Goal-Setting for SLP Clinical Fellows

Once you get your Master’s degree in speech-language pathology, your clinical fellowship is the initial 9 months that you begin working, where you have an SLP supervisor who helps you get your footing in your very first job.

In terms of title, you are an SLP Clinical Fellow and you sign your name with a “CF-SLP” after you write your name and either “M.S.” or “M.A.” depending on the type of degree you earned.

Example: First Last, M.S., CF-SLP

You are a Clinical Fellow until you attain 1,260 hours of supervised job experience over a minimum of 36 weeks. After that, you can apply to get your Certificate of Clinical Competence (your CCCs) through ASHA. After that, your signature line changes to, for example, First Last, M.S., CCC-SLP.

Where can you complete an SLP Clinical Fellowship?

Clinical fellowships can be completed anywhere an SLP typically works, as long as an SLP supervisor with their CCCs is available and eligible to supervise you throughout the experience.

Some universities and medical centers have designated clinical fellowships that are often funded by grants and do not guarantee employment after completion of the fellowship because they have 1 clinical fellow each year who goes through a specific training program. These experiences often have a research and leadership focus, with additional responsibilities outside of directly working with clients/patients. Fun fact: I did one of these designated clinical fellowships, myself!

To learn more about SLP Clinical Fellowships, visit ASHA.

Remember that it is important to set both personal and professional goals as you begin your career.

Areas often considered when setting personal goals involve exercise, nutrition, self-care routines, and other activities that will help you maintain a healthy work-life balance. It may also be important to you to set goals that help you grow as a person or in your faith/spirituality/intellectually, such as reading a book each month, learning a new language or hobby, or consistently attending specific events.

When setting personal goals for your clinical fellowship, it’s important to think about both the short-term and the long-term. Personal short-term goals often end up supporting our long-term goals of health and wellbeing because they tend to fall in the realm of habits and routines.

For example, your morning routine might include exercising and making a smoothie, while your evening routine might include washing your face and using a nighttime moisturizer and reading for 30 minutes before bed.

These routines become habits that ultimately support your long-term goals.

Starting out with a new routine often takes setting short-term goals, though. For example, reading may not be in your routine yet, so you would set a goal to read for 30 minutes before bed 3 nights per week.

When setting professional goals, I like to start with the broader picture by identifying long-term goals, and then hone in on the shorter-term goals needed to get us there.

You might be thinking, “but I don’t have long-term goals - I don’t know what area I want to practice in!” …and that’s totally okay!

Instead, consider what you envision in terms of work-life balance as mentioned before.

What does a typical week look like for you in 10 years? Are you working in one location on a consistent day-to-day schedule, or are you switching locations and/or schedules depending on the day or assignment? Do you travel a lot for work (whether locally or further for travel assignments), or do you stay close to home - or even at home (e.g., teletherapy) - each day? How many hours do you work per week? Per day? Are you highly career-focused, or do you work solely to support your family and/or lifestyle?

It’s okay if there are a lot of in-betweens or if you don’t yet know the answers to these questions, but I want you to think about all aspects of your future before setting professional goals. Always keep yourself at your center, and your goals will start to become clear!

For long-term professional goals, think about the type(s) of setting you wish to work in. Long-term goals can also be focused on your areas of interest in the field. You may set goals related to research, leadership, and other areas of professional development (e.g., moving up to become a team lead, manager, etc.) depending on your specific interests and settings you wish to work in, as well.

Short-term goals should be achievable within the time frame of your clinical fellowship and should be focused on developing the clinical skills needed to reach your long-term goals. Consider what you want to achieve in your long-term goals, and use short-term goals as the building blocks to get there.