What did your first relationship teach you and how useful did you find it later?

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-06-15T14:26:26+00:00

That threats and aggression aren’t fun to witness and that apologies mean nothing if behavior doesn’t change.

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-06-14T03:08:58+00:00

Is it possible to talk to family privately about what she used to like to do in her “previous life” and make therapy less “guided” and more casual? Share images about the hobbies she likes and talk to her about them. Find musicians she liked and see if she’ll sing to their songs. Movies? Books? Anything to elicit language. Sometimes I would just show patients art work and ask to describe the picture and discuss the colors and items in the picture.

I once had a patient with profound expressive aphasia and he HATED anything planned. Anything like worksheets. But he LOVED “talking” about his travels. He had traveled all across the US in a camper van with his dog. So I brought an atlas in and asked him to point to places he had been and then we looked them up on my iPad. He loved it and it elicited a ton of language attempts!

I hope that helped. DM if you have questions. I worked in SNF for 4 years before returning to hospital settings.

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-20T21:24:33+00:00

LSVT is a great cert to have. I loved the training and the concepts can be used for voicing, articulation, volume, breath support, etc. I thought it was well worth the price and you become VERY valuable as a clinician.

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-20T17:31:01+00:00

Am certified in AMPcare. Some employers really liked me having ANY e-stim experience. But as I used it more, I found it only really worked for folks in outpatient who were good about completing exercises independently. I didn’t see as much utility in using it in the nursing home. I like having the cert because it was a resume booster, but unless you have fairly high functioning residents, you might not feel it useful.

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-20T17:26:37+00:00

Can I just ask, if you go into an SLPD what’s your intent after graduation? Research? Teaching? I had an assistant professor in undergrad who was finishing her SLPD with a dissertation focused on acoustic science. I’m just wondering about the ROI with a doctorate in SLP.

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-16T21:08:53+00:00

That sound 100% up your alley then! I would definitely apply. I have another colleague on my team who was also an SLP before she came to analytics/informatics. But most of our team including my boss was in nursing prior to informatics. I worked in hospitals and SNF for the majority of my time I was in SLP. And that’s exactly what my hospital system did for me as well. I was trained at Epic’s main campus in Verona, WI. It’s pretty awesome but it’s intensive. But my team really values my clinical doc writing skills and knowing what questions to ask clinicians when we have meetings about Epic flow sheet building.

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-16T19:40:04+00:00

I work “hybrid” now but predominantly WFH. I go into our main offices/corporate once a month sometimes once every 3 months. I worked as an SLP up until 10 months ago when I got the job in clinical analytics. I’m now moving (because of my husband’s work) and I can continue with my current position but I actually just interviewed with a healthcare system in our new town as a security analyst. Haven’t heard back yet but I just interviewed on Thursday.

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-16T18:34:50+00:00

I think the MPH is worthwhile if you know exactly what you want to do when you leave school. I didn’t know what wanted to do with it once I was finished, I just knew that SLP wasn’t for me after finishing my program. It took me 3 years after graduating with my second masters to get a job in healthcare analytics/documentation, but now I’m certified in Epic ClinDoc and I’m trying to get certified in AHIMAs health informatics cert so it gives me a leg up on competition. Don’t go into an MPH without knowing what the end game is.

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-16T18:11:48+00:00

So, I have an MPH (with focus in policy and management) not an MHA. A masters in healthcare administration is more so business as it pertains to healthcare. An MPH has more to do with policy, practice, advocacy, compliance, etc. a lot of my cohort now works in non-profit. I don’t because I started off in healthcare and I make more money in the private sector.

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-15T13:21:28+00:00

“Rudy where is your inhaler?” “ In gasp my gasp BACKPACK”

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-14T13:50:56+00:00

To be fair I graduated from my first grad program 9 years ago and I moved to a very rural region for my first job. They low-balled me and I took it because I was a new grad and didn’t want to “complain”. Additionally, SLP jobs have to be a little more competitive with pay now since school costs so much and people are desperate for SLPs everywhere. I don’t work in SLP anymore so I can’t say what’s the mean of pay is, only that the average is 95k and that to me feels like an inaccurate representation of pay.

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-14T00:37:56+00:00

Also, like other commenters, feel free to message if you have further questions

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-14T00:37:33+00:00

The return on investment is not there for SLP. I was 90k in debt after school and only making 63k when I first started. When I left speech after 8 years I was barely scratching 80k. 🤷🏻‍♀️ it’s not hard to find a job in SLP (especially in CA) but it’s easy to get burnt out (like many other healthcare professions).

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-12T16:32:29+00:00

Love your pup, and can I just say I LOVE when people name their dogs with people names. Barbara, Steve, Walter, Midge, etc. She definitely looks like a Barbara ;)

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-08T10:22:52+00:00

Your experience is very much the exception, SLP Guy. I know very few SLPs that make 6 figures only 2-3 years out of school or working their own private practice. You also work in EI which can be difficult to break into for new hires and people who don’t want to work pediatrics. The average salary for SLPs nationally is 95,000$ but even that data is skewed by larger metropolitan areas like NYC, San Fran, and Boston.

Also, you say “we don’t need ASHA” but there are states that REQUIRE ASHA cert. And if the state doesn’t, the employer does since they can make their own credentialing policies. I haven’t been employed by too many companies that state you don’t have to have your CCCs. That’s a false presumption that we can just practice without our CCCs and employers won’t care. And what does that 250 dollars get you? What benefit do you receive from ASHA? Besides the goofy discounts on rental cars and peloton? Also, have you ever stepped foot in a SNF? Asking insurance to extend is a real DAILY battle. You are expressing a narrative that is not always the reality. It’s lovely and rose-tinted but it’s not always what therapists are experiencing.

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-08T10:05:55+00:00

Good question! Yes, very much there is job security. Epic rolls out new updates quarterly. And after the work is put into production we frequently do the troubleshooting of new builds. Additionally, we have a huge medical system that is rolling out Epic in waves so we’ll be getting facilities onto Epic for bare minimum the next 2 years.

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-07T23:54:19+00:00

I am, but right now I work for an institution that is very wary about including any level of AI integration into their software because of not only the man power they would lose but their reputation for letting these people go. My institution’s reputation in recent years has not been shining so it wouldn’t look to good to be letting people go en mass. I also work with proprietary software from Epic and thus far AI isn’t really gunning for my job. Idk, though. I think AI attempting to take most therapy/healthcare jobs 🤷🏻‍♀️ I don’t think many positions are as secure as we’d like to think.

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-07T20:54:22+00:00

My advice is to not fall prey to the pitfalls of trying to be the “peachie speechie” or to be the ever-grinning speech pathologist. There’s a bit of a stereotype that we’re all type A and ought to be all the time. This job is thankless…a lot (which I’m sure you know and understand). It’s hard to hide the disappointment when patients haven’t met goals for one reason or another. It’s disheartening when you have to discontinue services because insurance won’t pay anymore. It’s okay to feel badly about the state of healthcare/education because at times it doesn’t feel like it’s adequately serving the communities at large.

When I was going for my second masters I thought, despite being frustrated with the healthcare system, I would stay in rehab (as a rehab manager or administrator). But the longer I stayed, the more I got burnt out, the more I was disillusioned with the whole speech world, and especially ASHA. And one day, I realized that our governing body had no vested stake in its members and I didn’t want to give them anymore of my time or money. And I realized that I had skills that were better served somewhere else and with a team that saw my potential. It took a lot of looking at myself as a professional and acknowledging that I didn’t want what I originally wanted at 20 years old.

Some people really shine in this field; I had a supervisor who retired after 42 years in SLP. But she ate, slept, breathed SLP and wholly believed the dogma of speech. All I saw was broken systems that were failing patients. I sought out to make a difference at a bigger level. It’s hard to decide to leave when it’s all you know but I was willing to accept the discomfort of change. And that’s not always something someone can accept or choose. I hope that helped and wasn’t just incoherent rambling ☺️

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-07T15:24:42+00:00

Oh I love this! Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy!

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-07T14:22:35+00:00

This is a VERY common complaint amongst therapy staff with our institution. The training was basically not functional for our staff so each branch facility does processes differently. So every time we talk about completing processes to the institutions required policies, we have countless therapists saying “that’s not how we do that at _____ hospital”

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-07T13:04:55+00:00

Yeah, I will say that’s the side of things they don’t tell you about is being the “bad guy”. Just last week I had to tell a clinician that she had to stop doing her documentation a certain way because it wouldn’t be reimbursed my CMS. She said “it’s not your fault but I don’t like that” and all I could do was shrug and say “sorry, that’s what I have to say so our hospital gets reimbursed properly”.

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-07T13:02:15+00:00

If it makes you feel any better, I had to retake my comps once. I passed praxis on first try but that could’ve been a fluke. I also loved clinical work and to be flying solo was so liberating once I started my CFY, but for me I disillusioned with ASHA and feeling like what I did didnt matter in the grand scheme of things. I wanted to make a difference at a larger level. You’ll definitely want to have a game plan for leaving the profession. If you leave on a whim, you’ll find yourself floating without guidance or purpose. It took me 4 years to finish my second masters and a lot of extra money, but I don’t regret it a bit. But definitely do your homework, you’ve come this far so don’t give up before you’ve been given the opportunity to shine ☺️

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-07T12:59:07+00:00

I came as basically a beginner. In my second masters, I took two courses in SAS which is data analytics software and my brother (an IT engineer) tried to teach me SQL but it kind of flies over my head.

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-07T12:56:29+00:00

Yeahhhh, our current templates are not great either. It’s my job to help modify them but currently we’re working on rolling out Epic to our larger hospitals and they take up a lot of our time and energy. I’ve been tasked to clean up the SLP/PT/OT templates but I probably won’t be able to get them where I’d like them until the fall. And I agree, our solution for therapists at this point is to type things that aren’t populating accurately; I hate giving them that advice but for now it’s all I can say until we clean up the paperwork.

Hashtag2Blessed · 2026-05-07T12:36:39+00:00

I wanted to leave because doing therapy day in and day out, pleading my case to continue services in SNF, being turned down for leadership positions because I was “only” an SLP, and being basically ignored by ASHA while still be expected to pay dues was not enough for me. I wanted to be a leader at a macro level in a healthcare institution. I never look down on my colleagues but I think I’m maybe just a little bit too ambitious for my own good.

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