Q&A: Speech-Language Pathology vs Audiology, Part 2

In part two of this podcast, we talk with Dr. Lindsay Bondurant, director of the Pennsylvania Ear Institute and associate professor for Salus University's Osborne College of Audiology and with Robert Serianni, chair, program director and associate professor for the Speech-Language Pathology program. They talk with us about the audiology and speech-language pathology professions, how to know which one to choose, and how they work together in the healthcare field.

Q: How do audiologists and speech-language pathologists work together in the healthcare field?

Lindsay Bondurant:

It's very interesting because, as Bob alluded to, the scope of practice for an audiologist and SLP, where there used to be more overlap as the fields were not quite as well defined, now there is not very much overlap in what we do. Each field has grown and become better defined to work harmoniously with each other in a very complimentary way, but we're not necessarily working at the same time on the same patient.

Although that said, if I have a patient who has hearing loss, it's not uncommon for there to be a speech or language issue that is related to their hearing loss, and so I absolutely need to have a working knowledge of what a speech-language pathologist does so that I know when it's appropriate to refer my patient over to a speech-language pathologist.

Other than a primary care doctor who I'm sharing information with about patient, their patients that they refer to me, probably the speech-language pathologist is the professional that I have the most contact with about my patients because we're both thinking about communication. Even though we're not working on the same patient at the same time, I might see somebody and I'm sending my information right over to the SLP so that everybody who is working to help this patient communicate better has the same information and this is working in a way that can kind of move the patient forward.

We're often not in the exact same office but we are sharing information all the time because our main thing is communication and language development and being able to connect with each other and I think that's something that's important to both professions.

Bob Serianni:

I couldn't agree more. As Lindsay was talking, I was thinking about all the different opportunities we have as professionals to interface across the lifespan. We both work with the very young to very old and because I've always worked with really good audiologists, I know that language and speech development really hinges on the child, our youngest members of our community, to develop the speech and language skills of their culture, of their neighborhood. Without being able to hear those exchanges, we need them to make — they need to know this information. It just won't naturally happen.

And then sort of moving up the lifespan, we work with audiologists and speech pathologists together in school because, again, we want our students to be able to access the information that's being taught to them. Educational SLPs and audiologists collaborate a lot to make sure what goes on in the classroom registers with the students that have speech language and hearing impairment.

Moving on to our adult and older adult populations, we know that you're going to appear confused if you can't hear the information or if you're having difficulty communicating, people are going to think you don't hear them. So, being able to function as an independent adult throughout your adulthood and not institutionalized or marginalized, it's really important that they have the communication skills, which is a combination of talking and hearing.

I always joke with my patients when I hear that, it's usually a wife saying that the husband doesn't hear me and I said well, there's a difference between hearing and listening, and typically the husband hears everything that the wife saying. It's he's choosing not to listen to what's being said to him, and I always say that as a joke to really differentiate between the mechanics of getting the information in and being able to process and do something with that.

So much of our society from your work environment or your family environment into older adulthood is your ability to take that information in and process it and do something with it, and without the combination of speaking and talking and listening on top of it can be really detrimental to somebody's independence.

That sort of lifespan approach, for better or for worse, really ties our two professions together and I agree with Lindsay that I find myself always reaching out to my audiology colleagues and saying, “Can you help me out here” because I can't put my finger on what's the root cause of some of these issues and if I can rule in or rule out that it's hearing will help me continue down my path for communication success for our patients.

It's definitely a partnership and I feel like that's something that we do really well here at Salus is exposing our students to that partnership and making sure that they understand they’re separate professions but really ones that work closely together in real-world environments.

Q: Is there anything else you want to add about your programs and how they prepare students?

Bob Serianni:

I'll just echo the interprofessional nature of what speech pathologists do in the healthcare and education environments and being able to expose students here at Salus to classroom experiences, to clinical experiences, which really build their teamwork skills or communication skills, and allows us as faculty to really give our students the opportunity to be successful, competent clinicians in the field of their choice.

Lindsay Bondurant:

I think that's something unique, especially from an audiology perspective, about Salus is that here, the audiology and the speech pathology programs are completely separate programs. That is not the case in most universities. If universities have an audiology program, they're usually in the same department.

I think it actually works really well from an interprofessional standpoint because neither one of us is ever forced to work with the other. When we're working together, it's because we see the value and we see the need and how it's going to benefit our patients. We seek each other out, as Bob mentioned, and so I'm frequently reaching out to my colleagues about concerns, about patient communication and language skills. But it's not because I feel like I have to because we report to the same person. It's because I think that they have really important information that will help our patients and our students.

I think Salus is really unique that way and there is that emphasis on interprofessional education and interprofessional practice that we're very thoughtful about. It isn't something that we just stumble over and it happens to be there. We seek out those ways. I think that really helps our graduates of both programs because they go out and they're going to have to know how to navigate those conversations when it's not just right under their nose in the department because we're all reporting to the same people. We teach them how to do that and how to value what both of the professions bring to the table.