The Experience of recently qualified speech and language therapists in inter-professional collaborative practice

Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) is a very small profession that treats people with communication and swallowing disabilities. SLT professionals work in diverse settings alongside a range of other professionals. There has, however, been very little research into the nature of this interprofessional collaboration or the preparation of SLT graduates for such collaboration. In this context, this research aims to examine SLTs’ experiences of interprofessional collaborative practice together with their attitudes towards Interprofessional Education (IPE) and its relevance to their existing Interprofessional Collaborative Practice (IPCP). This is an exploratory study that uses the qualitative methodological approach of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The participants were 21 SLTs who had graduated from the UK’s De Montfort University in the previous five years. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data, which were then analysed using Thematic Analysis (TA). Four major themes emerged from the interview data: 1) interprofessional team working, 2) interprofessional communication, 3) how it is feels to be an SLT and 4) IPE. Several subthemes also emerged from data: understanding of interprofessional team working, what makes teams work well, leadership and hierarchy, decision-making, barriers to interprofessional team working, communication types, communication skills, not being understood, what it is like to be an SLT, understanding of IPE, benefits of IPE, what participants learned from IPE, and IPE as preparation for practice. The findings lend valuable insights into IPCP in SLTs’ early careers. It clearly illustrates the complex working lives of SLTs moving in and out of different teams with various leadership arrangements. The personalities of a range of professionals and the complexity of their work environments determined the effects on the SLTs’ interprofessional relationships and IPCP. This resulted in a need for negotiation and for promotion of their role to other professionals. SLTs felt undervalued and little understood. SLTs also see IPE as important and as a preparation those for IPCP, although it does not necessarily reflect real world conditions. In this scenario, the study examines the implications of this research on pre-registration IPE in SLT and IPCP in the SLTs’ current clinical practice