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 between a patient who is served by the Speech-Language Institute, a clinical educator and the student who has been assigned to the patient for the semester.
To start us off, everyone introduced themselves:
Denise Mendez:
Hi, I'm Denise Mendez, and I am an individual with aphasia, but aphasia does not have me. My aphasia diagnosis came early following an intracerebral hemorrhage in 2017. A second stroke in 2019 showed that I have an arteriovenous malformation. Since then, I've had about three years’ worth of speech therapy.
Bob Serianni:
Tell me what it's like working with one of our students.
Denise Mendez:
This is just awesome. When I first started at Salus, I was a little skeptical, just wondering like, "Is this going to be effective for me? And is it going to be beneficial for me to help a student?" My fears went away after the first session. This is awesome. The students are energetic. They're smart and they keep pushing me to meet those goals. The supervisor is right on top of them. They go through the eval. They look at all of the questions and things that I need to make sure my goals are functional and moving forward.
Bob Serianni:
How does SLI help you?
Denise Mendez:
In one phrase, I would just say this is first class therapy. It doesn't matter this is University whatever, this is first class therapy. This is helping me so very much. The therapy and attention to my needs and the goals are constantly tweaked to make sure, like I said, that these are functional for me. Besides the therapy, we have the monthly support group, which is good for the emotional and psychological part of the help. And we also have other groups, like the book club. Now, book club, I'm loving this, because this gives me strategies so that I'm able to read independently and comprehend. Because the stroke, it ain't been really good. This really helps me keep my life, after stroke, normal, back to the way it was, so I'm loving it.
Bob Serianni:
Denise, thank you so much. I have to say, our clinic mantra is aphasia does not have any one of us, especially, you.
Let's switch gears now. Courtney, so ahead and introduce yourself.
Courtney Bernhardt:
Hi, I'm Courtney and I live in Holland, Pennsylvania, a town in Bucks County. I'm a first-year SLP student here at Salus.
Bob Serianni:
Why did you decide to join the Salus program?
Courtney Bernhardt:
There are a lot of factors that made me choose Salus as a program. I love everything about it. But if I had to choose one thing, it's that there's a clinic on campus and we have access to early clinical experience.
Bob Serianni:
How has that been going? What's it like working with the patients at SLI and your supervisor? Let's pretend they're not listening.
Courtney Bernhardt:
It's been awesome. It was definitely a little nerve-racking at first. I was thinking, "Oh my gosh," just like Denise was saying. How am I, a student, going to be able to help other people? It's been amazing. After the first session, especially working with Jill, with Denise, every fear I had about it went away. My confidence went up, and it continues to increase with every session. I love having the clinical educators working alongside me, because they're always there giving me ideas, giving me encouragement, and it's just been awesome.
Bob Serianni:
Finally, we have Jill, one of our supervisors. She has been here from the beginning, and I am pleased to introduce her.
Jill Grogg:
Yes, I have been with the program since it started and SLI became live and I am an OG. I really appreciate the opportunities that SLI gives me, as a speech pathologist, in addition to being able to mentor and treat at the same time. It's basically a dream come true, as far as I'm concerned. I've been practicing for almost 30 years, and specialty areas are typically in adult and geriatrics. It has just been amazing over the past six years that SLI has been open, just to see all of the changes, and all the dynamics that are going on. The amazing improvements that you can see in the students, as they grow and flourish, and in our clients, as they improve and succeed in their therapies.
Bob Serianni:
Do you think, if you take the long view over your experiences, what have been some of the advantages for students with this early clinical exposure? Because Courtney shares the fear of many of our students when we say, "First semester, you're getting a client," and we toss you right into the clinic. What are some of the benefits of that early clinical exposure?
Jill Grogg:
Oh my goodness, I love the first week of clinic, and the last week of clinic, as they go from the clinical foundations class to that last clinical practicum too. And then they're heading out into their externships. First week, first semester, the deer in the highlights look just stays there. It's a permanent facial expression for, probably, the first week. And then, second week, as we get the students acclimated to what's going on, and we let them know, "We're right here for you. You're not in this alone. I'm your shadow. Let me explain this to you." The eyes start coming back to the normal position. Their face, they can start smiling again. They're not frozen.
And then, that last week of the third semester in clinic, it becomes, "I've got this. I don't need to run this by you, but here it is just in case." I always say, after that third semester, "Our birdies are leaving the nest. They're flying on their own, and they're able to stay up there and enjoy the wind, and just flourish in being able to really manage any type of therapy that comes their way." That's one of the things that I really appreciate, as far as SLI. And I do brag about us, because we really prepare our students with a foundation that they could pick up and go into any setting and say, "Yeah, I recognize this. Okay, I might have to brush up a little bit, but I, at least, recognize this animal, and I can take care of it."
That's definitely the biggest benefit, I think, of having the students start early. They're able to incorporate everything from the classroom right into the art of clinic. And working together with the faculty, and being able to incorporate everything together, and just make it work, I think, is just such a benefit. It gives the students a sense of confidence that, "Yeah, I really do know what I'm doing, or if I don't, I'm not going to fake it until I make it. I'm going to get the answers, and I'm going to make this happen."
