How To Become A Student Clinician: What It Is and Career Path

What is a student clinician and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Lori Nelson SLP.D

A student clinician usually specializes in one or two areas of clinical service rather than all the areas. He/she has gained immense knowledge and skills to enable them confidently carry out their duties in their areas of specialization.

A student clinician must exhibit basic clinical skills, enthusiasm, proactivity, confidence, attention to detail, and eagerness to learn to be successful in his/her /her role.

General duties of a student clinician include coordinating therapy lessons, documenting patients' progress, accurate record-keeping, and any other duties assigned by the clinician. Other duties vary depending on their area of specialization. A student clinician has a relatively flexible work schedule because he/she can be called in for an emergency at any time.

What general advice would you give to a student clinician?

Lori Nelson SLP.D

Associate Professor, Program Director, Northern Michigan University

Be open to all new opportunities for learning and growth because there is still so much to know after you've earned the degree. Utilize information learned in school but also enjoy sharing your knowledge with co-workers and learning from them. Rejoice in the paycheck! Give yourself and your family the gift of financial literacy by learning how to effectively handle your new budget and to make wise decisions about benefits (retirement plans, disability insurance, etc). Pat yourself on the back for all you've
achieved and take pleasure in using that information to build an interesting career and a productive life.

ScoreStudent ClinicianUS Average

Salary

4.6

Avg. Salary $59,506

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.5

Growth rate 21%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.36%

Asian 4.52%

Black or African American 4.91%

Hispanic or Latino 9.63%

Unknown 3.78%

White 76.81%

Gender

female 83.53%

male 16.47%

Age - 38

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38

Stress level

5.5

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

8.1

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a student clinician

Explore student clinician education requirements

Most common student clinician degrees

Bachelor's

75.5 %

Master's

14.7 %

Doctorate

5.4 %

Start to develop specific student clinician skills

Skills	Percentages
Language Disorders	18.63%
Patients	14.79%
Autism	9.71%
Traumatic Brain Injury	4.69%
Group Therapy Sessions	3.57%

Complete relevant student clinician training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New student clinicians learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a student clinician based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real student clinician resumes.

Research student clinician duties and responsibilities

Provide group base intervention for elementary age students who use AAC, with and without communication disorders
Deliver speech therapy in individual and group settings; focuse on improving overall functional communication in patients with non-fluent aphasia.
Evaluate patients in the acute care setting for communication disorders, develop and implement therapy for acute care and rehabilitation patients.
Provide speech and language intervention for a varying population with stuttering, receptive-expressive language delay, aphasia, and articulation deficits.

Prepare your student clinician resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your student clinician resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a student clinician resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable student clinician resume templates

Build a professional student clinician resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your student clinician resume.