Med SLP Inside Look | What Does A Med SLP Do?

Explore the diverse roles and settings of medical speech-language pathologists with Theresa Richard, a specialist in swallowing disorders.

Key Takeaways

Med SLPs have a wide range of roles beyond traditional speech therapy, including involvement in surgeries and complex medical care.
Work settings greatly influence daily responsibilities, patient interaction, and career autonomy.
Interdisciplinary teamwork is essential for effective patient care in medical settings.
Continuous education and specialization, such as in dysphagia diagnostics, enhance career opportunities.
Flexibility and creativity in career planning are important for long-term fulfillment as a Med SLP.

What the video covers

Theresa Richard shares insights into the broad scope of medical speech-language pathology (Med SLP).
Med SLPs work in various settings including hospitals, outpatient clinics, skilled nursing facilities, home health, and private practice.
Nearly 40% of SLPs are employed in healthcare settings, with others in private practice and specialty clinics.
Med SLPs may assist in complex medical procedures such as awake craniotomies and brain mapping during surgery.
The role includes working with patients across the lifespan, from NICU to hospice care.
Theresa emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration with nurses, respiratory therapists, and neurosurgeons.
Career flexibility and autonomy vary by setting, with some roles offering more predictable schedules and others requiring rapid triage.
Theresa highlights the challenges new SLPs face and the need for continuous learning.
Counseling patients and families is a critical part of the Med SLP role, especially after life-altering events like strokes.
Theresa encourages creativity and self-advocacy in shaping a fulfilling Med SLP career.

Chapters

What settings do medical speech-language pathologists typically work in?

Medical SLPs work in a variety of settings including hospitals, outpatient clinics, skilled nursing facilities, private practice, home health, and specialty clinics such as voice clinics.

How do medical SLPs contribute during surgeries like brain mapping?

During awake craniotomies and brain mapping, medical SLPs test the patient's speech and language in real-time to help neurosurgeons identify critical brain areas to avoid during surgery.

What challenges do new medical SLPs often face?

New medical SLPs commonly feel unprepared due to the broad scope of the field and the need for continuous learning to manage diverse patient needs and complex medical conditions.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

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Med SLP inside look. What does a medical SLP do? Would you raise an eyebrow if someone told you a speech pathologist can help with brain surgery or that they should understand urinary tract infections? I know I didn't when I first started out.

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as an slp our field is so broad we can do way more than people realize let's dive a little deeper into what's within the scope of medical speech language pathology and what a day in the life of a med slp might look like

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As an SLP, our field is so broad. We can do way more than people realize. Let's dive a little deeper into what's within the scope of medical speech-language pathology and what a day in the life of a med SLP might look like.

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find ourselves working in hospitals outpatient settings rehab settings skilled nursing facilities private practice or a specialty clinic like a voice clinic home health in a variety of other settings it's a blessing and a curse really the good news is that your

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I'm Theresa Richard. I've been a medical speech pathologist for 15 years. I'm a board-certified specialist in swallowing and swallowing disorders. I'm the founder and CEO of the MedISLP Collective and Med-SLP Education. MedSLPs aren't limited to one medical setting or one treatment domain. We could

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according to asha almost 40 percent of slps are employed in health care settings including 16 in non-residential health care facilities 13 in hospitals and 10 percent in residential health care facilities nearly 20 percent of slps work in private practice which allows

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find ourselves working in hospitals, outpatient settings, rehab settings, skilled nursing facilities, private practice, or a specialty clinic like a voice clinic, home health, and a variety of other settings. It's a blessing and a curse, really. The good news is that your

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scheduling and you're able to have more autonomy in your treatment plan i for one worked for about a year for a few home health companies and i loved it i was at a point in my life where i

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options are almost endless, and it can keep your career growth really interesting. But this also means that we have a lot of learning to do, and it's common for SLPs to feel really unprepared right out of grad school.

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i loved having really sick patients even ones on vents and trachs but in their homes it's very humbling and challenging and i worked very closely with the nurses and respiratory therapists to help these patients medical slps also serve patients across

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According to ASHA, almost 40 percent of SLPs are employed in health care settings, including 16 in non-residential health care facilities, 13 in hospitals, and 10 percent in residential health care facilities. Nearly 20 percent of SLPs work in private practice, which allows

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your patient through their head and neck cancer treatment as they prepare for a life-altering surgery some of the more surprising places you could find a medical slp is in the operating room or the burn unit a neurosurgical team might team up with

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you the autonomy to see these patients on your own terms without the corporate overhead. Many SLPs that work in community-based settings might see patients through home health, outpatient, or private practices. These settings are usually much more predictable and flexible in terms of

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protected during surgery the slp would test the patient's speech and language throughout this procedure and notify the neurosurgeon when a disruption occurs it's pretty neat right now if you're wondering what a typical day looks like for a medical slp you

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scheduling, and you're able to have more autonomy in your treatment plan. I, for one, worked for about a year for a few home health companies, and I loved it. I was at a point in my life where I

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you're working in acute care where you may see the patients for only a few days or weeks then your days will more than likely be triaged by severity of the patient and how soon they need to be discharged to their next level of care

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needed a change and a new challenge, and I was also building up my mobile FEES business. I also loved my time working with these patients because there isn't a more functional setting than actually seeing the patients in their house.

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if you work in skilled nursing or a different long-term residential setting your day will still be very fast paced but you'll be able to spend two to three months or longer with these patients and really get to know their families and

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I loved having really sick patients, even ones on vents and trachs, but in their homes. It's very humbling and challenging, and I worked very closely with the nurses and respiratory therapists to help these patients. Medical SLPs also serve patients across

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it's also important to factor in when patients work best some work best first thing in the morning some prefer afternoon or evenings and sometimes it's just whenever the heck you can get them so a good day might be seeing six to

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the entire lifespan, from premature birth in the NICU to end-of-life hospice care. Counseling is a really important role in many of these cases, whether it's to help a patient and a loved one adjust to a new normal after a stroke or to support

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fast-paced team in the icu or do you want to be more independent and form longer term relationships with your patients in a skilled nursing facility it's also important to consider private practice where you'll be able to create your own terms to see patients

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your patient through their head and neck cancer treatment as they prepare for a life-altering surgery. Some of the more surprising places you could find a medical SLP is in the operating room or the burn unit. A neurosurgical team might team up with

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patient their family their interests and really see progress over the long term i had so much fulfillment in seeing a patient come in completely bedridden with a peg tube from a brain stem stroke and three months later leave the facility eating drinking and

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the SLP department during an awake craniotomy and brain mapping procedure, which is the coolest thing ever, where the neurosurgeon temporarily disrupts different parts of the brain to see what's impacted, like speech or language, to make sure those areas are

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studies for patients in the nursing homes and i owned a mobile fees company for seven years that saw thousands of patients over 100 different nursing facilities i've also done home health and prn at a small community hospital now once my personal life changed i

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protected during surgery. The SLP would test the patient's speech and language throughout this procedure and notify the neurosurgeon when a disruption occurs. It's pretty neat, right? Now, if you're wondering what a typical day looks like for a medical SLP, you

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to see patients and have career fulfillment in this field it just might depend on you getting a little creative and asking for exactly what you need i'll be posting other videos just like this one that you won't want to miss so

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will get hundreds of different answers since it all really depends on the setting, the acuity of the patients, and the job description of the SLP. Residential health care facilities may include hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, or group homes. In these settings, it may depend if

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i worked in a sniff a skilled nursing facility for six years before realizing my passion lied in dysphagia not just dysphagia but dysphagia diagnostics specifically and that's when i decided to start a mobile fees business so i became really

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you're working in acute care, where you may see the patients for only a few days or weeks. Then your days will more than likely be triaged by severity of the patient and how soon they need to be discharged to their next level of care.

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think of doctors we need both worlds right we need both family medicine doctors and pediatricians we also need the specialists such as gastroenterology or neurology there's no right or wrong way to specialize or not it's just up to

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You may see them for dysphagia diagnostics and a few follow-up visits or even a few sessions of therapy to establish a form of communication with an AAC device or communication board, or a few sessions of speech therapy before they're discharged.

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patient population if you want to work in an ent office you will most likely treat voice and dysphagia primarily with some motor speech disorders mixed in if you're in a skilled nursing facility you will work with all areas as well but

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If you work in skilled nursing or a different long-term residential setting, your day will still be very fast paced, but you'll be able to spend two to three months or longer with these patients and really get to know their families and

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population or you may see a very specific subset the beauty is that you can choose your own setting and patient population and how you feel most effective in helping patients it truly comes down to you deciding what you would like to specialize in do you

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carry out a really lengthy treatment plan. Your day will typically start with deciding who to see first and in what order, depending on other appointments that the patients may have or when they can be scheduled for swallow studies.

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cognitive communication do you want to help patients learn to swallow again some slps only complete therapy some only complete diagnostics some do a combination of both and others work as a consultative role or an administration others work alongside physicians and

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It's also important to factor in when patients work best. Some work best first thing in the morning, some prefer afternoon or evenings, and sometimes it's just whenever the heck you can get them. So a good day might be seeing six to

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link down below in the description but head over there to get your hands on those free goodies now and at the medislp collective we have slps that work in a myriad of different settings so if you're curious about

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eight patients, but it's certainly not uncommon to have to see north of 20 patients in a day. Is that ideal? Is that perfect? Absolutely not, but of course, it does happen. Do you want to work as part of a

Topics:Medical SLPSpeech-Language PathologySwallowing DisordersDysphagiaHealthcare SettingsSpeech TherapyAcute CareHome HealthNeurosurgeryTheresa Richard

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