Pilot Interprofessional Student Clinical Experience Working with Patients with Aphasia and Caregivers
Background: Aphasia affects at least 2,000,000 people in the United States and creates communication difficulties which affect quality of life for the person with aphasia, their communication partners, and their caregivers. Aphasia may be accompanied by changes in physical abilities and other mental abilities as well. Many of these patients have health needs after exhausting their benefits. Caregivers are at higher risk for not accessing needed services for themselves. Our pilot clinic for patients with aphasia has been designed to provide access to multiple services in a single location, and to provide access to screening and support for their caregivers. Additionally, the clinic provides unique interaction between speech language pathology (SLP), occupational therapy (OT), audiology (AUD), social work (SW), and nursing (RN) students. Persons with aphasia and their caregiver will receive assistance accessing services during the evaluation and treatment appointments by being followed by a speech-language pathology graduate student throughout interactions with other professionals. The speech-language pathology student will help bridge communication gaps and assist other profession students in learning to adapt communication strategies to an appropriate method for each patient. When professions are not interacting with the person with aphasia, they will meet with the caregiver to determine caregiver needs and to provide resources. At the end of the encounter, the team (SLP, OT, AUD, SW, APRN, person with aphasia, and caregiver) will meet to discuss goals and plans.
Design: Students will rate each clinical experience using the Jefferson Teamwork Observation Guide, patients will rate progress toward goals after each experience, and caregivers will rate their experiences with progress toward self-care goals.
Lessons learned: Clinical experiences have been modified through feedback from patients with aphasia and their caregivers. Outcomes from the clinical experience will be shared once more data has been collected.
