None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
There has been an increasing move by healthcare providers towards telehealth services (i.e., the remote delivery of healthcare services over the internet). In the university environment the use of telehealth technology has the potential to enable healthcare students to interact with patient populations and build valuable clinical communication skills without leaving the university campus. Research has suggested that while speech pathology students have the theoretical knowledge to treat aphasia (an acquired language disorder often resulting from stroke) they are not confident communicating with this clinical population. Our project will develop and evaluate a telehealth program to train speech pathology students in strategies for communicating effectively with patients with aphasia, and evaluate the clinical useability of telehealth for student clinical learning. The effects of different types of feedback on learning will also be investigated. While targeting speech pathology students in this current application, the intention is to develop a model to be used for other student cohorts who interact with other clinical populations with a range of communication difficulties. This will contribute to the development of new telehealth-driven approaches to clinical education.
Interventions
Group 1: The students will participate in a theoretical lecture about strategies to communicate effectively with people with aphasia. The lecture will be delivered face-to-face by a fully qualified speech pathologist for no more than 1 hour in duration. Following the lecture, all students will have a conversation with 1-2 people with aphasia. The conversations will occur up to one week after the lecture. The students will be in groups of 1-2 students per conversation. The conversations will be c
Group 1: The students will participate in a theoretical lecture about strategies to communicate effectively with people with aphasia. The lecture will be delivered face-to-face by a fully qualified speech pathologist for no more than 1 hour in duration. Following the lecture, all students will have a conversation with 1-2 people with aphasia. The conversations will occur up to one week after the lecture. The students will be in groups of 1-2 students per conversation. The conversations will be conducted over the internet using eHAB software, with the students being at The University of Queensland while the people with aphasia will be at the Princess Alexandra Hospital. The conversations will run for approximately 10 minutes and involve 5 minutes of general conversation followed by 5 minutes of clinical questioning. During the clinical questioning, the students will ask the people with aphasia up to 5 questions to obtain information (e.g., what is your address? How many stairs do you have at home?). Following the conversation, the people with aphasia will provide the students with verbal and visual feedback about their use of conversation strategies. The students then will complete a reflective note about their learning experience before they complete the final outcome measures. To monitor adherence to the study a register of attendance at the lecture and conversation will be kept.
Sponsors
Emma Finch
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Educational / counselling / training
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Students (Intervention and control groups): Students who are in the second or third year of study in the speech pathology program and are currently attending lectures about aphasia at The University of Queensland. People with aphasia: diagnosed with aphasia by a speech pathologist prior to their inclusion in the study with no other neurological or developmental conditions.
Exclusion criteria
Students (Intervention and control groups): inadequate English skills to consent and participate in the program; history of neurological conditions. People with aphasia: inadequate English skills to consent and participate in the program; history of other neurological or developmental conditions
Outcome results
None listed