“Professional internship is a training strategy that involves placing the student alongside an expert professional and in specific healthcare contexts in order to learn the skills required for the professional role. Learning in internship takes place through practical experimentation, the integration of theoretical-disciplinary knowledge with professional and organizational operational practice, contact with members of the specific professional group."
Professional teaching or internship has the objective of enabling the student to acquire the skills of the professional profile that he intends to train. These skills are achieved gradually and progressively over the three years.
Professional teaching corresponds to 60 CFU over the three years of the course, equal to 1500 hours. Each internship CFU corresponds to 25 hours of compulsory attendance for the student and any absences must be made up.
The professionalizing learning is achieved through the professionalizing training activities of Internship in the speech therapy field and in similar and integrating fields distributed as follows over the three years of the course: 16 CFU in the first year, 18 CFU in the second year and 26 CFU in the third year.
The training objectives are the following:
First year
The internship activities, planned to encourage the integration of the theoretical contents of the Linguistics, Psychology and Speech Therapy courses, aim to lead the student to get to know the healthcare fields and the institutional network where the speech therapist works as well as acquiring a gradual competence in observation and analysis of relational and communicative skills through verbal, non-verbal and mimic-gestural signals in developmental, adult and senile age.
Second year
The internship experiences are aimed at acquiring professional skills in clinical contexts in which the student can achieve intellectual, relational and practical skills. Students are encouraged to reflect on the clinical decisions made by the internship guides, which represent the integration of the SLP's experience and the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of the best available scientific evidence.
Third year
The internship activities aim to allow the student to experience a gradual assumption of autonomy and responsibility with the supervision of experts in the various specialist sectors, also addressing situations of greater clinical complexity; the student acquires methodological skills in scientific research also to support the preparation of the thesis, as well as management and management elements useful for professional development in work contexts.
All documentation related to the internship:
- Introduction
- Internship shifts (published on Moodle - CdS Speech Therapy Internship area General information)
- References Locations and Internship Guides of contracted facilities (posted on Moodle - CdS Speech Therapy Internship area General Information)
- Internship contracts (diversified by academic year and type of internship)
- Internship learning evaluation questionnaire by the trainee
- Evaluation of the student by the internship guide
- Internship Diary
- Different report outline by type of internship
- Direct observation of Procedural Skills - DOPS
can be found in the degree programme's Moodle platform.
Verification of the conduct of the internship is done through the following means:
- daily diary of professional acts documenting the student's internship activity, signed by the internship guide and completed with date, time and location of internship
- student's internship learning evaluation questionnaire
- student evaluation forms and verification of achievement of objectives
- report on clinical cases seen during the internship according to the clinical report template found on Moodle - CdS Logopedia Internship area. The number of cases is different for each internship and is indicated in each contract as per the diagram below:
| 1st YEAR | 2nd YEAR | 3rd YEAR |
| Nurseries and schools (1 report) | Childhood Adolescence Neuropsychiatry (1 report + 2 DOPS) | Childhood Adolescence Neuropsychiatry (1 report + 2 DOPS + Communication Matrix) |
| Internship at health care companies (1 indivual and 1 group report) | Audiology (1 report) | Neurological Rehabilitation (2 reports + 2 DOPS) |
| Foniatria (1 relazione + 2 DOPS) | ||
| TOTAL 2 reports | TOTAL 3 reports | TOTAL 3 reports |
Accompanying students to the internship guides at the different locations is organized by the Graduate Coordinator and the referring Teaching Tutor.
The student no later than two weeks after the completion of the internship uploads the report to the appropriate folder in the Moodle platform.
It is also requested to the internship guides, to contact the coordinator halfway through the course Dr. Elisabetta Losi (elisabetta.losi@unimore.it) in case it is deemed that the student is not able to achieve a satisfactory level of competence with respect to one or more objectives of the internship.
Each report is corrected (according to a scheme shared with the students and present in the Moodle platform) by an online tutor who reports in the platform both the grade and the qualitative analysis of the errors made by the student. In case of need, he/she is summoned to the office to define possible ways to make up for the missed objectives.
At the end of the internship, each student completes the experience evaluation questionnaire in the Moodle platform.
The grade of the internship exam therefore derives from:
- Evaluation of the internship path (judgment of the guides and correction of the internship report)
- Classroom exam according to the methods illustrated below.
During the exam, two cases are presented for discussion (1 audio-phoniatry/neurology, 1 within Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry); students have 30' for each case to study the documentation provided. During the case discussion, the evaluator will follow a defined outline, validated and shared with students at least one month before the exam (Case Based Discussion).
Using these questions, demonstrated professional judgment is explored, paying particular attention to situations where uncertainty emerges or conflict in decision making arises.
The discussion with the committee (consisting of at least 3 speech-language pathologists/training guides) lasts about 15 minutes for each domain.
There are four levels (insufficient, need for further development, competent, and excellent) for the evaluation of the different aspects determined by the committee. The committee assigns the evaluation blindly; if there are differences in scores, they discuss together and decide in plenary on the score to be given.
Depending on the case, some items may not be assessable.
The final score will be converted into thirtieths.
- “Il core competence e core curriculum del logopedista” a cura di Castagna et al. Springer 2010
- “Il quadro dei Titoli dello Spazio Europeo dell’istruzione superiore” Prot. 171/10 Federazione Logopedisti Italiani
- "La tutorship nella formazione degli adulti” Lucia Zannini Guerini Scientifica 2005
- “Guida Pedagogica per il personale sanitario” J.J. Guilbert OMS Off set n.35 2001
- “Documento di indirizzo sulla valutazione dell’apprendimento delle competenze professionali acquisite in tirocinio dagli Studenti dei Corsi di Laurea delle Professioni Sanitarie” Saiani, Bielli, Brugnoli Med. Chir. 53, 2347-2354, 2011