Me the SLP

Hello dear readers and friends, I cannot believe another week has gone by. This month just seems to be flying by, soon we will have official spring and I will be celebrating my husband’s birthday in just 2 weeks. Michigan has been experiencing beautiful weather the last few days and I know almost everyone but those who ski and snowboard are loving it. My dogs even got out to play on their leads today, cannot wait until we get them a fence to extend their play area. Even with the warm weather I have had to focus my attention on the indoors of my house as we are redoing our family room. It has been repainted and today our friend started to place new flooring down. It will be beautiful when it is completed.

As I started my morning, before a little bit of work, I was wondering what I would write about this week in my blog. When I need good ideas I go to one of my best friends who is an amazing writer for a post idea. Being the amazing person she is she recommended I write about the day in the life of an SLP or speech-language pathologist. Many call us speech therapists but we do much more than speech therapy.

Well as any SLP can tell you no two days are the same and every setting is a little different. I currently work for in two skilled nursing facilities (SNF) daily with varying hours. I also have a PRN job within a SNF with the main population short-term rehab patients, but with more and more beds for long-term residents. One thing I love about my regular job is that I do not have a scheduled start time, which is a blessing during the winter when traffic jams increase. Sadly, I also am not guaranteed that I will work full-time.

For those of you who do not know what a SLP does within a SNF, I will give you some idea. We do a lot of things. Most often our many therapy consists of helping individuals with swallowing disorders or dysphagia. We do this by recommending diet changes, identifying safe swallow compensatory strategies, helping patients do exercises within their mouths or throats, and educating staff members. Another large population of patients we see are for cognition. This may mean they have had a stroke, brain injury, dementia, or general aging changes. We target memory, orientation (where and when), attention, word-finding, and many other areas. Our smaller populations of patients include those for trouble talking, voice problems, and many other areas that many people do not think about.

You may meet some SLP who have specializations in certifications. Personally I have training in LSVT LOUD, a program to help individuals with Parkinson Disease with their volume and intelligibility. I hope to one day be trained in one or more forms of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES), such as VitalStim or E-stim. I also am interested in McNeill Dysphagia Therapy Program (MDTP).

Most mornings I start at the building furthest from my home arriving between 8:40am and 9:00am.  After seeing the patients on my caseload at that building I drive back towards where I live and stop at my second building. Lately, with a smaller caseload and reduced number of new patients to evaluate or screen I may work at my PRN position for a few hours doing evaluations, screens, or treatment sessions. My schedule is forever changing and I am so glad at my regular job I do not have a set schedule. There are days I show up and residents are not available due to a shower, sleeping, or a meal. Sometimes I find out too late that the resident has an appointment they must be at and have left the building before I have even arrived.

Feel free to leave any comments or questions in the comment section below about anything you want me to talk about or if you have questions from this post. I look forward to reading your comments.