Student Essay Competition

After the success of the 1st student ethics competition in 2022, Speech Pathology Australia’s Ethics Board are excited to announce a 2nd competition, to be held in 2024! 

 

The goal of the competition is to encourage students to consider ethical considerations within clinical practice, real life ethical decision making examples and explore tools you will use to navigate them whilst you are in training for your future career. 

 

The winning essay will be published in a forthcoming edition of the Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology in 2025.

The Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology (JCPSLP) is a major clinical publication of Speech Pathology Australia.

JCPSLP is published three times each year, in March, July, and November and receives submissions from esteemed national and international researchers and clinicians from across the Speech Pathology profession. Publication within this journal would be a worthy inclusion on your CV and an admirable discussion topic during future job interviews. 

 

Competition criteria

 

To be eligible to participate in this competition, you must be:

  • Enrolled in an undergraduate or post graduate speech pathology degree program in Australia 
  • Enrolled part-time or full-time during the 2024 academic year  
  • You do not need to be a member of Speech Pathology Australia to enter the competition  

Essay Question

 

Discuss the role and use of social media in speech pathology and outline the benefits and ethical challenges it brings to both the speech pathologist and the service user.

Provide 2 – 3 different scenarios where ethical decision making is needed to ensure the safety of speech pathology service users. 

Background Context

Speech Pathology Australia defines social media as the growing spectrum of online, internet based tools and applications that people use to communicate. The use of social media to promote health services, share health information and to connect health professionals has rapidly developed and increased in recent years. This has resulted in ethical considerations for how health professionals use social media whilst maintaining their professional responsibilities and a blurring between the professional and personal lives of speech and language pathologists.  

All members of Speech Pathology Australia make a commitment to uphold the professional values, principles and standards within the 2020 Code of Ethics. As part of this, Speech Pathology Australia’s Advertising Policy was created to provide clear guidelines to its members on the responsibilities and standards they have when advertising health services in order to ensure their advertising is ethical.  More recently, Speech Pathology Australia has created a Social Media Guide to provide further clarity and guidance on the professional and ethical considerations when using social media.

Essay Requirements

Word count

A maximum of 2500 words (including tables and a maximum of 30 references), excluding the title and author’s name.   Format and style

Submissions must be in a Word document (.doc/.docx).   All content including references must follow the American Psychological Association (APA-7th Edition) (2020) style. 

A maximum of five levels of heading (preferable 2-3 levels) should be used. 

Clear and concise writing is best. Use short sentences and plain English. 

It is recommended that all submissions follow the JCPSLP publishing guidelines, which can be found here. 

For further style and structure guidance, please read past editions of JCPSLP Ethical Conversation columns and a previous winning student essay published in the Special Ethics Edition July 2023.

Originality 

Material submitted must be your original work. Essays may be screened for AI use and will not be accepted if they are found not to be original work.  All quotations and material drawn from other sources must be appropriately cited. If copyright clearance is required to use material included in your article, please supply evidence that this has been obtained. Papers already published or being considered for other publications cannot be accepted.

Other considerations

Essays from individual authors only will be accepted. Ensure that your essay adheres to confidentiality and does not include any names or identifiable information.   Ensure that you demonstrate familiarity with SPA’s Code of Ethics (2020) and demonstrate how it applies to your content and discussion. 

Ensure that you consider cultural responsiveness in your paper, acknowledge cultural and linguistic diversity in the communities we serve and demonstrate respect for people of other cultures and races. 

When appropriate you may also want to consider other key SPA documents such as the Professional Standards (2020), Reconciliation Action Plan (2021 - 2023), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Culturally Responsive Capability Framework (2023), Speech Pathology 2030, and The Speech Pathology Scope of Practice in Australia (2022). 

Evaluation Criteria

Essays will be evaluated using the following criteria:  

  • Reference to the SPA Code of Ethics and other relevant SPA documents  

  • Clear, accurate and well-reasoned discussion, supported by appropriately chosen and cited evidence   

  • Scope of discussion  

  • Originality of thought   

  • Clear strategies to address the discussion points proactively in your own practice  

  • Concise writing, free of spelling mistakes, grammatical and punctuation errors and typographic mistakes.  

  • Alignment with APA-7 style guidelines  

Submission Instructions

 

Please submit your essay via email with the heading ‘Student Essay Competition Submission’ to Kelly Williams, Ethics Advisor on [email protected] by 23rd August 2024. 

Questions: 

Please contact Kelly Williams, Ethics Advisor at National Office on 1300 368 835 (Mondays and Wednesdays) or email [email protected] with any questions about the competition.  

 

We look forward to receiving your entry!