Join Robert Serianni, MS, CCC-SLP, FNAP, the chair and program director of the department of Speech-Language Pathology at Salus University, as he moderates a podcast that focuses on the ReMed Brain Injury Group at the Speech-Language Institute. He is joined by the clinical education director and four students that have had the pleasure of working within that group.
Eileen Hunsaker:
Hi, my name is Eileen Hunsaker. I am the Director of Clinical Education here at Salus, which means I pretty much lead the Speech-Language Institute. I was privileged to be able to start the group at ReMed last fall with a great group of students. We are currently wrapping up our second semester working with our clients at ReMed.
Chloe Laumakis:
Hi, I'm Chloe Laumakis and I'm a first-year speech-language pathology grad student at Salus University, and I got the privilege of working with ReMed last semester.
Hannah Weidman:
My name is Hannah Weidman. I am also a first-year SLP grad student, and I am currently working with ReMed this semester.
Jessica McMullen:
Hi, my name's Jessica. I'm also a first-year student at the master's of speech-language pathology program. And I was able to work in addition to Chloe with ReMed last semester.
Alyssa Boemer:
Hi, everyone. My name is Alyssa and I'm also a first-year graduate student and I worked with ReMed last semester was Chloe and Jessica.
Bob Serianni:
Eileen, if you could give our listeners a description of the program and some of the services that you provide.
Eileen Hunsaker:
ReMed is an organization that provides long-term treatment to people who have sustained brain injuries. They have residences where the clients actually live together in group homes, and then they also have a program that they go to during the day where they received different groups and participate in different activities. What we provide is one of those extracurricular groups and we offer it once a week for an hour with three students each time. We have approximately seven to eight people that come each week. And again, it's a virtual group. Last semester, we had all the clients in one room together in their day treatment program. So we called in and were able to see a screen with all eight of them, which was very fun. This semester because they are all in their own residences, we have many of them calling in individually as well as in smaller groups of three. So it brings a different dynamic, but overall it's been successful for both semesters.
Bob Serianni:
I'm always intrigued by the group dynamics and I think that our students can attest to the variety that they get to see when they work with the group.
Jessica McMullen:
The main idea of the group is the cognitive aspect of traumatic brain injury. A lot of it included education, and we actually got to speak with the individuals in the group themselves and what they would prefer to learn about. Some of them expressed that they wanted to talk about their individual traumatic brain injury. We had a full session actually, where we talked about everyone's individual story, if they were comfortable to share, which was really wonderful. And then we educated them in the following weeks about the varieties of traumatic brain injury.
Chloe Laumakis:
One of my favorite activities with the ReMed group was probably Jeopardy. We would play Jeopardy a lot with them. It definitely got competitive throughout our group, I should say. But a thing that we tried to accomplish during the session was after we realized how competitive everyone was within the group and how eager everyone was to give answers. We tried to encourage that. People who did know the answers and that people who were struggling help each other out throughout the session and the end of the semester. We really accomplished that. We had a lot of encouragement from the other clients who knew the answers right off the bat, and everyone was participating by the end of the semester, which is our overall goal.
Bob Serianni:
I think it was an amazing sort of twist to take that game and make it an opportunity for those that have higher level skills to help the ones that were a little bit more lost.
So, is that the point, Eileen? Is that what the students are actually learning when they do stuff like this? Tell us about how this group gets them ready for externships and ultimately their jobs as speech pathologists.
Eileen Hunsaker:
I can say for sure that they're learning and they're also having fun while doing it. The advantage of working in groups, well, primarily the goal for the students in this particular group was to learn about brain injury, to learn about a life of a person who has sustained a brain injury and how that impacts their daily functioning. All people have varying types of head injuries. And these are adults ranging from the age of 30. Our youngest one is a young mother and the oldest one is probably in his late sixties. So our students are able to work with clients across the adult lifespan, which is a wonderful opportunity. So they're learning about brain injury. They're learning how to treat brain injury, especially the cognitive linguistic part of brain injury. They're seeing people who were living with the injury successfully, and those who need more help.
That's why they're in these sessions. And lastly, what I think is wonderful for our students is to be able to collaborate with each other, to be able to plan activities that are appropriate for the clients, but also share the task of doing that and work together to present the most beneficial educational material and the most helpful and creative therapy tasks, but also make them laugh along with our clients. We try to keep it upbeat in each session. And I think the students have achieved all the goals that we have set for them as clinical educators leading this group.
Bob Serianni:
I'd like to take a moment and sort of twist the conversation since I have some captive audience members in our first-year class. I'm wondering why you chose to come to Salus.
Hannah Weidman:
This program really stood out to me for the early clinical exposure and all of the experience opportunities in so many different settings with various populations. It's been a real privilege to be able to work with ReMed this semester. I know I've heard amazing things about people working at the preschools and all of the opportunities that we get are really incredible. And I've learned more than I could ever imagine.
Alyssa Boemer:
When I first toured, I really loved how Salus was such a small campus and as well as close knit. Salus is only a graduate program school, so that is something I also really liked because the faculty kind of gives you more of that one-on-one attention that you need throughout your graduate program. And even during my interview, I just felt so welcome throughout the experience and the clinical educators are awesome. It's just been a really good and welcoming experience.
Bob Serianni:
In wrapping up today, if you could reach out to those that are thinking about going to graduate school or more particularly thinking about coming to Salus' program, what would one piece of advice be to those applicants or pre-applicants?
Chloe Laumakis:
I think one piece of advice I'd give incoming students or potential incoming students would be to just keep your mind open to different opportunities. I know when I first came in I was dead set on adults, neuro. I was like, that's my thing. But ever since I've worked with the pediatric clients, I've learned to love it. I think just realizing that the setting matters. And I think that if you like peds in one setting, you might like it in another or vice versa. I think that all the students should just keep their mind open to all the opportunities and take advantage of them.
Alyssa Boemer:
I would also agree on keeping an open mind, but also kind of keeping in mind too, the campus has an on-campus clinic because that early clinical exposure is so important. I know when I first started, I was so nervous and I really didn't want to do it at all, but once you're in there, it's so easy and the clinical educators are such a big help, and they guide you along the entire way.
Hannah Weidman:
I think just being confident in your knowledge that you have up until this point. You're at this point for a reason, and you have the skills and all the potential to be great. So just get excited about the future and let all the nerves and everything excite you, and just be open to every opportunity that you get.
Jessica McMullen:
I think, for me, I would say to just ask questions about any or all of your concerns, because not only will those kind of help you determine what campus might align with your interests, but you'll start to build those interprofessional relationships with your possible future clinical educators. And those are really important and essential to your educational path.
