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• Speech and language therapist: Jennifer

Speech and language therapist: Jennifer

This Case Study belongs to Speech and language therapist.

Jennifer works for the NHS as a specialist adult speech and language therapist. She has been a fully qualified speech and language therapist for two and a half years and has been in her current role for just over a year. Before embarking on a career as a speech and language therapist, she worked in debt recovery. Jennifer has a degree in psychology and a graduate diploma in speech and language therapy. Jennifer was attracted to this career because she wanted to work in a caring profession with a variety of clients. She enjoys the balance the job brings between clinical work and office-based paperwork and says, ‘there is never a dull moment!’

Jennifer secured her first post as a speech and language therapist shortly after graduating. She would advise people to apply early and to provide a thorough and interesting personal statement on application forms and to be well prepared for interviews. Having spent her first year as a general speech and language therapist, Jennifer moved into a more specialist role when the opportunity arose in her workplace at the time.

In my current role, my duties and responsibilities include assessing, diagnosing and treating adult clients with acquired communication and swallowing difficulties. Although I am based in an acute hospital, I also work in the surrounding areas, covering various settings including nursing and residential care homes, acute wards and also carrying out home visits to clients returning home after a hospital stay. Due to the varied work I am involved with, I can really find myself in any kind of setting! At my base, there are five therapists and one speech and language therapy assistant but I also work with the wider multidisciplinary team including physiotherapists, occupational therapists, medical staff, specialist nurses, etc. I provide a service to the community on a needs basis, working as part of a community rehabilitation team, Parkinson’s multidisciplinary team and ‘Care at Home’ team.

I enjoy working with adults and get great satisfaction from being able to assist clients in their rehabilitation and seeing a positive outcome to treatment. I also really enjoy working as part of a team. I take part in training and education programmes - as well as helping with my own self-development, this helps me to build links with the wider community. I also act as a supervisor for undergraduate students.

In future, I would like to progress to a more specialist role, hopefully working with clients with progressive neurological conditions. Although I really enjoy my job, there are some downsides. Due to limited resources, we have to manage a very heavy caseload which can be stressful at times. Also, I sometimes find it very challenging to keep on top of paperwork, particularly when writing regular progress reports for clients.

Case Study sourced by Jill Muirden of University of Stirling, 09 February 2009.