Perspectives Winter/Spring 2019

40 | DR. PALLAVI PATEL COLLEGE OF HEALTH CARE SCIENCES EVENT Perspectives | JUNE AND AUGUST 2018 Interprofessionalism Students Collaborate at Baby Lab and PT Neuro Boot Camp BY ELIZABETH ROBERTS, PH.D., CCC-SLP In the summer of 2018, students in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) participated in two interprofessional education and practice events offered by the Department of Physical Therapy at NSU’s Tampa Bay Regional Campus. During these experiences, SLP students collaborated with physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) students. On June 16, 29 SLP graduate students and 2 faculty members—Jennifer O’Brien, M.S., CCC-SLP, clinical instructor, and Jennifer Pusins, C.Sc.D., CCC-SLP, assistant professor—traveled to Tampa Bay to join their peers from physical and occupational therapy for a pediatric interprofessional education (IPE) event called Baby Lab. They were honored to accept an invitation from the event’s main coordinator, Lynda Ross, D.P.T., PT, assistant professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at NSU’s Tampa Bay Regional Campus. This was the first time SLP students joined the IPE Baby Lab. O’Brien recruited the SLP students, who represented the Fort Lauderdale/Davie, Fort Myers, Orlando, and Tampa Bay campuses. This group of dedicated students participated in an online, pre-event seminar led by O’Brien to review typical speech and language development, assessment tools, and the role of an SLP in an interdisciplinary assessment. Students were divided into 18 teams of 5 to 6 representing each discipline. On event day, students gathered for a lunchtime meeting to discuss and plan their assessment process as a team. Students utilized play and observation to assess and observe develop- ment skills in gross and fine motor, sensory, receptive and expressive language, cognition, and self-care domains of 18 children ages 4 months to 6 years. These students had the opportunity to effectively communicate their professional roles and responsi- bilities to the families and other health care students. An additional group of SLP students participated in clinical feeding and swallowing assessments dur- ing the Baby Lab event. Four infants with feeding/ swallowing difficulties were recruited from the local community and evaluated by the SLP students under the direct supervision of Pusins—an infant and pediatric feeding specialist. The assessment sessions were 60 minutes per infant and consisted of a parent interview, breastfeeding and/or bottle-feeding observation, and discussion of clinical impressions/recommendations. The students EVENT PERSPECTIVES An SLP student works with an infant at the Baby Lab.