Every year, students at various points in their academic careers disperse into clinics or hospitals ready to embark on their fieldwork as guided by expert preceptors — professionals in the industry that instruct students with hands-on training. The experience helps students inch closer to graduation and their professional certification.
And every year, preceptors within Marquette’s vast network ask the College of Health Sciences to keep sending them students. But why? While it’s expected that preceptors in sought-after clinical locations are in high demand, how is it that Marquette students themselves are in especially high demand for the value they bring to these clinical locations?
“The fact that Marquette students can come in already familiar with the anatomy and create activities and therapies for patients makes it a lot easier for us to jointly treat the patient.”
Sabrina Murino, occupational therapist at the Illinois Bone and Joint Institute
Prepared on Day 1
The biggest reason voiced by three such preceptors — one each in the speech pathology and audiology, occupational therapy and physical therapy fields — is students’ preparation.
Sabrina Murino, an occupational therapist and certified hand therapist, says she was surprised at how comfortable Marquette OT students have been in the field, even as they are called beyond typical occupational therapy settings.
“This is a very specialized setting for an occupational therapist that usually requires more continuing education beyond graduation to grasp,” says Murino, who works at the Illinois Bone and Joint Institute. “The fact that Marquette students can come in already familiar with the anatomy and create activities and therapies for patients makes it a lot easier for us to jointly treat the patient.”
The experience in areas of expertise doesn’t stop there though; Marquette’s speech pathology and audiology students earn admiration from preceptors for being especially adept at treating patients with swallowing disorders.
“One of the areas that differs among universities is how much experience students have with swallowing disorders and Marquette students have strong skills treating those disorders,” says Megan Ballantine, a speech pathologist at the James A. Lovell Federal Health Center.
It’s crucial for speech pathology and audiology students who conduct their fieldwork at the health center, a Veterans Administration facility, to have experience with swallowing disorders because the adult population they’ll serve often suffers issues with swallowing as a result of stroke or neurological disease.
“[Marquette’s] students go through the Modified Barium Swallow Impairment Profile training and receive their certification, which strengthens their abilities with swallowing disorders and lets them hit the ground running when they get here,” Ballantine says.
Across its various majors, the College of Health Sciences eases its students into their clinical experience throughout their academic career with multiple internships and fieldwork assignments before they graduate — unlike other universities in the region that culminate their programs with a yearlong internship.
For Brian Butler, H Sci ’03, PT ’06, a physical therapist and preceptor at Children’s Wisconsin, the preparation makes his duty directing students’ transition from the classroom to the exam room much easier.
“A lot of other universities including the UW-System have their students go through an internship in their last year of the program so there’s a good chance they’re not as ready to dive in once they arrive,” Butler says. “For Marquette students, they already have a lot of good experience through the internships they’ve done in between semesters, so the transition when they come to us is much smoother.”
“The students I see from Marquette want to get as much experience as possible because they know it will benefit them in the long run, even if it makes their day busier and harder now.”
Megan Ballantine, speech pathologist at the James A. Lovell Federal Health Center
Walking the walk, but talking the talk too
Communication between a health care provider and a patient is critical and not something college students can always do effectively immediately. Recognizing a person’s background, their perspective on how they might see the world, and knowing when to listen can make the difference in determining whether a patient walks away satisfied with their exam, and ultimately, how well they progress with treatment.
“The Marquette students I’ve had have been able to work well with each patient they’ve treated regardless of the patient’s background which is huge in the industry because you don’t get to choose who you work with,” Murino says. “Every patient comes to you expecting the same thing, and that is to get better and feel comfortable while doing that.”
Murino recalled a story about her latest OT student who encountered a patient from a vastly different background than their own; the student worked one-on-one with the patient from start to finish to achieve the patient’s desired outcome.
“We see patients across the age spectrum, including high school students to senior citizens,” Murino says. “The students we’ve had from Marquette’s OT program have consistently been able to work with patients and build a positive rapport no matter their background.”
Ballantine believes that’s in part due to Marquette students having such a healthy relationship with the faculty and staff in the College of Health Sciences.
“There seems to be an absence of a hierarchy at Marquette, meaning the students can talk with the faculty quite easily,” Ballantine says. “In turn, that allows students to feel comfortable talking with us as preceptors but also with other staff members within our clinic and patients.”
But Marquette students aren’t just proficient at communicating with adult patients, they also have a vast amount of experience working with children in Marquette’s pediatric labs.
That led to one of Butler’s most memorable moments as a preceptor as he observed a Marquette student interacting with an excited child who was more interested in playing than participating in their therapy session.
“The student went and laid down right next to the patient and they both laughed before they continued the session. It was a great moment,” Butler says. “I think the student really grasped that sometimes you must meet patients at their level to get through to them and have fun with the session.”
Having fun during the sessions comes easy for Marquette students when they are earnestly looking to get the most out of their fieldwork.
“I’ve had so many students who were constantly looking for new opportunities in their downtime or who’d tell me about a specific therapy or technique they wanted try,” Ballantine says. “The students I see from Marquette want to get as much experience as possible because they know it will benefit them in the long run, even if it makes their day busier and harder now.”
For the last decade Children’s Wisconsin has been taking Marquette students for fieldwork, and Butler says he better understands how fieldwork can further a student’s understanding of the field. He interviews students from across Wisconsin, but Marquette students consistently come in better prepared than their peers.
“Marquette students have always had a strong desire to understand how to treat more effectively and to learn,” Butler says. “It is the case that Marquette students are always prepared and immediately ready to come into the job setting and work alongside us.”
