Bouncing forward: A post-practicum workshop to promote professional identity, self-efficacy, and resilience in master of speech pathology students

Abstract

Intensive professional preparation programmes, such as the Master of Speech Pathology, require students to rapidly develop knowledge, skills, and attributes. Students report high levels of stress associated with this accelerated learning trajectory, which focuses on professional knowledge and clinical competencies. Although incidentally targeted in the curriculum, resilience, self-efficacy, and professional identity are required for managing tertiary education demands and those in the workplace. It is argued that these three constructs are interconnected and should be managed together. This chapter describes a 2-hour post-practicum workshop, Bouncing Forward, which was developed to facilitate speech pathology students’ self-awareness of resilience, self-efficacy, and professional identity in a safe and supported environment, by using the most recent practicum experiences as the reference point. Development of this workshop, including its pedagogical framework, key design principles, the resources required to run the workshop, and the workshop format, is described in detail to allow transferability to other settings. Data are provided which demonstrate high student engagement and the substantial perceived value of the workshop by students. Participants provided feedback on the timing of the workshop which led to the workshop being conducted earlier in 2017, with equally positive feedback. Longitudinal resilience, self-efficacy, and professional identity data are also presented. Over one trimester of study, increases in resilience, self-efficacy, and professional identity were noted. It was, however, identified that “looking after yourself”, “taking control”, and “positive mental attitude” were equivocal on the Personal Resilience Questionnaire and thus require further curriculum consideration. Evaluation is under way on effect of the workshop on changing behaviour in the domains of resilience, self-efficacy, and professional. The workshop has transferability across health disciplines and has been successfully implemented with undergraduate dietetic students and adapted for paramedicine students.