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Benefits of Working as a Speech Language Pathologist Across All Settings
Speech language pathology is a dynamic and rewarding field that involves diagnosing and treating communication and swallowing disorders. Whether you are considering a career change or are exploring your options, becoming a speech language pathologist can offer a fulfilling career with a wide range of benefits. In this article, we will explore the steps to becoming a speech language pathologist, the rewards of a career in this field, and the various settings and specialties available to professionals in this field.
Becoming a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP)
Earning a Bachelor’s Degree
Most graduate programs require that students have earned a Bachelor’s degree first. Most applicants have majored in communication sciences and disorders (find Bachelor’s programs in communication sciences and disorders). If not available in your undergraduate program, graduate programs typically also accept majors in linguistics, psychology, health. However, they have accepted students with high research focus or express highly motivating factors (someone with a background in graphic design wanting to develop technology to help others communicate, someone who speaks spanish wishes to work with bilingual children in an a poor socioeconomic area)
Earning a Master’s Degree
Speech-language pathologists must have completed a Master’s Degree in Speech, Language, Pathology from an accredited university. Some programs offer specialty tracks if students already know what population they wish to service, but most teach speech therapists to be a “jack-of-all-trades” and be able to treat a wide variety of patients. Length of program can vary, typically 2-3 years.
Taking the PRAXIS Exam
Following completion of the graduate program, graduates need to complete the PRAXIS exam. This exam is several hours longs and asks a variety of questions of patients of various diagnoses and different scenarios. Currently, a passing score is considered to be 162 or above. Most students easily pass this exam following their graduate program, especially if their program offered a wide variety of instruction.
Clinical Fellowship
Following the graduate program and the passing of the PRAXIS, speech-language pathologists apply for Clinical Fellowship positions. The Clinical Fellowship is a 9 month to 1 year period in which a speech-language pathologist treats and evaluates patients under the supervision of another speech-language pathologist. Upon completion of this Clinical Fellowship, speech-language pathologists earn their credential: CCC-SLP (Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech Language Pathology). This allows them to apply to a wider variety of jobs in a wide variety of specialties and no longer need supervision to practice.
Licensure in State
Speech-language pathologists then apply for state licensure that allows them to see patients in a given state. Speech therapists are not allowed to see patients who are not physically present in another state they are not licensed in due to licensure guidelines. Depending on setting and location, some SLPs get multiple state licenses to see a wider variety of patients (Here you can find specific Speech Therapist licensure requirements for your state).
Settings in Speech Language Pathology
Hospital – Acute Care
Goal: Provide patients with improved function to participate in decisions and conversations about their own plan of care with other providers and their families. Also have them able to eat the safest but most nutritious diet available to improve health outcomes.
Type of Therapy Provided: swallowing, language, speech, cognition
Diagnoses Seen: strokes, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, recovery from major surgery typically from the following specialties: neurology, gastroenterology, pulmonology, cardiology
Caseload: Depends on hospital census, but typically can expect to see 9-12 patients a day. Patient are seen for shorter periods of time, ranging for a couple of days or weeks until discharge from the hospital. Sessions are shorter due to the high volume of other providers that need to see the patient in a given day, ranges from 8-20 minutes for treatment and short evaluations to an hour for more extensive swallowing evaluations
Allied Professionals: Multidisciplinary environment, can expect high levels of interaction with nurses, doctors, other rehabilitation providers, dieticians, and high level counseling with family members.
Benefits: Full time employees typically are given many benefits like medical insurance, vision insurance, dental insurance, disability insurance, life insurance, retirement benefits. Some may also offer tuition assistance, offering funds for conferences or continuing education courses, paying for state licensure and dues for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Part time and PRN employees typically are not eligible for these benefits and are hired as independent contractors. Travel employees typically receive benefits through their agency and are similar to benefits received by full time employees.
Time Off: 10 Days paid time off and/or sick time off. However, most likely would be expected to work weekends and holidays. Time off typically has to be requested months in advance.
Hospital – Inpatient Rehabilitation
Goal: Getting patients to a functional level to better be able to complete activities of daily living and prepare them for returning home from an extended hospital stay
Types of Therapy Provided: swallowing, language, speech, cognition, voice
Diagnoses Seen: strokes, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, recovery from major surgery typically from the following specialties: neurology, gastroenterology, pulmonology, cardiology
Caseload: Depends on hospital/clinic census, typically can expect to see 7-9 patients a day. Patients are seen for longer periods of time. Sessions can be 30 min to an hour based on the patient’s insurance and severity of impairment.
Allied Professionals: Multidisciplinary environment, can expect high levels of interaction with nurses, doctors, other rehabilitation providers, dieticians, and high level counseling with family members.
Benefits: Full time employees typically are given many benefits like medical insurance, vision insurance, dental insurance, disability insurance, life insurance, retirement benefits. Some may also offer tuition assistance, offering funds for conferences or continuing education courses, paying for state licensure and dues for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Part time and PRN employees typically are not eligible for these benefits and are hired as independent contractors. Travel employees typically receive benefits through their agency and are similar to benefits received by full time employees.
Time Off: 10 Days paid time off and/or sick time off. However, most likely would be expected to work weekends and holidays. Time off typically has to be requested months in advance.
Outpatient Clinic (with University Affiliation*)
Goal: Tend to be more focused on research or educating students of affiliated universities. Providers can be graduate students or clinical fellows with supervision from licensed SLPs.
Types of Therapy Provided: Varies on specialty of clinic and if treating children, adults, or both. Typically focused on language, speech, cognitive, voice, and swallow therapy.
Diagnoses Seen: Depends on specialty of clinic but can expect to see a wide range of disorders.
Caseload: Supervisors manage a caseload of about 15 patients. Depending on the size of the program, students are expected to see and treat from 1-6 patients within the clinic.
Allied Professionals: Licensed speech language pathologists in supervisory roles, audiologists, researchers, students.
Benefits: Supervisors receive benefits similar to professors at the university and can expect to receive medical insurance, vision insurance, dental insurance, disability insurance, life insurance, retirement benefits, offering funds for conferences or continuing education courses, paying for state licensure and dues for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Students are typically not paid and do not receive benefits while learning.
Time Off: Supervisors receive 10 days PTO and/or sick days along with scheduled holidays at the university. In some places, this is optional and supervisors can elect to continue seeing patients over the break. Students take off along the scheduled holidays at the university. It is highly discouraged to take other time off during graduate programs due to the dense course material.
*Outpatient clinics without university affiliation are similar to what is listed above with less emphasis on education/supervision of students. Most are considered private practices, which are described below.
Skilled Nursing Facility / Residential Facility / Long-term Care Facility
Goal: Improving quality of life of residents by improving their communication to help them engage and participate with other residents or their visiting families.
Types of Therapy Provided: Language, cognition, swallowing therapy.
Diagnoses Seen: Typically patients who can no longer care for themselves and have needs that cannot be satisfied with outpatient visits. Patients suffering from various types of dementia, strokes or TBIs with poor recovery in hospital, patients suffering from psychiatric conditions, patients with long standing developmental disorders, geriatric patients.
Caseload: Depends on how many residents are eligible for speech-language pathology services.
Allied Professionals: Nurses, doctors, other rehabilitation professionals, dieticians, family members.
Benefits: Depends on size of facility, but full time employees can be given many benefits like medical insurance, vision insurance, dental insurance, disability insurance, life insurance, retirement benefits. Some may also offer tuition assistance, offering funds for conferences or continuing education courses, paying for state licensure and dues for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Part time and PRN employees typically are not eligible for these benefits and are hired as independent contractors. Travel employees typically receive benefits through their agency and are similar to benefits received by full time employees.
Time Off: Varies on current staffing needs of the facility. Typically 10 Days paid time off and/or sick time off. However, most likely would be expected to work weekends and holidays. Time off typically has to be requested weeks in advance.
Schools
Goal: Help students succeed in their school environment (coursework and peer relations) despite limitations
Types of Therapy Provided: speech/articulation, expressive/receptive language, pragmatics (social communication), fluency, voice/resonance disorders, occasionally swallowing.
Diagnoses Seen: The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) is a federal law that states special education and related services are to be given to all children with disabilities. Therefore, students in Pre-K, elementary, middle, junior, and high schools with speech and articulation disorders, expressive/receptive language disorders, fluency disorders (stuttering), voice/resonance disorders, developmental delays or disorders. Autism spectrum disorder is a growing population of need in this setting.
Caseload: Depends on size of school, number of students eligible for services, current staffing needs at school, and if speech therapist is placed across multiple schools throughout the week. In ASHA’s 2020 Schools Survey, the median caseload size was 47 students but ranged from 65 to 30 students. Services are typically conducted through individual, small-group sessions, or within the classroom.
Allied Professionals: Teachers and other education professionals, ABA therapists, AAC support technicians, occupational therapists, families.
Benefits: Full time employees typically are given many benefits like medical insurance, vision insurance, dental insurance, disability insurance, life insurance, retirement benefits. Some may also offer tuition assistance, offering funds for conferences or continuing education courses, paying for state licensure and dues for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Part time and PRN employees typically are not eligible for these benefits and are hired as independent contractors. Travel employees typically receive benefits through their agency and are similar to benefits received by full time employees.
Time Off: Speech therapists who work in the school receive the same time off as the students in the school and can include the customary 10 days paid time off and/or sick time off. This includes having winter breaks, spring breaks, other holidays, and the entire summer off. Some schools offer pay schedules so speech therapists can be paid through the summer or just for their nine months of work. Speech therapists can elect to pursue part time work over the summer in other settings or continue services through summer school programs.
Private Practice
Goal: Provide speech-therapy services to children to supplement school services or to prepare children for school services. Can also provide services to adults following discharge from the hospital or for other conditions that do not necessitate inpatient intervention.
Types of Therapy Provided: Across the lifespan and range throughout the entire scope of practice of speech therapists. Depends on the clinic’s specialty and capabilities of the speech therapists staffed in the clinics. Can include: speech/articulation, language, fluency (stuttering), pragmatics, cognition, voice/resonance, feeding and swallowing, auditory habilitation/rehabilitation. This setting is the most likely to offer elective services like gender affirming communication therapy for transgender and gender diverse individuals, preventative vocal hygiene, business communications and professional voice use, and accent/dialect modification.
Diagnoses Seen: Depends on clinic’s specialty and capabilities of speech therapists staffed in clinics. Speech therapists who are “jack-of-all-trades” typically gravitate to these positions due to the wide range of diagnoses.
Caseload: Varies greatly. Can expect to see between 3 – 15 patients in a day depending on staffing needs and average length of sessions. Typically can be dictated by the employee.
Allied Professionals: Other speech-language pathologists, other rehabilitation service providers depending on size and capabilities of the clinic.
Benefits: Mostly staffed by independent contractors who are ineligible for benefits but receive higher pay. Some offer full-time employee status which can include medical insurance, vision insurance, dental insurance, disability insurance, life insurance, retirement benefits, offering funds for conferences or continuing education courses, paying for state licensure and dues for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Time Off: Varies depending on staffing needs. Highly flexible if independent contractor and any guidelines would be delineated in contract and can be negotiated.
Benefits of Speech Language Pathology
Speech-language pathology is a highly rewarding career that makes it an attractive career choice for many. Below we’ll explore the key benefits speech therapists themselves believe to be the highlight of their careers.
Meaningful Work
Speech-language pathologists work with individuals across the lifespan to help them improve their communication and/or swallowing skills. This work directly impacts a person’s ability to connect with others, express themselves, and improve their quality of life. They empower and educate patients to take control over their communication and/or swallowing to return to their activities of daily living.
Culture that Promotes Work-Life Balance & Flexible Schedule
With such a wide range of settings, speech-language pathologists can choose a setting that best fits their needs and schedule. Families gravitate towards the school setting or private practices as it fits the best with their children’s schedule. Other speech therapists who love change and travel gravitate towards travel contracts, which allows them to work in a different setting in a different city every 12-13 weeks.
Autonomy
Speech-language pathologists also enjoy a high degree of autonomy in their work. While most work in multidisciplinary environments and have access to support from other providers, speech-language pathologists work independently and are responsible for designing and implementing treatment plans for their patients. They are able to decide how they wish to adapt standard strategies and techniques based on their clinical judgment and expertise to best serve their patients.
Job Security
Speech Language Pathology is a growing field and there is a high level of job security. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment is expected to grow 25.0% from 2022 to 2032. This is higher than the average for most other occupations.
Opportunities for Advancement
As speech-language pathologists gain experience, they may have the opportunity to move into leadership roles, mentorship positions, pursue doctoral degrees, or open their own practices.
Multidisciplinary Work Environment & Increased Support
Speech-language pathologists work in collaborative environments that allow them to learn from and work with other experts in their field. Mostly includes other healthcare professionals or education professionals depending on their chosen setting working together to provide comprehensive care for their patients. They can receive support from their colleagues and supervisors as well in the form of mentoring, continuing education opportunities, and professional development resources.
Work Aligns with Personal Strengths
Depending on what speech-language pathologists choose to specialize in, the work they do can strongly align with their personal strengths. People with high levels of problem-solving skills, empathy, and creativity thrive in this career. Due to speech-language pathologists’ wide scope of practice, they can lend other abilities and skill sets to various specialties.
For example, singers and singing instructors who switch careers to speech-language pathology gravitate to specialties in voice therapy to help singers with overall vocal hygiene and techniques to improve their overall performance. Members of the LGBTQIA+ community find themselves uniquely qualified to provide gender affirming voice therapy to transgender and gender-diverse individuals. People with a high degree of capacity with technology gravitate to settings that allow them to focus on provision and training of augmentative and alternative means of communication (technology that supports and can provide a vehicle for communication for patients with limited expressive verbal capacity) – a skill needed across ALL settings. Bilingual speakers are in extremely high demand across all settings.
Wide Variety of Specialties
As mentioned before, speech-language pathologists serve a wide variety of patients across the lifespan. Upon graduate, they are expected to have an understanding and be able to treat most patients eligible for speech-language pathology services. It is ultimately up to the discretion of the speech-language pathologist to determine if they are able to treat and serve a specific patient or if they should be referred to someone more qualified.
This also means that it is very easy to switch specialties and settings, typically by supplementing with targeted continuing education courses and PRN/part time experiences. Someone who works in early intervention with children between the ages of 0-3 can switch to working in the hospital with the appropriate supplemental certifications and coursework.
Highly Valued
Speech-language pathologists are highly valued across all settings due to the specialized service that they provide and their expertise. Providers in the medical settings rely on speech-language pathologists to determine the best diets for their patients with swallowing disorders to improve their outcomes. Teachers benefit and appreciate speech-language pathologists in the school settings for provision intervention within the classroom to help their students with outcomes and to minimize disruptions. Families are especially grateful to be able to communicate with their loved ones again and benefit from coaching to help successes in therapy transfer to the home.
Ongoing Educational Opportunities
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association dictates individuals must accumulate 30 PDHs or professional development hours during each 3 year interval to maintain their certification. This is measured by CEUs or continuing education units. 3.0 CEUs is the equivalent to 30 PDHs. There is a wide variety of continuing education courses available to SLPs to meet this requirement for all specialties. Speech-language pathologists can elect to take courses to help them change settings, to strengthen and improve their expertise in their chosen setting, or take courses to help them succeed in supervisory roles. Currently, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association offers 550+ courses for continuing education, but many other platforms offer these courses as well.
Speech language pathology is a highly rewarding career that offers a multitude of benefits as listed above. Speech-language pathologists have the opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of their patients and simultaneously receive a multitude of benefits as listed above. Due to the expansive scope of practice and variety of settings that can host speech-language pathologists, it is truly a career in which many can thrive depending on their personal interests and strengths.