Speak Out April 2019

On the evening of Thursday 28 February SPA ran an information evening for students and early career speech pathologists in ACT and NSW. The event was held in the NeW Space building, part of University of Newcastle’s city campus. A number of speech pathologists were able to attend the meeting via “zoom’ including a large cohort of students from Macquarie University. The main topics discussed included: • resources and support for early career speech pathologists; • having difficult conversations ; • social media: rewards, risks and responsibilities; • practice issues commonly faced by students and early carer speech pathologists; • the early career reference group. My thanks to the speakers including Speech Pathology Australia Manager, Ethics and Professional Issues Trish Johnson, Guild insurance Risk Services Manager Christie Boucher, and Frances Amman, early career member representing the Early Career Reference Group. Events for students and early career speech pathologists are planned in Adelaide and Perth in April and June respectively so keep an eye out for registration details. Early career speechie gathering Students from Macquarie University attended the information evening via teleconference.

Nichola Harris Manager Profesional Practice

Recently, speech pathology students from the University of Sydney and Southern Cross University ran information workshops for students from other health disciplines at a multidisciplinary forum, at the University Centre for Rural Health Lismore. In attendance were 35 students from other universities and disciplines such as medicine, pharmacology, dentistry, and osteopathy. The purpose of this event was to inform students about the role speech pathologists play in aged care and inform them of referral pathways and outcomes. The students were able to raise awareness among the students in other healthcare disciplines through small interactive, informative sessions about low tech and high tech AAC devices; dysphagia management and the IDDSI guidelines and oral health in the elderly. Feedback indicated that the students in attendance gained increased understanding of how speech pathologists can support the aged care population to improve their quality of life. This was a positive outcome for educating the next generation of newly graduating healthcare professionals about the range of practice areas of speech pathologists and keeps them informed on when it is best to refer patients to speech pathology services. Multi-disciplinary day

The students would like to thank the University Centre for Rural Health Lismore for providing the opportunity to speak to students of other disciplines in order to advocate and raise awareness for the speech pathology profession.

30

April 2019 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

Speak Out