Extranet for Practice Educators
Information and resources for practice educators.
Welcome
Welcome to the extranet website for the Speech and Language Sciences degree programmes. Newcastle University currently offers three degree programmes that lead to qualification as a Speech and Language Therapist and eligibility to register with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC):
- BSc Speech and Language Sciences (3 Years)
- Master of Speech and Language Sciences (4 Years)
- MSc Language Pathology (2 Years)
About the extranet
The Extranet is a space for practice educators (PEs) who support our degree programmes by providing clinical placements for our students.
In the Extranet you'll find:
- the most up-to-date clinical placement information, as well as relevant policy or procedural documents relating to other aspects of the degree programmes. Copies of relevant information are sent by email to the placement coordinator in each organisation
- information about student projects that have relevance to practice educators
We're continuing to work to update and populate the Extranet. Please send us suggestions for improvement or additional resources through your Clinical Coordination Committee rep.
Documents are accessible to practice educators working with us and are password protected.
Contact us
If you have any queries about clinical placements, practice educator training or extranet content you can contact us.
Clinical Placement Info
Here are the dates for all of the clinical placements this academic year (2023/24) including those that take place on campus.
Semester 1 2023/24
|
Year |
Dates |
Frequency |
No. weeks |
Approximate no. placements required |
|
Stage 2 (Campus) |
25/09/23 –15/12/23 |
1/2 per week |
12 weeks |
35 |
|
Stage 3 BSc SLT & MSLS |
23/10/23 - 15/12/23 |
5 days* |
8 weeks |
43 |
|
|
02/10/23 - 15/12/23
|
1 full day per week Mon, Wed or Fri |
11 weeks
|
5 |
|
MSc Year 1 |
26/09/23 - 15/12/23 |
1/2 day per week |
12 weeks |
23 |
|
MSc Year 2 |
23/10/23 - 15/12/23 |
Monday, Wednesday. Friday |
8 weeks |
19 |
Semester 2 2023/24
|
Year |
Dates |
Frequency |
No. weeks |
Approximate no. placements required |
|
Stage 2 (Campus) |
29/01/24 - 10/05/24 (Excluding holidays) |
½ day |
12 weeks |
35 |
|
MSLS Year 4 |
22/04/24 – 02/06/23 |
5 days* |
6 weeks |
5 |
|
MSc Year 1 (Campus) |
29/01/24 - 10/05/24 (Excluding holidays) |
½ day per week |
12 weeks |
23 |
Semester 3 2023/24
|
Year |
Dates |
Frequency |
No. weeks |
Approximate no. placements required |
|
BSc3+ (Block) |
03/06/24 - 26/07/24
|
5 days* |
8 weeks |
34 |
|
MSc Year 1 |
03/06/24 - 12/07/24 |
5 days*
|
6 weeks |
23 |
|
MSc Year 2 (Block) |
03/06/24 - 26/07/24
|
5 days* |
8 weeks |
22 |
* Inclusive of 1 days planning and preparation
Practice Educator Workshops
We provide a programme of workshops for practice educators each academic year.
Workshop dates and booking links:
All workshops will be taking place in person unless otherwise stated.
Practice Educator Placement Packs
The General Placement Handbook is relevant to every placement and contains essential information for all practice educators.
The Placement Specific Packs contain information about each placement, including expectations and assessment. You'll be emailed a copy of the pack relevant to your placement.
- 2023-24 MSLS4 SQuiP Specific Pack
- 2023-24 BSc MSLS3 Block 1 Placement Specific Pack
- 2023-24 MSc2 Ext Case Placement Specific Pack
Placement clinical evaluation reports
These are the competency-based assessments for each of the placements. Please save a copy of the appropriate clinical evaluation report (CER) onto your computer. CERs are cohort specific to reflect the level of competency we expect at each stage of the student's clinical skill development. The same CER applies to both placements during the year. We expect students to demonstrate competency appropriate to their stage at the end of the second placement. Some placements have additional competencies.
Please read the instructions carefully before completing the CER.
We suggest that you first ask the student to complete their comments on the CER and email it to you to complete your comments. This is particularly helpful if collating comments from more than one practice educator. When you meet the student for their final evaluation please ensure that you both sign the CER.
Please email completed CERs to the University immediately after the placement finishes. If you have any queries please contact SLSClinic@newcastle.ac.uk
You may find it helpful to refer to the 'helpful hints for completing the clinical evaluation report'
Please note: the CER has been updated to reflect the newly updated HCPC standards of proficiency.
This guide will support you to identify evidence for the new competencies:
- 2023-24 CER Ext Placement Evidence Guide
- 2023-24 MSc CER Revised Competencies
- 2023-24 BSc MSLS CER Revised Competencies
- Stage 3 Semester 1 External CER 2023/24
- MSLS4 External CER 2023/24
- MSc1 External CER 2023/24
- BSc3/MSc2 CER 2023-24
Placement models
Instead of having one or two students working individually with clients you may find it more interesting, helpful or even fun, to have students on a peer placement or have a whole group of students all at once. These documents give you more information about peer placements and satellite clinics. We are keen for PEs to take up these options as it can be rewarding for both PE and student as well as being a way of efficiently supervising a larger number of students on placement. We can provide PE workshops in the summer for any services or groups of PEs who are interested in exploring this. Please contact SLSClinics@newcastle.ac.uk for more information.
- Peer Placement Guide
- Satellite Clinic Guide
Helpful hints documents
The documents contained here provide guidance of various aspects of placements for clinical educators and students.
Eating, Drinking and Swallowing Experience on Placement
All students are encouraged to record any clinical experience and reflections they might have during placement that relate to eating, drinking and swallowing (EDS) in their Clinical ePortfolio.
As of this academic year (2023/2024), BSc stage 3, MSLS stage 3 and MSc2 students will be undertaking the new RCSLT Pre-Registration Eating, Drinking and Swallowing Competencies. These competencies are embedded into teaching and student competency will be assessed and signed off at the university.
Practice Educators are not expected to sign off student competencies.
Students have a RCSLT Pre-Registration EDS Competencies Hours Log which is to be used on placement to record evidence of experience related to eating, drinking and swallowing. PEs will be asked to sign this record to verify the experience recorded.
Pre-reg EDS Hours Log (with examples)
Policy and procedures
The documents here are policy documents and guidelines relevant to Speech and Language Sciences clinical placements.
Current SLS Fitness to Practise
Current SLS Health and Safety Policy
Current Personal clinical goals
Student documentation
Here is a copy of the student placement handbook that students are given at the start of each academic year which contains information about the relevant clinical and professional education module. They are useful points of reference for you as they outline the information about placements that we provide for students.
Student Placement Handbook 2023/24
Student projects
During their time at University students engage in a number of different projects, ranging from presenting professional issues seminars, to completing audit or service evaluation for SLTs, to undertaking research projects under the supervision of academic staff (sometimes co-supervised by SLTs). The marks of all of these projects contribute towards the students' final degree.
Professional issues topics
These topics are researched by final year students studying the BSc and Master of Speech and Language Sciences programmes. The students present interactive seminars and contribute to a Professional Issues Class Book. Topics have included:
Transforming Care for people with learning disabilities
The Autism Act 10 Years On
Education, Health and Care Plans
The role of the SLT in the palliative care team
Telehealth and digital health in SLT services
The role of the SLT in mainstream schools
Contact us if you wish to know more about the Class Book.
Service Quality Improvement Placement (SQuIP)
These projects are linked to the semester one placement for fourth year students. These are now masters level projects. If you have a service evaluation project that students can undertake on your behalf, there is a PE workshop in the spring to help you develop the topic at an appropriate level and ensure that it can be completed in the timescale. Ask your CCC rep for workshop dates or email SLSClinic@newcastle.ac.uk
Dissertations
These supervised research projects allow fourth year students to conduct original research projects developed by themselves or members of staff. PEs who have small scale research projects are welcome to discuss their suitability for inclusion as a dissertation topic with the module leader. Supervision for PE projects would normally be shared with a member of University staff. The timescale for this is January of each year for topics, with students making their choices in April. If you need NHS research ethics and Heath Research Authority (HRA) approval through IRAS, you will have to ensure that it is in place for the end of September when the projects start.
Campus clinic experience
Students have their first clinical practice experiences in the Tavistock Aphasia Centre and The Children's Speech and Language Clinic which are located in King George VI Building on the University Campus. This lays the foundation for their clinical learning in future external placements. Students usually spend one semester working in the adult clinic and one semester in the child clinic. Practice educators in the campus clinics comprise clinically qualified university staff and speech and language therapists who work with us as guest members of staff. Please email us at SLSClinic@newcastle.ac.uk if you are interested in PE work in either of our campus clinics.
Evidence-based practice
This page contains links to evidence-based practice (EBP) resources for Clinical Educators. It will be updated throughout the year as new resources are developed and made available.
The necessary skills to undertake EBP eg critical appraisal, internet and database searching, research methodology, statistics, are taught to students throughout their degree programmes. By the end of stage 2 for the undergraduate programmes and the first year for the postgraduate programme, we expect all students to be able to formulate an EBP question about their clinical practice, search for relevant research literature, critically appraise that literature accurately and formulate an answer to their question that is based on the evidence and tempered by clinical judgement and client needs.
Evidence-based practice is the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients, integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research (Sackett et al, 2000).
How to...Guides
These short summary guides are written for students to act as a quick reminder of things they have covered in their course that are relevant to clinical work. If you have any queries or requests for further How to...Guides, please contact SLSClinic@newcastle.ac.uk
How to adapt the style of a report-1
How to have a successful peer placement
How to judge levels of attention
How to avoid breaches of confidentiality
Quality assurance
Under the conditions of our approval by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and accreditation by Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCLT) we have to undertake a quality assurance process with all of our placement providers.