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Blogs
My STSM Experience: Maja Kelić
During November 2016 I have spent a wonderful week at the Speech & Language Therapy Research Unit of Southmead Hospital in Bristol. Since I'm involved in both research and clinical work with children with specific language impairment, my host institution was the perfect place to explore how to link research and practice since one of the main interests of the Unit is evidence-based practice. The aim of my STSM was to develop a set of knowledge elicitation materials for use by Action members with practitioners in their countries. Thus, the schedule was quite tight!
This STSM emerged from the goals of the Working Group 2 within the COST project. WG2 seeks to understand the range of service delivery models used across the COST participating countries when supporting children with LI. Some of the most important, but also remarkably complex questions is how therapists decide about the dosage of the therapy for the specific child, when a child can be discharged from SLT services, and when and how to involve parents. WG2 is not only interested in what decisions are being made, but even more in drivers of decisions and choices therapists make. To understand specific problem-solving strategies the experts use while making decisions, knowledge elicitation methods can be used.
During this visit, I got the opportunity to learn about qualitative research and usage of knowledge elicitation techniques in speech and language therapy. Professor Sue Roulstone guided me and shared with me her knowledge, skills and experience. By the end of the week we had developed the pilot project!
There is specific enthusiasm in the Speech & Language Therapy Research Unit in Bristol and it was very exciting to be part of it. I hope that I will be able to convey it to the SUVAG Polyclinic, the biggest institution for speech, language and hearing therapy in Croatia. I was amazed by the dedication and inspiring work done to reveal the pillars of expertise and excellence in speech and language therapy.
Sharing the experience and exploring differences between service delivery was both exciting and intriguing, and it's the best way to instigate positive changes and improvements. I am very grateful to Lydia Morgan, Sam Harding and Yvonne Wren, who is the scientific lead of the Unit, for insightful conversations and their interesting questions about my PhD thesis. I would also like to thank the speech therapists who helped me practice my newly acquired knowledge elicitation skills. During this STSM I got the opportunity to work intensively with Prof. Roulstone who was a wonderful host. This valuable experience will be helpful, not only in further work within the COST Action, but for my professional development in general. I am grateful for her time and patience, useful advice, feedback and supervision. With her enthusiasm, she opened an absolutely new field for me and I'm looking forward to exploring it.
Last modified: Wed, 22 Mar 2017 14:55:06 GMT