Why Become a Speech Language Pathologist

It is hard to believe that I have spent the last 26 years working as a speech-language pathologist in healthcare, and it continues to be an exciting field with many challenges and opportunities. Survey results often portray the story of individuals working in careers that are unfulfilling and mundane, which serve the primary purpose of obtaining a paycheck to cover living expenses. The individual finds little excitement in their job and looks forward to the weekends for relief and recovery. These survey results are foreign to me in my job role due to the complete level of job role satisfaction and enthusiasm I have continued to experience after 26 years in the field as a speech pathologist.

Perhaps you are curious, wondering, what is speech pathology and what is so special about this profession that it generates a high level of job role satisfaction and enthusiasm that is still going strong after a quarter century? Speech pathology, also termed speech-language pathology, is the study of the disorders that affects a person's speech, language and swallowing. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) choose one or a mixture of two main clinical areas to work in, which are with adults or children. Adult work mainly involves rehabilitation after a traumatic event, such as a stroke, which may leave a person with a disorder such as aphasia, dysarthria or apraxia. Work with children mainly involves attempting to bring the child's language or speech skills up to the level of their peers.

I have opted to work mainly with adults and the following are some of the reasons that have contributed to my enthusiasm and job role satisfaction over the course of 26 years:

1. Tremendous diversity in job setting opportunities from the public school and university setting to medical speech pathology;
    
2. Multitude of work choice settings in medical speech pathology including acute hospitals, nursing home facilities, home health agencies, adult day care centers, rehab hospitals, and private practice;
    
3. Opportunity to interact with other medical professionals including physicians, neurologists, psychologists, social workers, occupational and physical therapists, dietitians and nursing;
    
4. Ability each and every day to make a positive difference in the life of patient, whether it is regaining speech after a stroke or speaking for the first time with a speaking valve after a tracheotomy or eating foods by mouth following return of a functional swallow with elimination of tube feeding; and
    
5. Opportunities for management, both in operations and clinical, at both a single site and multi-site level.

Options are tremendous and the career path an individual will take as a speech pathologist will depend upon their training and individual goals. Those who accept the challenge of this profession will find the effort put forth to earn the appropriate degrees will be rewarding.

What might you expect to encounter if you accept the challenge of becoming a speech-language pathologist? The process begins with a broad educational experience in the liberal arts and sciences. Emphasis is placed on basic classes in speech-language development, speech-language disorders, audiology, neuroanatomy, psychology, and related courses. All of these courses equip the student with the necessary skill set (analytical, oral and written) to undertake professional training at a graduate level. It is at the graduate level that speech-language pathologists receive the academic and clinical training that prepares them for professional certification and licensure and permits them to practice as private practitioners or as employees of public and private agencies.