Mentorship Program

We understand your concerns about time commitments. Mentorship shouldn't take up a huge amount of time. It's more of a friendly check-in to make sure everything's going well and to offer support to new clinicians. This kind of informal mentorship often happens naturally between experienced and new clinicians. While there is some time involved, it's not as intensive as supervising a student.

Mentorship typically includes a weekly chat where the mentee can talk things over with an experienced SLP/Audiologist, using a Clinical Reasoning Tool as a guide.

It would also involve 2 session observations or chart reviews per week, depending on the situation, along with a midpoint and endpoint evaluation to ensure the mentee is meeting competencies.

Other than that, the mentee can carry on with their regular caseload without direct oversight.

No, passing the CETP exam does not automatically end your mentorship. The NBASLPA Mentorship Program has specific duration requirements that must be met, regardless of when you pass the CETP exam. 

• Minimum Duration: The mentorship program must cover a minimum of 3 months of full-time employment, with at least 450 hours of patient/client care. 

• Maximum Duration: The program can extend up to 24 months for provisional registrants who are working part-time or who are in the process of meeting the CETP requirement. 

If you pass the CETP exam before completing the 3-month period, you are still required to remain in the mentorship program until the minimum 3 months and 450 hours of patient/client care are fulfilled. 

Yes, you can apply to NBASLPA, obtain your provisional registration, and begin your mentorship period before writing the CETP Exam.

As a mentored Provisional registrant, you are legally entitled to work as a speech-language pathologist or audiologist under the NBASLPA Mentorship Program and have 3 consecutive attempts to pass the Canadian Entry-to-Practice (CETP) exam. If you fail to achieve a passing grade within the 3 consecutive attempts, your licence to practice speech-language pathology or audiology in New Brunswick will be revoked.

The start date for your mentorship is your first day of employment as a SLP or audiologist, or a date shortly thereafter.  You have 14 days from your employment start date to submit your mentorship contract to NBASLPA.

It is very important to note that you can only begin working as an SLP or audiologist after you have your certificate of registration to practice.  Therefore, the start date of your mentorship must be a date that occurs after the date you were granted provisional registration.

The 450 client/patient care hours (equivalent to approximately 3 months of full-time employment) required for your mentorship include only Direct Client/Patient Care.

Direct Client/Patient Care refers to professional activities on behalf of the client/patient including:

• Assessment of the hearing, communication, or swallowing abilities and needs of the client/patient.
• Recommending, developing, or implementing a treatment and/or management program based on the client's/patient’s abilities and needs.
• Counseling and consulting with the families /caregivers and/or other parties or individuals directly associated with the client/patient.
• Other client/patient management activities such as discharge, referrals, follow-up, report writing, case conferences.
• Conducting research in speech-language pathology or audiology that involves the assessment or management of patients with communication disorders.

Yes, the mentee and mentor do not have to be in the same physical location. The interaction required between mentor and mentee for effective mentoring can occur remotely through virtual means (telephone, video, e-mail etc.).

Mentors can be external to an employing organization, assuming the employer will allow this kind of arrangement. In all cases, involvement of the employer to facilitate a remote mentorship arrangement is important.

For remote or virtual mentorship, determine how you will meet the following requirements with your mentor and discuss what your plan is with your employer:

• The mentorship process includes a client/patient record review at the midterm and final evaluation. You will need to discuss how this can be facilitated remotely and in a secure manner with your mentor.  Your employer must be informed that this is required.
• Your mentor needs to directly observe your practice. Mentors can observe in real-time over a secure video platform as you see a client/patient, or they can review recordings of a client/patient session. Client/patient informed consent for the mentor to observe is always required. Your employer must be informed that direct observation of your practice from the mentor is required.
• You will need to discuss how the overall mentorship process will occur remotely in terms of connecting with your mentor on a regular basis for guidance, feedback, clinical reasoning tool (CRT) discussions, general discussion of your practice.

You can scan and e-mail your mentorship agreement form to deputy@nbaslpa.ca . It is preferable that each document be sent as one single PDF. You may also fax documents to 866-455-9642 or mail them directly to NBASLPA.  Our address can be found on our website at the bottom of each page.  We do not require an original copy, however, please keep copies for your own records.

The midterm and final mentorship reports are submitted by the designated mentor via e-mail, fax or email.

If you change jobs, update your employment information in the registrant portal.  NBASLPA permits your designated mentor to continue mentoring you in a new employment setting.  However, this must be agreeable to both you and your mentor, as well as your new employer. If this is not feasible, you will need to find a new mentor within 14 days and submit a new mentorship contract.