Our doctors, clinicians and staff take pride in their continued education that leads to our evidence based care. Over the past few months our staff has been hard at work learning the latest techniques in speech, hearing and the business world.
Speech-Language Pathologist Lindsay Bley has taken a wide variety of oonline courses expanding her clinical knowledge. Some of her courses include learning how to elicit /r/ using vowels that facilitate the greatest acoustic quality from the patient by Christine Ristuccia, a course on the assessment and training of narrative structures by Theresa Ukranitz and a breakdown of motor skill learning, acquisition and transfer. Lindsay was also excited to take a course with her former professor from St. Louis University on breathing techniques for peopel with vocal cord dysfunction (VCD) or paradoxical vocal fold motion (PVFM). “I learned that some patients best control symptoms through pursed lip breathing and may get out of “breathing attacks” through fast “sips” of air through pursed lips,” says Lindsay.
Lead Speech-Language Pathologist Jennifer Dierenfeld has also been busy at work with her continued education over the past few months. Her courses have included a “Clinical Documentation” presentation by Becky Sutherland Cornett, PhD. This information is being used to modify SOAP note documentation at the clinic. Jennifer also took a back to basics couse on voice evluation by Barbara Prakup, PhD, CCC-SLP and a class that gave information on how to best work with parents of children who stutter by Craig Coleman, M.A., CCC-SLP, BRS-FD.
Speech Program Director Maryam Sadrzadeh took a documentation course this past month which emphasized the documentation of the need for therapy, on more than just the evaluation report, ensuring documentation of the need for therapy is placed on daily progress reports. Maryam also took an Auditory Processing Disorder course further learning about the disorder and general recommendations.
Members of our audiology team have also been busy hitting the books. Doctor Tom Norwood just completed the 60 hours of continuing education required to maintain his American Board of Audiology (ABA) certification. Several of our doctors do this voluntarily as the American Speech and Hearing Association certification only requires 30 hours to maintain certification, which is required to practice in the United States. We are proud of our audiologists for going above and beyond in education!
Dr. Lindsey Melvin recently attended a week long pediatric conference learning the latest advancements in pediatric evaluation and treatment of hearing loss.
Clinic Director Ruth Norwood is holding down the business end of education with a budgeting course through Bellevue College. The class will enable our clinic to become more fiscally responsible through budgeting for both our patients and staff.