I have been providing Clinical Fellowship Mentoring for more than 20 years now.  I have learned a lot along the way from each experience. I would like to take a moment to share with you some of the methods I utilize which I feel assist in making the process run smoothly.  Your Mentor may also have suggestions so I encourage you to inquire about those as well. We all benefit when we share our experiences with each other!

While you and your Mentor will meet multiple times during your experience, you will meet three times during your clinical fellowship specifically to review and score the Clinical Fellowship Skills Inventory (CFSI).  Your Mentor will be assessing your abilities across assessment skills, treatment skills, professional practice skills, and interpersonal skills. You will receive a rating between one and three from your Mentor in these areas.  According to ASHA, one very important factor which influences the accuracy of these ratings is the opportunity the Mentor has to observe the areas she is rating for you. Frequent interaction and observation will increase the likelihood that your Mentor can give the most accurate and critical feedback. 

Here are a few recommendations I have for you to consider as you begin.

Early in your experience, prior to your first segment feedback meeting, you and your Mentor should discuss the rating form and each of the areas that will be assessed.  Think about any areas you would like explained in greater detail. Ask your Mentor how she will address any situations that may arise during the experience such as opportunities to observe all items listed on the form.

Discuss with your Mentor the option of having both of you completing the rating form prior to each meeting at which you will be going over the rating form.  Your mentor will rate you on one copy and you should have a secondary form to allow you to rate yourself. I like to have my clinical fellows do this. I find that many times you are more critical of yourself than your Mentor is.  If there are rating discrepancies in any area between what you have rated yourself and what your Mentor rated you, this is an opportunity for the two of you to have a discussion about this area. You may even develop a new goal to incorporate moving forward, based on this conversation.  As a Mentor, I really rely on my clinical fellow to provide any additional information that I may not know.  

Tracking your segments and CF experience hours will be important! I encourage you to stay on top of this task as you progress through your experience and not leave this until the end.   You will want to make sure you have properly calculated your hours/weeks and discussed this with your Mentor. You do not want to arrive at the end of the school year and find that you have miscalculated.  Accurate calculations are critical so that we can properly address the required weeks and hours needed. For example, I may not be privy to when she was out sick or when the district had snow days which may influence the segment dates as well as the overall dates of the CF timeline.  Develop an effective tracking system early in the experience and revisit it throughout the experience.  

I encourage both you and your Mentor each to keep both an online email folder containing all correspondence and a physical folder for all things pertaining to your clinical fellowship.  This will allow both of you to review any communication as well as documents gathered during the experience. In my physical folder, I keep CF rating forms, the list of the skills inventory, the school district calendar, record-keeping forms, and any additional pertinent information.