Alright Prospective SLPs, let’s recap. So far in previous editions, we have discussed some benefits of the field of speech-language pathology, given you some resources to find more information on specific programs, and shown you some job postings in educational settings. How about we change it up today? For this third edition, we will be focusing on the medical side of the field.

Did you know that while over half of all SLPs work in the schools, more that 39% of us work in healthcare? Across residential and nonresidential facilities and hospitals, you can find us pretty much just about anywhere. Click here to read more about where we are employed.

That’s right. Almost 40% of us are employed in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), acute care centers, long-term acute care (LTAC) facilities, assisted living facilities, outpatient facilities like speech or hearing clinics, doctors’ offices, and home visit settings such as home health.

If you would like to read annual salary data for speech-language pathologists across medical settings, region, and years of experience, click here.

Resource of the Week 🧰

In healthcare settings, SLPs treat a variety of disorders caused by numerous health conditions or events, such as stroke, traumatic brain injury (TBI), progressive neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, other dementias, and Parkinson’s disease, intubation and its effect on swallowing, cancers and results to someone’s voice, swallowing, or speech after medical treatments, and a slew of other conditions that result in damage to the nervous system, resulting in a negative impact on communication.

As a medical SLP, there is significant importance to knowing anatomical structures, having knowledge of the cranial nerves and their impact or speech, language, hearing, and swallowing, and applying this information to patients in front of you in order to make meaningful impacts in their quality of life.

This review of the cranial nerves, structures of the brain, and muscles for respiration, phonation, and articulation is a summary of chapter one of the “Advanced Review” books often used by SLP graduate students preparing for the Praxis exam. Feel free to study this alongside your test preparation or just keep it handy while completing practicums in medical settings. If you want to make edits to this, just (please) make a copy and type away!

Today’s Posting 💵

This week’s posting is for East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, a 152 bed pediatric medical center in Knoxville, Tennessee, with various outpatient clinics and facilities throughout the eastern part of Tennessee. This company currently has three job openings for SLPs. Their position posted for Rehab West has an estimated pay range of $65,000-$97,000 yearly. Responsibilities include assessing pediatric patients and developing a plan of care, providing treatment and adapting approaches based on patient status, efficient completion of documentation, and maintaining effective communication with patients and their families.

Fun Fact 📌📔

The incidence of feeding and swallowing disorders among the pediatric population is believed to be increasing due to improved survival rates of complex and medically fragile conditions and improved outcomes of individuals with dysphagia. Results from a survey of children in 2022 found that over 1 million children aged 0-17 had difficulty eating or swallowing due to health conditions.

Major contributors to this number of children with difficulties included cerebral palsy, neuromuscular diseases, stroke, congenital heart disease, unilateral vocal fold paralysis, and various structural abnormalities including laryngeal cleft and laryngomalacia (softening of laryngeal tissues that can obstruct the airway), as well as craniofacial microsomia (when one or more structures of the head and face are smaller than normal).

SLPs in medical settings work with these pediatric patients, and often need to specialize or have additional certification in pediatric swallowing disorders, as there are significant anatomical differences in infants and children due to development and growth over time. These differences require that dysphagia in infants and small children be approached differently than with adults.

That’s a wrap for today! How did you like receiving our newsletter on Sunday instead of Thursday? What did you think about our missing Weekly Spotlight? Should we add it back in or put something else in its place? Let us know by replying to this email.

Thank you so much for reading! If you are finding this newsletter helpful, feel free to share it with your cohort members or friends that have an interest in the field!😄 Talk soon,

— Meryl