Megan is a Speech Language Pathologist with Genesis Rehab Services in the Frederick, MD area. She works in both a skilled nursing facility as well as an outpatient setting in an assisted living community. Working with the adult and geriatric population, Megan treats many communication disorders that are common among the geriatric community, especially with stroke victims. On any given shift she can be treating swallowing difficulties, cognitive and memory disorders, and most often speech and voice disorders. Megan’s advice to interested students is to put yourself out there and network as much as possible. Connections will lead to professional growth and, possibly, jobs.
Transcript
Megan Murray, and I am a medical speech language pathologist. So I currently work in the skilled nursing facility and outpatient settings, and I work with the adult and geriatric population to help treat, well, evaluate, treat people with swallowing disorders, speech and language disorders, cognitive disorders, and voice disorders. So we work a lot with stroke patients. A lot of times when people have strokes, at least one side of their body is very weak as a result. So they have a lot of deficits especially with swallowing. So, like a physical therapist would, I would help them regain their strength, but, to this section of the body. A lot of times people will have things go down the wrong pipe, because again, their muscles are very weak from the stroke. So what I would do is I would evaluate them, see what diet and liquids would be safe for them to eat or swallow. And I would also give them exercises to do to help regain that function again. A lot of times when we evaluate them, they might not be ready for the regular water that we might be drinking, we might have to thicken their water a little bit, or their juices, what have you, and we might have to put them on a puree diet like applesauce, that consistency. So my job would be to get them back to their prior level of function, which would be, eating a pizza again, and drinking soda again. That's just one of the examples of something that I would do. Some patients aren't aware of their deficit, so I might probe a little bit more; Oh can you tell me what day it is, the year? Why are you here? Any coughing or choking when you eat or drink? And all the while I'm assessing their voice to see is there any abnormality there. They may have been in the hospital and have had been intubated, so that'll leave their voice a little breathy or hoarse. So that's all things that I'm kind of assessing, while they're giving me this feedback about how they're doing. Same with their speech and their language skills. I can tell pretty instantly how their speech and their language are doing when I'm going in and having this dialogue with them.
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