Final year speech pathology students from Charles Sturt University identified their peers as one of the top ten resources for clinical education (2013). The benefits of peer relationships included developing ‘communities of practice’, increased support of learning and it provided an opportunity to debrief about clinical experiences.
Peer-support system ‘buddy system’
Consider setting up a buddy system. This involves pairing students to enhance students’ learning and provide additional support during the clinical placement.
Some options to consider when pairing students:
- More experienced student with less experienced student
- Students in different locations (e.g. student in a rural area with a student in a regional area)
- Students at the placement at the same time
Practical resources and tools to set up a Buddy System
- Setting up a student buddy system
- Example of questions to guide the peer support process at the beginning of the placement
- Example of questions to guide the peer support process at the end of the placement
- An example from Central Queensland
References
Top 10 resources for Clinical Education (2013). Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology 15(2), 107-108.
Martin, P. & Tyack, Z. (2012). A Queensland example of the student buddy system: ‘A step closer’ – the student buddy system implemented in Central Queensland. SARRAH conference presentation.
