Sarah Day, AVID volunteer and Speech Pathology Clinical Educator with University of Medicine Pham Ngoc Thach (HCMC), met with speech therapy graduates across Vietnam in their workplaces to provide mentoring support. Each speech therapist developed their own professional development plan, and have been sharing their dreams and aspirations with Sarah.
The graduates are employed across a variety of workplaces and so their goals for future development are varied and usually specific to their interest areas and workplace needs. However, many speech therapists working within paediatric service delivery are keen to increase their understanding of and develop their skills in the area of speech sound disorders. In September Ms Thuan, a graduate of the first TFA-UPNT speech therapy course, provided a one-day workshop to newer graduates to support this. They are also keen for more direct supervision and mentoring within their workplaces to improve their clinical skills across all areas of clinical management.
Speech therapists working within adult service delivery have requested further support from TFA to organise an advanced dysphagia management workshop in HCMC, which TFA will work towards organising in the coming months.
Many speech therapists have also discussed their intent to either set up private clinics or improve their current clinics’ practice and have requested support around developing service models to meet the demands of the communities they work in, while also considering the financial implications of these goals.
A new mentoring program Beyond Borders Skype Mentoring Program is to be launched by TFA in the near future to more specifically support the needs of the Vietnamese speech therapists!