[Dysphagia] Re: Qualifications-a different view

[dgranof at mail.utexas.edu (Dena Granof)]

I have a bit of a different view of the role of university 
preparation for SLP's.  Each Master's Program has undergraduate 
prerequisites in the basic sciences and introductory courses to the 
field. On the graduate level there are required courses which include 
the total scope of practice and the student also gets to choose some 
electives in areas that are of particular interest to them. They have 
multiple supervised clinical training experiences in different 
environments and then the CFY- which is a supervised year often of 
specialization. This is certainly similar to an MD's education of 
doing a rotation in each area before an in-depth experience in their 
chosen specialization.

Universities cannot nor should they be the end all of information and 
training. Students should be given the framework, backgrounds, 
current practice patterns  and be taught how to read the research 
literature so as to learn and modify practice as new info becomes 
available.

I guess I view the educational experience as the beginning of 
learning about the field and not the complete package. The concept of 
responsibility for learning and being a life long learner is a key 
part of what we teach our students.

Dena Granof
-- 
Dena H. Granof, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Senior Lecturer
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas 78712