How to make the most of your Soaring Health clinical placements
Your Soaring Health clinical placement can help to refine your professional interests, prepare you for professional practice and even lead to career opportunities. Here’s how to make the most of it.
Few stages of your allied health study are as exciting and crucial as clinical placements. Finally you’re able to realise your knowledge and skills in a live environment with real clients, which may highlight your areas of strength and areas for improvement. Moreover, encountering the diversity of client experiences and needs may also help you to clarify and refine your areas of professional interest (you may discover a niche focus you hadn’t considered). Another valuable component of clinical placements is the vast knowledge you can gain from observing, working with and asking questions of experienced practitioners - who may well become referees, mentors or even employers.
However, not all clinical placements answer to these benefits. So what makes the difference between a satisfactory clinical placement and an exceptional clinical placement that sets you up for a rewarding career? In most cases, gaining maximum benefit from your placement is up to you (the more you put in, the more you’ll get out). By clearly defining what you wish to gain from your experience and planning actions you’ll take to meet these objectives, both before and during your placement, you can turn this step in your training into a memorable, pivotal foundation for your allied health career. Here are five areas to prioritise before and during your placement.
5 steps to an exceptional placement
1. Be prepared
Read about the organisation before you arrive. Know the scope of their services and practitioners. Brush up on a brief history of their practice. Acquaint yourself with the organisation’s brand, including its values, mission and key partnerships or activities. This shows that you appreciate and are invested in the opportunity and will help to deepen your understanding of what you witness and experience during your placement. This information can be found on www.soaringhealth.com.au/about
2. Dress the part (Stirling uniform and formal pants) and arrive on time
Being well-presented and punctual will help you to make a good first and lasting impression. Not only do these elements demonstrate that you take your placement seriously, they convey respect for those whose knowledge and experience you wish to learn from.
3. Be open to new experiences
The contrast between an academic environment and a clinical one can be stark. In a live, clinical environment, you may be required to flexibly adapt to spontaneous demands and ‘jump in the deep end’. While this can be nerve-wracking and overwhelming, it can also be an invaluable learning curve. A good way to ensure that you experience is positive is to embrace each request or invitation with an open mind. Acknowledge what you don’t know, be curious, ask questions and strive to learn as much as you can.
4. Step outside your comfort zone but know your limits
There’s a fine line between challenging yourself and demonstrating enthusiasm and trying to take on more than you’re equipped or qualified to handle. As a rule, requests made of you will be based on your capabilities. However, it is also your responsibility to acknowledge any knowledge or skills gaps that may make your execution of a task unsafe or compromise you, clients or colleagues or the organisation. Also maintain a perspective of humility and remember, you’re here to learn!
5. Get hands-on
The value of performing tasks and techniques you may have practised on classmates or studied in textbooks in a real clinical setting can be profound. Not only does it help you to truly understand the value and nuances of the task and introduce ‘live’ variables you may not have encountered, hands-on practice enables you to feel and experience something of the professional practice you’re working towards. Whenever you think you can help with a task a supervising practitioner is performing, ask if you can assist or try it yourself with their supervision.
For more information on Soaring Heath, or the latest trusted allied health information visit soaringhealth.com.au