Trustpoint Rehabilitation Hospital: A Case Study

The opportunity to observe the work overview of a Speech Pathologist, has tremendously solidified my interest in this field. At the Diana Rogovin Speech Center at Brooklyn College, I observed clients of various ages with different speech language disorders including articulation, language, voice, fluency and accent modification. Observing clinicians at the speech center gave me the opportunity to learn how important client-clinician interaction is for the session and how essential it is to build a good relationship with the client. Although I learned the

Keaunna Knox has been a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) since 2007, and has worked ever since 2000 with children with special needs who had speech and language disorders. She began as an “Instructional/Speech Aide” at Pasadena Unified School District working with children with moderate and severe intellectual disabilities. All the students she worked with had speech and language disorders, and, since the Districts therapy was overloaded Keaunna implemented the communication goals she wrote. Based on that experience and many others, Keaunna decided to enroll at Cal State Los Angeles to pursue her professional career in teaching. She received her Master’s in Mild-Moderate Disabilities in Special Education from Cal State Los Angeles and a second

This occurs due to diminished mental capacity, structural abnormalities such as unrepaired cleft palates, or lack of commitment on the part of the patient. An additional challenge sometimes faced by a school based SLP is dealing with difficult parents and rigid and sometimes unrealistic district expectations. However, despite the challenges faced by speech pathologists, the field of study continues to grow with an expectation of a 21% increase by 2024 (“Speech-Language Pathologists”). While jobs as an SLP are readily available nationwide in a variety of different settings, the key areas of growth in the field are in the states of Illinois, North Carolina, Texas, New York, and Ohio (“Best”). The growth of the field is due largely in part to people’s increased awareness of the benefits of treatment by a speech pathologist. SLPs provide treatments which allow individuals to function better in daily life. For example, SLPs in the education field provide techniques and strategies to help students function better both in the classroom and socially. SLPs in the medical field provide support in regaining the ability to accomplish daily tasks, safely ingest solid foods, and interact socially with family and

Aphasia is an acquired language disorder that affects a person’s ability to understand oral and written language, speaking and writing. It is estimated that one third of those who survive stroke have aphasia (Department of Health, 2007). Most patients with aphasia exhibit spontaneous recovery, usually in the first 2-3 months following stroke onset (Godecke, Hird, Lalor, Rai, & Phillips, 2012). However, 30-40% of these patients may experience long-term post-stroke aphasia (Bakheit et al., 2007). Continued rehabilitative treatments with the speech and language pathologists (SLPs) are not as significantly effective due to the current high demands on limited resources (Palmer et al., 2012), which reduced the availability of face-to-face speech

The clients that received the DAT training, 11 of them met their goal. One client did drop out of the DAT training because she felt it was not helping her. All of the clients in the MSI, ATC, and psychoeducational trainings all met their goals. The final percentage was that 83% of the clients met their goals. It was shown that each case should be reviewed and individualized for the client. Collaboration with the school, administrators and teachers would be very helpful in deciding which treatment would benefit each of the client's. Clinicians did collaborate with school staff making recommendations for the student’s accommodations if needed. Overall, this study showed positive outcomes as a speech-language pathologist delivers individualized treatments to the

In the profession of speech-language pathology, there are a variety of settings and clients with diverse needs to work with. One is able to work with not only children, but people of all age groups. Throughout my undergraduate program, I was able to gain the necessary skills in order to write professional reports for both medical and educational settings. The principles of formulating goals, establishing effective communication skills, and being flexible with your clients were among the many important skills I

Since Mercy Rehabilitation employees many excellent therapists, there is limited need for improvement in this area. The therapists are generally very knowledgeable within their field of expertise, and work well together to develop a unique approach to patient care. For example, an Occupational Therapist also works closely with a Speech Therapist in the instance of teaching a child to use an assistive communication device to best determine placement of the device, or whether the child may need any splinting of the hands to put their hands into a more functional position. Most therapists here listen to patients’ concerns on specific issues they want addressed during therapy sessions. For instance, when a child receiving speech therapy struggles with a specific word, that when spoken sounds inappropriate, a therapist addresses the situation promptly and professionally. Since therapists here communicate well with patients and parents, patients and their families gain an understanding of the goals the therapists are working toward. When developing a plan of care therapists consider parents goals for their children. Also therapists assign their patients homework to work on before their next appointment. Therapists working with

Chapter 33 discuss a speech therapist’s and speech pathologists’ job. The chapter brought up issues speech pathologists have, how they are close minded when it comes to deaf culture, and how they socialize with deaf children. While reading this, I found

“‘Atticus, he was real nice….’… ‘Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.’” is a dialogue written by Harper Lee that stuck with me after reading To Kill A Mockingbird in high school. Despite physical appearance or intellect, everyone deserves to be valued at their core; what better way to affirm someone than by conversing with them as Scout did with Boo Radley. Thus, my aspiration is to enable a voice to those with communication disorders. This desire to be a speech language pathologist has been influenced by personal and professional exposures to the field.

The introduction of Whitmire’s journal starts at the beginning of speech pathology nearly 100 years ago. Since then, the job description has changed, along with standards and resources available for speech pathologists. By comparing and contrasting the caseload composition of today and of fifty years ago, she brings to light how many more students speech pathologists have become responsible for teaching. Whitmire also identifies the IDEA Amendments that were created to lessen the burden on speech teachers and improve the rehabilitation of students requiring special education. While Kathleen introduces methods of identifying children with special needs and analyzing their individual requirements of care, she is also informing the reader of how much work goes into helping these children.

Not all of speech-language pathologist have been trained in literacy. Pathologists would like to learn more but are unable to due to being overworked. A surveyed conducted by Sarah Yoho, a senior completing her master’s thesis at Ohio State University, proved speech-language pathologists “feel they are capable of becoming better informed, but they do not have the time” (15). Caseloads, the quantity term of the number of patients interacted with daily, continue to rise. The number of cases one pathologists may have can range from forty students to over sixty students according to a study released by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (“Challenges of Successful Recruitment”). The outcomes of most students rise in smaller settings, but larger groups are forming due to the increase in the number of issues that need to be met since students are unable to communicate in larger group settings. Less time with students leads to smaller growths from session-to-session and less opportunities to share treatment plans with teachers, students, parents, or other professionals. The cases can also be difficult to manage because of the complexity or the number assigned to one person. Each legislation that passes increases the responsibility a speech-language pathologist has on students in classrooms. Common core standards are beginning to be adopted by more states which requires an increase of interaction in classrooms with students. Pavelko, who wrote a journal entry on using sample analysis by school based speech-language pathologists, suggests, pathologists are undergoing a change in the field with roles and responsibilities and serving children who are linguistically diverse (247). A speech-pathologist is already required to know many disabilities to find

Spire Rehabilitation Hospital will open on July 1, 2017. Currently, the focus is on passing the state licensure survey in order to open the doors for admission on July 1. The priorities are to execute all contracts, complete policies and procedures, hire and train staff, and meet all regulatory standards in order to pass the survey scheduled for early June. Staff will target to admit 20-30 patients on July 1, and then prepare to meet Joint Commission Requirements (JCAHO) during the survey scheduled in mid-July.

The member is a 64-year-old male who was arrived to the emergency room via emergency medical services and later admitted to Maui Memorial Hospital 03/15/2016 after awakening around 10 pm with left-sided weakness and a left facial droop. The member has a history of atrial fibrillation for which he takes Pradaxa. The member was transferred to United Hospital, St. Paul on 03/20/2016 via air ambulance where he was hospitalized for 16 days before being discharged to an acute rehabilitation hospital on 04/05/2016.

I remember feeling so nervous and anxious as it would be my first time observing a speech-language-pathologist clinician performing therapy, experiencing that hands-on experience. As I sat down in my car I could not stop thinking about the various emotions I was feeling at that time. Finally, it was time for me to get going. Well, let’s recognize that the speech clinic was easy to find among the all the other service clinics offered by Magnolia’s multi-center building, a huge University of Houston sign was resting in the middle of the hallway. As I entered the room is was exactly how pictured it, mini classroom feeling with very minimal wall decorations. There was a small filing cabinet on of posterior left side of the room. As soon as walked in you were greeted by the speech-language pathologist, who was sitting on her desk resting in on the anterior left side of the room. There were also two different size tables in the room, one was the children’s table with four available seats and the adult table with four seats as well. As for the setting, it was clean and approachable. The classroom decorations were minimal, there not too much

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