“Reflection is the process whereby we reconstruct and make meaning of our experience” (Stevens & Cooper, 2009, p. 3).
The amount of knowledge I gained and the professional growth I endured during all of those experiences have helped me grow as a student clinician in ways I never knew I needed to. I have been able to take little aspects of each lesson and apply them to my clinical work as well as my collaboration with other professionals.
While attending all of these experiences, I had little interprofessional collaboration in my clinical skills. Currently, I am doing an off-campus placement, and I get to experience a lot of interprofessional work. I have been working alongside other medical professionals, such as Otolaryngologist and Neurotologist. I have been in meetings and had to utilize my interprofessional communication skills to help make a meeting productive. I have had to refine vocabulary that is specific to my profession to help those other professionals understand pertinent information and in a timely manner. I also have to maintain mutual respect for other professionals that I interact with. These individuals, are sometime Audiologists, who have a different background or way of thinking than I do. There are many instances where professionals have different approaches to combating an issue; yet, I respect the decisions made by other Audiologists and make my recommendations accordingly. Although my choices or recommendations have been questioned or compared to other doctors they might have seen, I can respect that decision and let the patient know, I would assume it was an evidence-based decision. Acknowledging another’s professional opinion with respect and not speaking poorly of them has helped by personal development outside of the clinic as well. In life, people make decisions that are different than mine. Instead of undermining that decision and speaking poorly, I can respond with something to the same effect of not understanding or knowing their reasoning and then adding my opinion if necessary. I have also been able to define my roles and responsibilities to many patients regarding the differences between professions and professionals in regards to scopes of practice. The scope of an Audiologist can sometimes be misunderstood when other professionals are involved in basic screening tests; therefore, clarification is necessary. Thus, I have become more comfortable, explaining to patients what I can and can not do because I have practiced this throughout my interprofessional classes at Pacific.
Regarding ethics and values, accepting and embracing the cultural diversity and individual differences that characterize patients, populations, and the health team has been something I considered a strength of mine before these experiences. However, with these experiences, I have been able to refine those skills and learn new aspects of cultural competency. Working as a para-professional and then becoming a professional takes on more responsibility and leadership opportunities. So having a cultural competency and being able to learn more and further myself will help me become a great clinician. We are all life long learners and should never stop gaining knowledge, especially regarding our patients.
As I accepted my externship for my final year in a pediatric hospital, I thought of all the opportunities that this would yield. This type of setting will allow me to test all my knowledge and skills I have developed clinically, as well as my interprofessional skills. It will give me that chance to work immediately side by side with individuals that I might not see in a private practice or community clinic and allow me to apply those skills. I do not think my interprofessional learning is finished and would like to see a shift in our professional organizations to hold continuing education opportunities. Someday I will return the favor of education to the field of Audiology and be a preceptor for students and educate the importance of interprofessional education. Also, and I may be slightly biased here, but I think it should be required to have all students take these courses as part of the college of health professionals. It is essential we understand and can apply these principles to our everyday work and even our personal lives.