[Dysphagia] Qualifications: Consider Dysphagia Teams

[kgoertz at paphr.sk.ca (Clarke-Goertz, Kim (PAPHR))]

I wholeheartedly agree. I have a similar relationship with my acute care
dietician and it is wonderful.
I just wish we had some trained OT's as well.  We end up with a lot of
people coming 'through' our hospital (younger therapists) who have
'interest' in the area of dysphagia, but no clinical experience or classes.
I have an overwhelming caseload and thus not a lot of time to be mentoring
folks who need 'basic training'.
I hope education and clinical placements continue to be alive and well and
OT programs, as I could really use one who had some training vs. ones who
require it from me.

And I appreciate Karen and Jeanne's contributions from an OT perspective.
As much as I think our professions bring different things to the table in
dysphagia care, it sounds as if the level of university preparedness is
similar (unless you are not required to take basic sciences, which I find
surprising that SLP or OT wouldn't be required to do so).

I think this is a healthy discussion and aside from a few sniper shots at
Irene, I think it has been valuable (judgement suspended in regard to
Irene's battles, those she's perfectly capable of defending on her own).

Thanks to all for contributing.
I hope we all have the opportunity to work more in teams, I would guess
inadequate staffing has much to do with the sparse opportunites.

Kim 

-----Original Message-----
From: Wilma Clancy [mailto:Wilma.Clancy@cdha.nshealth.ca]
Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2006 15:56
To: dysphagia@b9.com; dysphagia-request@b9.com
Subject: [Dysphagia] Qualifications: Consider Dysphagia Teams

I find this discussion very interesting.  What is abundantly clear to me is
that very few of you work in teams.  I don't mean teams that you only see on
paper, but actual practitioners that do assessments and make decisions and
make care plans cooperatively together.  I work in a Canadian tertiary acute
care facility where the speech language pathologist and the dietitian work
together--side by side.  Our training, skill sets and knowledge base are
very complimentary and work together in the best interest of the patient.
Where the SLP has a more vast knowledge regarding the neuro assessment, the
dietitian has a better grasp on the medical condition of the patient.  We do
both the clinical bedside assessments together and the modified barium
swallow assessments together.  I'm sure many of you think this isn't
cost-effective.  However, we find it very efficient, as we can "divide and
conquer" the tasks at hand,  including:  charting, family education, staff
education, diet orders, tube feed changes, posting feeding guidelines at
bedside, etc.  The dietitian monitors medical, nutritional and hydration
status carefully, while the SLP monitors neurological and respiratory change
and together we alter the care plan and reassess dysphagia to provide
patient-centred care.  We can't be expected to know it all and do it all,
and it's very important to know where your expertise lies and to know what
you don't know. We all try to keep up with the dysphagia literature, and
even here find complimentary skills when looking at the literature and
weighing the evidence.  Dysphagia teams work, and who better to be on them
than the SLP and dietitian--especially in acute care.  

Respectfully submitted,
Wilma Clancy P.Dt.  Clinical Dietitian Stroke and Neurology

*****************************************
Confidentiality: This email message may contain confidential information and
is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named
addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this email. Please
notify the sender immediately by email if you have received this email by
mistake and delete this email from your system. Email transmissions cannot
be guaranteed to be secure or error free as information could be
intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or
contain viruses. 
The sender therefore does not accept any liability for errors or omissions
in the contents of this message that arise as a result of email
transmissions. If verification is required please request a hard copy
version.

_______________________________________________
Dysphagia mailing list
Dysphagia@b9.com
http://lists.b9.com/mailman/listinfo/dysphagia