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Respecting Clinicians: Can’t We All Just Get Along? – Jason M., OTR/L No matter what setting, city, state, or therapy discipline

Lorin G., OT I work now with JTP in a Skilled Nursing Facility, which is centered on senior care. One of our patients is a 57 year old lady, we’ll call her “Mari”, who used to be a special education teacher and who has had her life radically altered by a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis about 5 years ago. It was a difficult diagnosis for her doctors to make; first it was called Parkinson’s disease and only later was it understood as MS. So, what can we, as therapists, do for an individual with the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis? As there is no hard and fast cure for the condition, there is nothing we can ultimately do to completely alter an individual’s life that has been diagnosed with this condition. As therapists, we can help an individual take better control of the MS through ADL training, relaxation techniques, functional transfer training, therapeutic exercise energy conservation and psychosocial remediation.

The Physical Therapist as a Role Model – Ryan G., PT Recently I watched the season premier of “The Biggest Loser”

The Role of Speech Pathologists in Regards to Determining Feeding Tube Placement melissa n., SLP As a Speech Pathologist working in thelong term care setting, dysphagia and the effects that it has on a patient and his or her overall health status are a daily battle. In 1999, 46.9% of Speech-Language Pathologists reported that they regularly serve individuals with dysphagia on their caseload. The percentage exceeded 91% for professionals working in hospitals and residential health care settings (ASHA, 2000). The recommendation for “NPO with alternate means of nutrition” is not one that is easily determined, and the decision making that follows for the patient and his or her family is difficult, to say the least. It is essential that Speech Pathologists are well-versed on the advantages and disadvantages related to the placement of feeding tubes and the effects that non-oral nutrition may have on the patient and his or her family psychosocially. The risk of aspiration with oral intake, the quantity of oralfalse

Melissa N., SLP Collecting an oral history is an individualized, fun, functional method to begin therapy with an adult in any setting. Using a set of “interview” questions, a Speech Pathologist is able to modify the task to fit each patient’s goals. An oral interview addresses functional receptive and expressive language, long term memory, thought organization, and problem solving skills. The patient can be asked to compare/contrast life now to life at a certain age (problem solving), give instructions on how to cook or bake their favorite dish (sequencing), or recall daily events as a young parent (memory). Completing an oral history with a patient and writing responses on paper is an easy, insightful way to establish rapport, facilitate language, and stimulate memory skills. Once completed, the written responses can be given to the patient to be handed on to family members or friends for genealogical purposes. The format that I use is as follows, however, an SLP may add, modify, or reduce the interview asfalse