A day in the life of an outpatient Speech and Language Pathologist
The joy of outpatient is the variety of disorders and treatment areas you'll cover in a day. Keeps you on your toes!
It can also be a little nerve racking when you've got to be the expert in the entire scope of practice. Which is clearly impossible. Instead, I shoot for high competence with access to resources and subject matter experts. I can't know everything. But I can and will continue to develop my skills.
My process for improving my skills is to pick one area and focus on it until I feel confident and competent. A while back, I struggled providing voice therapy. So I hunted down quality CEUs, had conversations with voice specialists, and researched the literature. I implemented what I learned in therapy sessions. It was a bit awkward and messy at first. I took those hard lessons and learned from them and did better the next time. This process took about 2 years. It might be shorter or longer for you. My only advice is to give it the time it needs. This is a process! I'm still learning and refining my knowledge and skill base in voice disorders. That will never change. But I'm not panicking at the sight of an upcoming voice eval anymore. I'm not floundering in sessions when the patient's not making the progress that they should.
“👏🏾 We’re all lifelong learners in this profession.”
I've had to do this for chronic refractory cough referrals, trismus referrals, Primary Progressive Aphasia referrals, and others that fall into that "niche" category.
If you love working in the adult, medical setting, love unraveling puzzles, and helping people achieve meaningful personal and work related goals, then outpatient could be a good fit for you.
“I had the opportunity to be on an outpatient team where we each had our own “thing”. We taught each other as we were able and it made us a more dynamic place of service. AAC evals, Trach care, ACDF, Parkinson’s...how can one person have ALL the knowledge?!”
“People always ask me “why are you going to work during the pandemic, you’re an SLP”, this post completely explains why we’re essential personnel 👏🏽”
