Blog Post 6 - That's a Wrap! 🎉

 Time to close up shop now... 

Practicum is almost over (only a few days left at this point) and I'm so excited to be finished!

Now that I've "been around the block" somewhat in terms of settings and populations worked with, I feel I can better discuss these things now.

So, let's reflect!

So far I have worked with ages ranging from 3 to 21 years as well as the geriatric population and have enjoyed working with all ages. 

Regarding my preferences, this blog post is really making me think because there hasn't been one setting in particular that I prefer more than the other. I have had positive experiences at each of my practicum placements, so it is hard to make a definite decision as to which setting I prefer or which one I would like to pursue a job in for my clinical fellowship year. 

When I look back at my first graduate practicum at the pediatric outpatient clinic, I can say I had wonderful supervisors who taught me a lot about the evaluation of receptive/expressive language, speech sound disorders, cognitive aspects, and treatment of the same issues along with fluency, voice and resonance, swallow and feeding, and augmentative and alternative communication modalities. I enjoyed this placement because my supervisors had a great outlook on their jobs and on teaching me. This facility was made for hosting graduate students as the supervisors were all extremely qualified and eager to teach me all that they could. 

My second practicum placement within the schools was great, even though I had to start a bit late due to unforeseen circumstances. I sadly wasn't able to learn as much as I wanted to within the time I was there, but my supervisor was as understanding as she could be (as well as accommodating) to help me reach the highest potential possible in the short time we had together. I had the opportunity to do many evaluations in this setting including speech sound production, receptive/expressive language, and hearing screenings as well as treating speech sound production, receptive/expressive language, fluency, social aspects, and augmentative and alternative communication modalities. It was inspiring to see my supervisor have such a passion for her job and serving the kiddos at her schools. However, she mentioned it was a common occurrence for her to take documentation home with her to work on and this is something I do not desire in a future job. 

This leads me to my final practicum placement in a skilled nursing facility (SNF). At this facility, I was able to evaluate swallowing and cognition, as well as voice (briefly). I was able to treat swallowing and cognition, as well as voice (briefly), hearing, receptive/expressive language, and augmentative and alternative communication modalities (briefly). I count this as the most challenging placement so far because it was my first adult placement and it was all so new to me. However, there have been some good experiences in this setting such as having meaningful conversations with patients and getting to be at the same facility my grandma lived at. Unfortunately, my grandma ended up passing away during my placement there, and it was super difficult going back after she passed - not being able to see her sweet smile each day. I remember her singing You Are My Sunshine with her best friend there every day which brought a smile to my face - no matter the challenges I was facing that day. This placement saw a lot of my emotions this semester 🥲, but I wouldn't trade spending the last few days with my Gma while she was alive.

One of the pros of working in a SNF is that it is not common to have to take work home with you once your day is done. However, if you do not finish seeing patients or completing documentation on a certain day, it is possible that the need will arise for you to come in to work on the weekend (and this is not something I desire in a job either). I realize as a professional I will have to make compromises to advance in the field, but I am thankful for the opportunity to use this blog as a place to vent about my feelings and talk things out.

I have grown the most this semester out of all 3 placement settings because it was like trying to master a setting that I have had no previous hands-on experience in. My supervisor has allowed me to independently complete some evaluations and treatment sessions and I believe that has helped me grow a great deal since the beginning of the semester. I have learned a lot about documentation and daily note-writing in this setting, which has been super beneficial in case I decide to stay in this setting for my CFY. 

Overall, there are pros and cons to each setting, and I feel like my clinical practicums were helpful/all contained positive experiences I am thankful for to this day. These experiences gave me useful insight as to what each setting is like on a day-to-day basis, but I honestly don't think I am fully qualified in any of the three settings enough to claim full competence/confidence for a clinical fellowship year unfortunately... 

Truthfully, I feel too far removed from the outpatient peds and school settings to feel comfortable moving into a job in these settings without equal supervision to what I had in my practicums. Since I am finishing up my placement at the SNF, I will say I feel the most confident in this setting since it is the one most fresh on my mind. However, I do not believe my personality is a good fit for the geriatric population and I would feel most comfortable providing services in a SNF if I had adequate supervision during my CFY there.

I always thought I would like the geriatric setting the best because I have always been an old soul at heart. As it turns out, I now think I might fit best with the pediatric population because my desire is to be bubbly and fun-loving. I have learned that this persona is not encouraged in an adult setting as adults may not respond well to a professional who does not seem serious about the services they're providing. On the other hand, children respond and learn better with a more upbeat personality teaching them.

Now I have a career-based identity crisis 🤪 because I am not totally sure which setting will be the right fit for me. As you can tell, I excel at overthinking! I am not entirely sure where to go from here and that is currently where I stand with that. At this point, I will probably just work wherever will hire me 🤷🏻‍♀️.

I had absolutely no intention of airing all my dirty laundry in this blog post today, yet here we are... 😂

All this being said, I do not think I will continue to blog during my CFY or career as an SLP. As you can probably tell by the length of this blog post, I am the type to get easily overwhelmed by all the responsibilities required of me. It just won't be something I think I can manage along with everything else. However, I have really enjoyed using these blog posts to reflect on important clinical aspects and will keep this blog live to refer back to in the future to see how far I have come when I need a moment of encouragement. 

I can't wait to see which setting I end up in and hope that I can become competent and comfortable in whichever setting I choose to serve as an SLP. I truly look forward to what lies ahead for my future!

Signing off 👋🏻

Kaela