Synthesis Sunday: No Reading This Week, But Lots of Thinking!!

Yep, you guessed it, I didn't get any reading done this week for many different reasons, but I did do lots of thinking on the topic of my books - competency-based clinical training in the world of music therapy. I was privileged to present on this topic yesterday at the Student, Intern, Supervisor Conference (SISC) hosted by the Music Therapy Association of Ontario, and this has renewed my interest in this topic as a structure and system for music therapy interns and internship supervisors. So, I am on a quest to talk to as many music therapists about this topic as possible in the next year.

Here are the things that I like about Competency-Based Clinical Training:

1. All required skills are identified BEFORE an intern starts their internship. Interns get a copy of these skills when they enter the internship program so they know what is expected in order to graduate.
2. All skills are considered pass/fail. If an intern is completely unable to do the skills, then it is time for more teaching, modelling, and purposeful instruction until all members of the Clinical Training Team agree that there is nothing else that can be done. This focuses us on teaching discrete skills rather than just amorphous feelings of "this person won't be a good therapist." (Those conversations happen, folks.)
3. Every skill is linked to the competency documents that we have available to us as music therapists. I have not done much linking my assignments, expectations, and requirements to the CBMT Board Certification Domains, but I will be working on that this upcoming year as well.

I can tell you that my personal experience with this system is solid. Since my evaluation and clinical training became formatted around the competencies, I have had zero difficulties with evaluating my interns. My interns know what they are expected to do. We discuss differences but also discuss the settings that we have for the evaluation. Often, I evaluate my interns higher than they do, mainly because I know many different interns and have lots of people to compare them to  - they can only compare themselves to the competency list because they do not know what other interns do...

I have a competency-based evaluation that I am willing to share with any and everyone who want it! If you are interested in knowing more about all of this, then do not hesitate to contact me! I would love to talk to you about how to make your program more objective, more concrete, and more efficient for you and your interns!