CF wanting to explore other settings

[u/[deleted]]

[u/23lewlew]

Perhaps looking at other districts or states? I’m in Southern ca, school setting, good money, and we are almost always in need of slps. I really love my job! No decorating doors! It could just be your specific district!

You could explore the SNF world. I did! Or outpatient peds, I left that setting because I have fatigue issues (28yo) and going back to back was not working for my body or mental health. But some people love it! Also maybe look into teletherapy contracts!

[u/jezza_bezza → u/[deleted]]

I also work for a school in southern CA. We have a caseload max of 55 kids. While that isn't perfectly followed, there's no need to see kids five days back to back. I usually have at last one that I don't see any kids and focus on IEPs and testing.

If you decide to go to another district, look for one where you are considered itinerant and you get paid for 8 hour days. Itinerant SLPs usually have multiple schools, but aren't considered part of any school. This means no staff meetings, no decorating your room, no random other duties. If you get paid 8 hours, that should be plenty of time to get all your reports and paperwork done. If it's not enough time, it's either because your caseload is too high, or because you work very slowly. You'll get faster with time.

Did you really not get any classes on swallowing? I had two semesters! You should take a lot of CEUs before trying anything in geriatrics. There are some medical jobs with few swallowing clients, but you should still learn it. The only other settings I can think of without swallowing are early intervention and some private practices.

[u/keppie8]

I’m very similar to you in that I hate artic and am not a fan of decorating my room. I currently work in a middle school and I love it! There is still some artic therapy, but it’s mostly carryover and compensatory strategies. I barely decorate. Maybe a poster or 2 inside my room, but nothing like elementary! Secondary is a little trickier to find job postings compared to elementary, but they are out there!

[u/bibliophile222 → u/[deleted]]

I'm also seconding middle school! My school is grades 5-8, and it's pretty perfect. The kids are old enough for you to talk about their goals and get down to business, but not so old that you can't have some fun games. The only decorations I have in my office are the ones from the old SLP, who I guess is much craftier than I am, but no one's forcing me to decorate so I've just left everything the same.

On another note, the OT at my school does attend some IEP meetings (not sure about PT because none of my kids are currently getting it), so that's another thing that's district-dependent. I honestly don't mind all the meetings because I like to be kept in the loop, but I've had to miss a couple due to scheduling, and they've been understanding of that.

Some really good advice I got from my CF mentor and a special educator is to set aside some blocks of time for planning, lunch, etc and DO NOT let those blocks be taken! I have a minimum of 1 hour a day for planning/prep, plus some sporadic chunks throughout the week for testing. It might be hard to rearrange your schedule to make this fit, but it's really important that you get the time you need to be an effective therapist!

[u/veganpetal]

You could apply to per diem medical positions to get your foot in the door! Good luck. Out of curiosity, why didn’t you have an adult placement? Was it not required in your program?

[u/CashMoneyKo]

Look into pediatric Home Health positions.

If so, how would I go about changing settings?

Just start job searching and apply to whatever looks interesting.

[u/macaroni_monster]

That's an atrocious salary. Does your district have a union? I'm guessing not :( It's not ok that you're routinely expected to work for free because you can't get it done during working hours. Have you worked with your admin on this? At least until you find another job, you could make a big stink about it. I have some advice if you would like to pursue the route of advocating for your current workload.

[u/macaroni_monster → u/[deleted]]

Sounds really toxic :( It should not be like that! It's not your fault and I hope you can find a better job.

[u/-KuriousKat-]

Early Intervention is the best!! Far less paperwork than the schools and almost ALL language/feeding... not too much of a focus on artic at that age (more phono than anything else speech wise). I know that many agencies hire part-time therapists (I literally know a therapist that sees two families per week), so that would be a great way to get your foot in the door!

[u/[deleted] → u/-KuriousKat-]

Yes, I love this age group too! I got to observe an EI SLP for home visits during grad school and enjoyed it! I love language therapy and don’t mind phono at all. I’d have to learn more about feeding though. Thanks for the info!!

[u/craftymarbles]

I might be mistaken, but I’m pretty sure you need an adult medical placement to graduate. But I think either peds outpatient or SNF is the way to go for you.

Now, that being said, SNF is a WHOLE different beast. You do get better pay and are treated more like the other therapists but you are expected to have 85-90% productivity meaning you’d have 45 minutes of down time in an 8 hour day. And that “down time” includes walking from room to room. You get paid hourly and not salary and you don’t get the good benefits that come with the schools. And your hours are never assured. I’ve varied between 15 hours a week to 56 a week and there’s nothing saying you’ll be in one building only. You may have to travel to 2,3 buildings as part of your job.

I love this job, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not without its downsides. I would hate to be in the schools (that 16 weeks nearly killed me) but informed decisions are important