Clinic 1 almost finished?! How did I survive?

My Top 10 Tips for Surviving Clinic

1. Be prepared to feel like you don’t know what you are doing… because really, you don’t know what you are doing. You are going to make mistakes and that’s okay.

2. This needs to be said again: be okay with #1. Or at least know that you will be okay with #1. We’ve all been there.

And all the C.E.s (clinical educators) have tissues in their offices for emotional breakdowns. Again, we’ve all been there.

3. Research your client’s communication impairment(s) and learn all you can about the etiology, assessment and treatment of their disorder(s). A good place to start is joining speechpathology.com. It is $49 for students for a year membership and it has a wealth of information.

(It’s also a great place to brush up on information from classes you haven’t had in a while or that too briefly covered a topic area. This site can help when you are preparing for your internships or even the praxis. I will definitely be using it for both my internship interviews and praxis study).

4. The paperwork will take time. SOAPs are not as easy as they look. Your treatment plans, summary of goals, etc. will require 2, more likely 3-4 drafts before they are approved. Don’t obsess about it. There comes a point where you just have to turn it in and get feedback so you know what needs to be improved.

   

5. Go to your weekly clinic meeting prepared with questions. The C.E.s may not always give you a direct answer, but they will help lead you in the right direction so you can discover the answer on your own when you give it more thought. The C.E.s are not there to hold our hand, but they are there to help. Also go in with a plan about what you want to talk about.

6. Be open to feedback!! Constructive criticism is hard for a lot of people, but we are still learning how to do all of this. Whether you agree with them or not, it's not personal, they are trying to help us become better clinicians.

7. Share your research with your C.E.s. It shows that you are committed to your client and also you might even be sharing something new with your C.E. that they didn’t know previously.

8. Talk to your clinic classmates!! We are all in the same boat and are all struggling with the same sort of issues/stress. Share ideas and look at each other’s materials. Share anxieties. Share both the good and the bad. It really helps to know that you are not alone in this.

9. Materials… there are TONS of resources out there to save you time with pre-made materials and materials you can adapt: teachers pay teachers; lesson pix; SLP blogs (there are sooo many blogs by speechies who post activity ideas); pinterest. Some are free, some have a membership fee. I belong to both teachers pay teachers (free materials as well as materials that you have to pay for) and lesson pix (yearly fee). Well worth the investment in my opinion.

10. Clinic is a HUGE time commitment. I knew I was going to be busy, but I didn’t realize that I would be this busy. It’s hard not to forget your other classes because you are spending all of your available energy on clinic. You definitely have to prioritize and use those time management skills. More importantly for your sanity, you can’t forget to find time to RELAX too!! Read a book for fun. Go outside every once in a while. There is a world outside of clinic. ;)

I definitely feel like I've come a looong way since the beginning of this semester when I was Anxious in East Michigan. And I'm sure I will have a bit of anxiety again when I get an adult client along with my other client for clinic 2, but I feel better prepared to handle that stress... at least I hope I am better prepared, but just in case, wish me luck! :)