ASHA Learning Pass

SLPs may provide services for patients with upper and lower airway disorders, including those with tracheostomies and mechanical ventilation, at any level across the continuum of care. This panel brings together SLPs from acute care, long-term acute care hospital, and home health care backgrounds to discuss working with this population across different settings. The panel addresses similarities and differences across settings, what an SLP going into one of these settings can do to prepare for working with this population, considerations for transitioning between settings, and more.

This is a recorded session from a 2024 ASHA online conference, Airway Fundamentals: Considerations for SLP Decision-Making.

Learning Outcomes
You will be able to:

• Describe the types of care needed for communication and swallowing challenges in patients with tracheostomies and mechanical ventilation across various health care settings
• List competencies and training needed to work with patients with airway disease requiring tracheostomies, with special considerations for each setting
• Identify common barriers to care within each setting and how to mitigate them

Related Courses

See more sessions from Airway Fundamentals: Considerations for SLP Decision-Making.

Presenter Information

Meredith Oakey Ashford, MS, CCC-SLP (she/her/hers) has been a speech-language pathologist in the adult acute care program at Vanderbilt Universtiy Medical Center in Nashville for 15 years. She is the co-coordinator of the Vanderbilt University Hospital multidisciplinary tracheostomy team. Meredith has spoken at national conferences on the topics of dysphagia and collaboration with palliative medicine, communication assessments for patients who are ventilator-dependent via tracheostomy, and instrumental swallowing evaluations. She is a frequent guest lecturer across the medical center.

Disclosures:

• Financial compensation from ASHA for this presentation
• Salary from Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Tiffany A. Oakes, MS, CCC-SLP (she/her/hers) graduated with a Master’s degree in speech-language pathology from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in 2012. She has been a medical SLP in various settings from acute care to home health. Tiffany has experience developing patient care pathways to guide assessment and treatment selection for patients in home health. She also participates in the development of multimedia education related to health care and clinical practice.

Disclosures:

• Financial compensation from ASHA for this presentation
• Full-time clinical specialist with Passy-Muir, Inc.

Sarah Fox, MS, CCC-SLP (she/her/hers) graduated with her master’s degree in speech and hearing sciences from Tennessee State University in 2014. She is a FEES-certified speech-language pathologist, currently working in the long-term acute care setting with the tracheostomy and ventilator-dependent population. Sarah serves as an SLP Clinical Specialist at Select Specialty Hospital in Nashville, where she provides direct clinical services to patients as well as dysphagia education to other disciplines hospital-wide, including physicians and nurse practitioners. She has spoken at the Tennessee Association of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology conference annually since 2021, presenting on a variety of dysphagia-related topics. A two-time ASHA ACE award recipient, Sarah has a passion for swallowing and swallowing disorders research, educating other SLPs on chronic critical illness, and student supervision.

Disclosures:

• Financial compensation from ASHA for this presentation
• Salary from Select Specialty Hospital

Assessment Type

Self-assessment—Think about what you learned and report on the Completion Form how you will use your new knowledge.

To earn continuing education credit, you must complete the learning assessment by 11:59 p.m. ET on the end date below.

Program History and CE Information

Online conference dates: June 5–17, 2024, November 6-18, 2024
End date: July 3, 2030

This course is offered for 0.1 ASHA CEUs (Intermediate level, Professional area).