Ethical awareness in allied health students on clinical placement: Case examples and strategies for student support

This paper takes an interprofessional view of the types of scenarios allied health students, including speech pathology students, may encounter on placement. The paper highlights that students are ethically aware and in some cases may experience ethical distress as a result of what they experience on placement. Sometimes the cause of this distress is the behaviour of the clinical educator, who cannot therefore be a support to the student in managing their ethical concerns. We suggest a structured approach to pre-placement preparation, support during placement, and post-placement for students, which provides a range of resource personnel and educational strategies to assist them to develop their ethical reasoning and manage ethical concerns.