from the student clinicians included a higher comfort level learning in this environment and feeling more prepared moving toward medical clinical placements.
