Aaaaaaaand That's a Wrap! Finished with Graduate School

So I've been neglecting my blog the last 6+ months because life got a bit away from me, but I do have a few posts rattling around in my brain that I want to write about!

Possible upcoming posts:

I've graduated, now what?! The CF job search
The overseas SLPeep: How I plan (hope) to get a SLP job in (insert country here)

It's been a roller coaster ride in graduate school and I'm sure the ride will get that much more emotional/exciting/anxiety filled/amazing as a CF!

Wish me luck in the job search!

SummaTime '14 and the slp2b

Two posts in one day?! I figured that making it through my clinical practicum deserved it's own post and that this one would be more of what's coming next.

So what does the summer have in store for this slp2b?

ASHA and the end of another semester...

The Fall semester is officially finished and only a few more days of work to go until I am officially on break. What a crazyemotionalbusy semester, it's no wonder I haven't had time to write many posts!

So here are some highlights from this semester:

Clinic 1 almost finished?! How did I survive?

My Top 10 Tips for Surviving Clinic

1. Be prepared to feel like you don’t know what you are doing… because really, you don’t know what you are doing. You are going to make mistakes and that’s okay.

2. This needs to be said again: be okay with #1. Or at least know that you will be okay with #1. We’ve all been there.

And all the C.E.s (clinical educators) have tissues in their offices for emotional breakdowns. Again, we’ve all been there.

3. Research your client’s communication impairment(s) and learn all you can about the etiology, assessment and treatment of their disorder(s). A good place to start is joining speechpathology.com. It is $49 for students for a year membership and it has a wealth of information.

(It’s also a great place to brush up on information from classes you haven’t had in a while or that too briefly covered a topic area. This site can help when you are preparing for your internships or even the praxis. I will definitely be using it for both my internship interviews and praxis study).

Anxious in East Michigan...

So my semester has been off and running for almost 3 weeks now and I am feeling overwhelmed, anxious, and have had a lot of self-doubt creep in. The self-doubt has been there for a while, but has been only a small little voice whispering in my ear... now it's in full shout mode. Part of it has to do with the amount of time I have to commit to my grad assistant position and being able to manage my time effectively. The other part has to do with being in clinic this semester. Clinic is all consuming and I sometimes forget that I have 2 other classes that need my attention too.

I started off this semester feeling excited with only a slight case of nerves... and then I had my first diagnostic session with my (adorable!!) client this past week and it was a slightly chaotic blur where I attempted to take

Already Finished?! Spring '13 and Summa Time Freedom

Six weeks flies by way too fast! I've just finished up my (very) short spring classes today and I have to say, I fell in love with my Dysphagia class. Six weeks was not long enough for that class and I would've happily taken it over the entire summer.

There were many things I really enjoyed learning about in this class, but I want to highlight the class project for dysphagia which was to collaborate with a classmate and develop an educational material for either SLPs, other medical staff, patients/clients, teachers, or anyone we could think of (one group designed a dysphagia book for children!). My partner and I decided to research pre-treatment swallowing exercises for patients undergoing chemo-radiation for head and neck cancer.

As we started to go through the literature we found some support for these exercises, but not much that would be considered Level I EBP. Only a few were randomized-control studies and many of those journal articles we found cited sample small sizes as the biggest limiting factor to definitively supporting pre-treatment swallowing exercises. A few others that we found only performed a retrospective review of case files which is at a level III EBP, and those studies tended to show that pre-treatment exercises were more useful than not. I am discovering that case file reviews are used quite often as well as small sample sizes and not enough randomized-control studies are often the norm in our profession. A quote from an SLP who sent me some information for this project sums up the problem quite nicely,  "I think this topic really gets at what Rosenbek refers to as 'the tyranny of the randomized control trial'.  In our profession (which lacks such evidence on most topics) it would be easy to do nothing because we don't have level 1 evidence for it."

I'm keeping an eye on a study currently underway at the University of Alabama that is looking to determine if pre-treatment swallowing exercises can improve

Social Media and SLP

If you aren't a part of the #slpeeps community on Twitter, following SLP related boards on pinterest, or one of the many SLP facebook groups, it's definitely something you should consider participating in. These social media tools connect you with SLPs  and SLP students all over the country as well as all over the world.

Here is a blog hop I found that sums up all of the benefits of joining this vast online community of SLPeeps: Blog Hop: Essential Social Media Tools for SLPs and you can "hop" to other posts about the different social media platforms that SLPs can use. I'm starting you off with Twitter, which is a personal favorite. Facebook

SLP and the Great Dysphagia Search

It's back to class time and today I start my dysphagia class. Since I am leaning more towards the medical side of SLP, this is a key class and I can't wait to learn more about it. We have to track down a VFSS (videofluoroscopic swallow study) observation site and I've already hit the ground running with about 7 emails sent out so far, phone calls are next.

I saw a VFSS during my post-bacc SLP job shadowing and it was pretty interesting. Too bad I wasn't closer to that observation site or I'd just go back there!

Here's to hoping I can pin down a site... let another search begin! :)

**UPDATE

The above SLP I observed a VFSS with (and who also graduated from EMU) just emailed me a contact who is willing to let me observe! She is a ROCKSTAR!!

Summer '13 and Fall '13

Signed up for classes today and I'm already excited to dive into all new stuff!! The first half of Summer I am taking Dysphagia and Motor Speech Disorders. In the Fall I'm taking Acquired Neurogenic Communication Disorders and Fluency Disorders.

I am also supposed to take Clinic I over the whole Summer semester, but now it looks like I will be taking it in the Fall instead. It's the only class I haven't signed up for yet and I will find out for sure on Monday if I am taking it this Summer or if I am taking it in the Fall. Taking it in the Fall won't affect my graduation date and though I can't wait to dive right into clinic and get a client (or two!), at the same time it would be soooo nice to have half of the summer off. Kind of a last big break before pushing through to the end. **UPDATE - I'm definitely taking Clinic I in the Fall so that means I will have the second half of the summer OFF! I will be

#springbreak13

So it's my spring break... it officially started Thursday night after work at 1pm and so far it's involved a lot of sleeping in, netflix and retail therapy, but that's about to change. Starting today, this is my opportunity to get a crapload of stuff done! I am continuing my crazy busy February into a crazy busy March, but things will slow down again after the 13th. The week after spring break is ridiculous: 2 exams, 1 group presentation, possible retake of the clinical readiness test, 2nd half of my group diagnostic with report write-ups and assessment scorings that go along with it. After the 13th I can breath again.

First up this week, I have two exams to study for that will happen the Monday and Tuesday after we get back from break (thank you professors!) and I have twelve chapters to read for one of those exams... yikes! Quizlets and study guides will be my friends this week.

This week I am also going to Royal Oak for an aphasia observation. It's an aphasia group that has 2 clients with fluent aphasia and 2 with nonfluent aphasia. I only need to observe a fluent aphasia but I am very happy that I will also have the opportunity to observe a nonfluent one as well. I'm really cutting it close with this

First Week - Finished!

It's Tuesday night and I am finished for classes for the week.  Yep, you read that right... I have one class on Mondays, three classes on Tuesday and then I am finished for the week.  Good thing though, is that almost all of my classes have a few outside of class components besides homework and studying for exams.

For my diagnostics class, we are being broken up into pairs and will be matched with a faculty member to perform a diagnostic in our university clinic.  We also have to set up an observation with a local SLP to observe (or participate in - if the SLP is comfortable with that) a speech and language evaluation of either a child or an adult.  For our aphasia class, we have to set up an observation of a treatment session (either individual or group) or attend a meeting of an aphasia support group.  Then for our audiometric disorders class, we are putting together a hearing conservation project, then going out into the community to a class (1st grade classroom or a middle school classroom, etc.) teach them about the anatomy and physiology of the ear, the loudness scale, hair cells damage, and hearing conservation.

There are also a lot more presentations this semester in comparison to last semester... I definitely need practice with public speaking so I am glad we will have many opportunities to do so.  My goal is to not use note cards at all since I tend to over-rely on them.  This semester I'm also going to set up some volunteer hours with the SLP at the Autism Collaborative Center on campus.  It's definitely going to be much busier this semester compared to last!

Overall I am really excited about this semester.  I love that we will go out into the community to observe and to teach.  Going off of first impressions of first days in classes, my favorite so far is diagnostics and aphasia as a close second!
     
Oh! Another cool thing about today - I met someone who also did the Utah State University online post bachelor's in communicative disorders and deaf education!  We overlapped by three semesters so we probably had a class or two together but didn't know each other then.  She's in two of my classes this semester and happened to mention that she attended USU online.  I've only "met" my former classmates online and not in person, so it was great to finally meet someone IRL.  Definitely made my day!

Looking Back: Fall '12

I survived my first semester as an speech-language pathology graduate student!!  There were a few moments around finals that I wasn't so sure I was going to make it, but I did.  :)

Looking back on my first semester in SLP grad school, I thought I would focus on all the positives and here are all the good things that have come out of going to Eastern Michigan University so far:

-My clinical methods class: I learned so much in that class.  The prof. had many relevant personal examples about working with various clients in different settings.  He really explained things well and helped us analyze our mistakes.  He also gave us many opportunities for "hands on" practice with case studies, videos, and developing goals in small groups collaboratively as well as working individually on our own.  My favorite class this semester and it has made me

Zoom Zoom Revisited...

I am currently in the midst of an unexpected loooooong weekend because a prof called off both of her Weds. classes due to illness and my Thurs. class was canceled since we wrapped up the final lecture last week.  This week consisted of a 1 hour class on Monday and 8 1/2 hours of work.  I was expecting this past week to be much busier and things to be a bit more spread out, but now that everything is pushed to next week it's going to be HECTIC until the end of the semester!  I better get ready for a marathon race sprint mad dash to the finish line.  

I do have to say I'm enjoying my (very) extended weekend.

                                                                              source 

No more laziness though... time to get neuro notes organized, practice my part of the presentation, work on a SOAP note, and of course STUDY.

Zoom Zoom.

Right now I feel like I am sprinting for the finish line!

This semester hasn't been too hectic overall and much less busy than I expected grad school to be... that is, until now.  Final papers, assignments, and projects are coming due, I have a big group presentation in my research class this week, and it's that time to start buckling down, get notes organized and study for final exams.  Just gotta make it to December 17th after 3pm.

It's funny, though I'm really ready for this semester to be over, I also can't wait to get into next semester and start learning (mostly) new information.

I'ma gonna keep zooming forward.  :)



   

The end is in sight!

The end of my first semester in grad school is in sight!  There's lots to do between now and my last final, but it's good to be almost finished.  A lot of this semester has felt like review, which means that Utah State got me off to a good solid start. 

   

There have been a few unexpected surprises this semester, the biggest being a much longer time in grad school than expected (7 semesters vs the typical 5 semesters of most programs).  The other unexpected surprise is a very unorganized professor (who teaches two of my classes this semester) and her very specifically-vague directions with a dash of inconsistent grading.  Yes, specifically-vague... and sometimes the inconsistent grading was in my favor and other times it was not.  I definitely have higher expectations for grad school professors... but, yeah... moving on.

Next semester should have a bit more new information and I will also one step closer to getting clinic hours.  I can't wait to get into clinic!

Travelin' continued...

Short term SLP job opportunities overseas (list from the ASHA website):
Nonprofit Groups With An International Focus

These nonprofit organizations focus on issues of global concern. Many offer professional exchange and/or volunteer opportunities abroad.

AboutFace International
“To provide information and emotional support to parents of children born with facial differences. Recognized by the Cleft Palate Foundation of the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association as the leading support organization for individuals and families whose

Just ordered these...

It will feel like Christmas when I get them!

Research for Child Placement

I finally got this… can’t wait to have time to start reading it!  It’s a bit older (1999), but will get me started on getting prepared for what I hope to be my child placement for my externship.  It will definitely be a great jumping off point to finding other relevant journal articles. 

All signed up!

Just finished registering for Winter '13!!  Overall, this has been a good semester but I feel like a lot of it has been review with just a little bit of new info thrown into the mix.  This next semester has a bit more meat to it!

-Diagnostic Methods: Assessment of Speech and Language Disorders in Children

-Diagnosis and Treatment of Audiometric Disorders

-Early Intervention for Speech and Language Impaired Children 

-Aphasia

I'm really excited about Aphasia!!

Pinteresting…

I’ve become a pinterest addict!  I’m constantly pinning things to use in future classes as well as scouring pinterest for ideas to use in clinic - well, when I finally get to start clinic that is.  It’s such a great resource for so many things, but I'm really loving all the SLP related boards on there.  :)