laura loftus

Practice Education Co-ordinator
Tel:  353-91-5293
Email:  laura.loftus nuigalway.ie

Personal Profile

In February 2007, Laura Loftus joined the Speech and Language therapy team at NUI Galway as the Practice Education Coordinator.  Previous to this position she held a number of positions with the HSE from 1998-2007. She was a senior Speech and Language Therapist from 2001. Her clinical experience saw her work with a large variety of clients in community care, learning disability, autism and adults in acute settings. Laura’s work experience prior to joining the university also includes the pilot post of regional placement facilitator during 2006-2007. Laura is currently a member if the Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists (IASLT).

Academic Qualifications

She obtained a B.Sc. in Clinical Speech and Language Therapy from Trinity College Dublin in 1998.  She obtained a Higher.Diploma in Clinical Teaching in 2006 and a Masters of Health Science in Clinical Teaching in 2009 from NUI Galway.

Clinical Teaching

Laura is responsible for preparing the undergraduate students for their placements. She does this by running workshops, tutorials and meets all students for a one to one session prior to their placements. She also teaches the students in the onsite clinic one day a week in semester 1 in collaboration with her colleagues in the HSE. She also contributes to the departmental teaching. Laura is the year coordinator for Year 2 and is the module leader for Professional Studies 2 and Practice Education 2, 3 and 4. Laura also has responsibility for organizing all clinical exams.

Placements

One of the core responsibilities in the post of Practice Education Coordinator is the organization of the placements in Year 2, 3 and 4 of the course. These placements are as follows:

• Year 2 Semester 1: onsite clinic group therapy sessions
• Year 2 Semester 2: one day weekly community care placement
• Year 3 Semester 1: one day weekly specialized clinic placements (e.g. Fluency, Voice, Early Intervention)
• Year 3 Semester 2: Five week block placement
• Year 4 Semester 1: Onsite clinic group therapy/mentoring sessions
• Year 4 Semester 2: Eight week block placement

Laura works in the onsite clinic one day a week in semester 1 with the second and fourth year students. This clinic provides the second year students with an opportunity to learn basic core competencies. It also facilitates fourth year students to consolidate their learning to date and provides them with their first opportunity to mentor students.

Along with her colleague Margaret Rodden (Practice Tutor for the HSE) they do phone reviews to all educators working with second year students and offer visits to all educators who take third and fourth year students. Laura also visits educators and students when difficulties arise on placement. She also works closely with educators when students are failing clinical placements.

Laura is responsible for debriefing students regarding their learning experience on their return to university. This feedback informs future training and preparation for placement.

Part of her brief is also to continuously develop new sites and provide training as requested by managers and educators.

Educator Workshops

Laura along with her colleagues in Occupational Therapy and Podiatry run workshops to prepare educators for their role in facilitating student placements. These take place twice a year. One is run in Galway and the other is offered in a regional centre. The content of these workshops has been adapted from workshops provided by Ms. Ann Parker and is also based on the feedback received from educators who have attended previous training days. On average 25 delegates attend each of these training days.

University/HSE Liaison

Laura is currently a member of a subcommittee for the National Implementation Group (NIG) which is working on a project looking at the role of the Practice Education posts.

Laura is also on a subcommittee for the Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists (IASLT) which is involved in organizing the conference in November 2011.

Research Interests

Laura has an interest in all areas to do with student education and learning. Her particular interest is in the area of feedback given by peers and educators. Her Masters Thesis looked at the discourse used in peer and educator feedback. She has presented her thesis results at two conferences in 2010

• INMED conference (February 2010)
• Physiotherapy Educator Training day (April 2010)

Oral Presentations

Loftus, L. (2011). A study of feedback practices and beliefs used by peers and educators at the Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists Biennial Conference, Dublin, November 2011. 

Loftus, L. (2011). A study of feedback practices and beliefs used by peers and educators at the INMED Conference, February 2010. 

Lyons, R., McMenamin, R., Carroll, C., Antonijevic-Elliott, S., O'Malley, M.P. & Loftus, L. NUI Galway (2009). Building research capacity in speech and language therapy: sharing the learning, at the Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapy Conference, Galway, October 2009.

Lyons, R., Parker, A., Loftus, L. & Henn, A. (2009). Building placement capacity: increasing the quantity and quality of clinical placements, at the Irish Association of Speech & Language Therapy Conference, Galway, October 2009.

Poster Presentations

O'Shaughnessy, C., Lyons, R., McMenamin, R., O'Malley, M.P., Antonijevic-Elliott, S., Logue-Kennedy, M. & Loftus, L. (2008). "Re-designing a curriculum to achieve integration and reflect the values of student and client centeredness: the NUI Galway Speech and Language Therapy Team's experience", at the National Academy for Integration of Research and Teaching and Learning (NAIRTL), Second Annual Conference in Waterford Institute of Technology, November 2008.

Reports

Flattery, V., Loftus, L., McMahon, S., Keown, A.M. , Reed, J. & Walsh, E. (2011). Report on the Review of the Practice Education System.  Health Service Executive. 

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