Join Robert Serianni, MS, CCC-SLP, FNAP, the chair and program director of the department of Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) at Salus University, as he moderates a podcast between a client who is served by the Speech-Language Institute (SLI), a clinical educator and the student who has been assigned to the patient for the semester.
Serianni: I think it's really an important way to not only talk about the successes and the services of the clinic, but really about the clinical education of the students who come to Salus for their training. I'd like to welcome first, our client, Jenn. Jenn, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you sustained your injury.
Jenn Derry: My name is Jenn. Mother's Day - May 9th of 2016 is when I woke up really sick. This is the day I took my son, and he was all of 14 months, to daycare. And, I couldn't make it out to the parking lot when I threw up. I kept throwing up, so I went home instead of going [to work] and I usually, I [am] always at work. I never miss anything. I tried to go home and go to sleep. But, my husband kept calling me and making [sure] that I was okay. After a few hours, he came home to find me unable to speak properly, and I was still throwing up violently.
He rushed me to the hospital and I don't remember much more after that. Except, I remember hearing my propellers at the hospital. I mean, helicopter, sorry. And, I also remember at the operating room, someone taking off my wedding ring. I remember I was trying to fight it, fight them to take it off. But, I don't know why I had a stroke and I don't know why I have aphasia.
I think that I might be because I had it misdiagnosed with colitis for 30 years. And, when I was hospitalized, I was diagnosed with Crohn's. So they think Crohn's may have caused a clot and because of [that] my stroke.
Serianni: Thank you for sharing that story. What an incredible journey you've come over the last few years. I know that you've been participating in care at the Speech-Language Institute. Can you tell me what you work on in speech therapy?
Derry: I've been in therapy at Salus (SLI) for five years and I love them. I love everyone. From the reception to Ali, Annie, Hannah, and all of the students. Everyone is wonderful and I'm so very lucky to have them. I lost my ability [to] communicate. I couldn't read, write, speak, or even comprehend the numbers from one to 10 or the last of the letters A to Z. Every semester, the clinician and student helped me to improve my language skills and strengthen my brain through neuroplasticity. I also like Salus because of the no cost. My insurance does not cover therapy, which I think is pretty upsetting.
Serianni: What strategies do you feel really help your communication?
Derry: At this time, Hannah and Annie are helping with identifying and describing an item. I'm practicing and still learning strengths or strategies to help with my speech. I've worked on opposites, synonyms, yes or no questions, prefaces, prepositions, articles, and thinking of words and saying them in general. They help me with reading, writing, speaking, and comprehension. Other strategies are reading and listening to a book on Audible, watching TV with subtitles and playing Words From Friends and other games.
Serianni: Jenn, I've seen you around the clinic and I would describe you as fearless because despite your difficulty with communication, you are always communicating. And, I really do appreciate you sharing not only your story with our podcast, but certainly your experiences with our students so, thank you so much.
Let's switch gears here and talk to our student.
Hannah Perloff: Hi, I'm Hannah Perloff. Some things about me, I grew up actually right here in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania in the suburbs of Philly, but I currently live on the other side of town on the Main Line. I recently graduated in 2020 from the University of Pittsburgh with a bachelor’s degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders. And, I am in the Salus graduating class of 2023. So, I'm in my first semester here.
Serianni: Can you tell us why you chose to come to Salus?
Perloff: One of the things that really stuck out to me about Salus is actually the hands-on clinical experience beginning in our first semester here, just a few weeks into our first semester, actually. I feel really grateful for the opportunity to not only learn important information about my future career in my classes, but I get to actually practice and improve my skills as a future clinician, right now.
Serianni: I know I hear from students, it's pretty death defying that we have you start seeing clients right away in the clinic. But, how do you think working with the patients and our supervisors really enhances your education?
Perloff: At least for me, from my experience, I had never worked with an adult client before, and I'd never worked with a client with aphasia before. I came in knowing I wanted to work with kids and that was it, and that was my experience. But, through my first semester, we're currently in a class that focuses on aphasia - the science behind it, the signs, symptoms, therapy techniques, et cetera.
I've learned a lot more about aphasia, in my first semester, which has correlated to our practice in the clinic, which has been awesome. I've also learned more about aphasia every week, working with Jenn and with Annie. Annie Ruckdeschel, my supervisor, she's really helped me get more comfortable leading sessions, trying out my own different therapy techniques, learning when to use specific cues and always giving me helpful and very insightful feedback.
Working with Jenn has also been wonderful. She's such a great client. I feel really lucky during my first semester that I got such a great client. She's always engaged and motivated to not only work hard and make progress with many aspects of her speech, but she also bears with me as I'm learning to become an SLP. So, I feel like this experience has really exceeded all of my expectations that I had for working in the clinic in my first semester. I've definitely learned so much more than I thought I would in just such a short amount of time.
Serianni: We design our program to expose you to a variety of clients, diagnoses and disorders to make sure that you have the depth and breadth of the profession under your belt. One way we do that is bringing exceptional clinicians into our clinic to supervise you.
We're going to switch gears one more time. Annie, why don't you introduce our yourself to our listeners?
Annie Ruckdeschel: Hi, my name is Annie Ruckdeschel. I am a speech-language pathologist. I've been at Salus since 2016, and I spent most of my career working with adults with brain injuries in a medical rehab setting. I dabbled here and there in hospitals and long-term settings, I specialize in brain injuries. I just love the job and love getting to work with Hannah and Jenn who are both hilarious. And, I just get to giggle in the background for a lot of the session, which is awesome.
Serianni: I think one of the things that we've done by design here at Salus is make sure that the clients are matched with speech pathologists that have deep experience in their area, and which really then translates to good teaching to the students as they work through the clinical cases and the client care. Knowing sort of both sides of the coin now as a practitioner and as a clinical educator, what do you think some of the advantages are of the early clinical exposure having those students sort of jump right into the work at SLI?
Ruckdeschel: I think Hannah kind of touched on it beautifully, which is to say a lot of us learn, most of us learn by doing at the heart of it, right? So, when students can come in and start doing the work that they're going to end up doing, right away, I think things in the classrooms start to click a lot faster and it just makes the learning process a little bit more robust. I'm sure more lasting in terms of what they can remember because they're practically applying it.
I think also Hannah's a great example. She came in thinking she was going to work with kids and not to say that that trajectory has changed, but at Salus we offer a wide variety of experiences for our students. And, I think that allows them to really grasp what it is the profession can be. A lot of times what's so great about our job is you don't have to choose one path. You can dibble and dabble, here and there, and get to work in a bunch of settings that are really fun and challenging and inspiring. Both of those things are really beneficial to graduate students.
