Title 5
Businesses and Professions

Chapter 48.2
Professional Licensing and Regulation of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists

§ 5-48.2-9. Supervision and responsibility.

(a)(1) A supervising professional must be a speech-language pathologist or audiologist who is licensed under the act and this chapter; has attained and maintained their certificate of clinical competency and who has been actively working in the field for twenty-four (24) months after completion of the postgraduate professional experience; and must be responsible for the acts and performances, patient screening, and specific tasks assigned by the licensee to the speech-language pathology assistant (SLPA)/audiometric aide or audiology assistant.

(2) A licensee who supervises support personnel must:

(i) Utilize the services of only those who meet the minimum requirements enumerated under this chapter;

(ii) Ensure that the support personnel are assigned only those duties and responsibilities for which the person has been specifically trained and which the assistant is qualified to perform;

(iii) Ensure that persons who will be receiving services from support personnel, or the person’s legal representative, are informed that services are being rendered by support personnel;

(iv) Provide supervision of the support personnel (other than newborn hearing screeners and school hearing screeners); and

(v) Complete a minimum of two (2) hours of professional development in clinical instruction/supervision.

(b) A speech-language pathologist supervisor may only supervise one full-time equivalent speech-language pathology assistant (SLPA) support personnel and an audiologist supervisor may only supervise three (3) full-time equivalent audiometric aides or audiology assistants unless otherwise approved by the board.

(c) Observations of support audiometric aides must be completed and documented as to date, amount of time, and accuracy and efficacy of service according to the following: Direct on-site observations of the first ten (10) hours of direct client contact; and five percent (5%) of all clinical sessions after the first ten (10) hours for every forty (40) consecutive hours worked; and indirect supervision (e.g., home, interactive television, audio/video review, or patient record review) of five percent (5%) of each forty (40) consecutive hours worked.