Addie Hammer: Hi, welcome to Charting My Future. I'm Addie Hammer and today we are exploring speech and language pathology. Today's guest is Will Schmidt. Will is a speech language pathologist with 14 years of experience. He has worked in a wide variety of healthcare settings, including skilled nursing, outpatient head and neck surgery, and acute care. He has worked at Indiana University Health since 2016, where he has served as a clinical specialist and completed his board certification in swallowing disorders in 2019. He specializes in evaluation and treatment of complex disorders of swallowing with a focus on critical care in heart and lung transplant patients. Thank you for joining us, Will.
Will: Thanks for having me.
Addie Hammer: So tell me how you decided this was the right field for you.
Will: Well, I don't have a very conventional story about that, but I didn't really know what I wanted to do in college. When I got there, I was kind of undecided on on what my path was going to be. So I looked at a couple different things. I talked to some advisors and things like that. and I speech pathology came up as an option of something I wanted to do because I knew I wanted to do something that helped people, also had good, you know, career advancement opportunities, a field that was growing. and you you interviewed my mom, Lori, who's an occupational therapist. And she kind of helped me, we talked about it, and she kind of helps me guide towards that path is something I wanted to do that kind of mixes science with also helping other people and getting outcomes for people that help them move on with their life after something that may cause them problems with swallowing, communication, hearing, different things like that. So I decided to pursue it and then just kind of fell to love it over time and it's just been kind of growing and and evolving since then.
Addie Hammer: Walk me through the path from where I'm sitting now, 16 and a junior, to being able to sit in your chair.
Will: being in high school, you have time to kind of look around and see what types of speech pathology areas are out there. you can do a lot of different things when it comes to speech pathology, either working in pediatrics or adult. And then in those paths, you know, thinking about where you could go. So well, could that be home health? Could you you know, shadow somebody in that setting? Could you shadow somebody who does outpatient pediatrics, a feeding clinic? somebody who works in a children's hospital seeing patients in the neonatal intensive care unit. Or if you want to work with adults, you could shadow somebody who works in acute care like I do, somebody maybe works in a skilled nursing facility or an outpatient clinic. they even they also have home health and in the adult setting as well. So starting by just kind of getting an idea what area might interest you. and after that, it would be applying to a school that has a speech pathology program, something that has speech and language and hearing science undergraduate degree. So that's a four-year degree. and then at that point you would at in you would apply for a graduate program that has a speech pathology degree. It's a two-year degree after that to get your master's. You have one year of an externship where you go actually out to a facility where there you have to do a pediatric and an adult rotation. And once you pass those and graduate, you're you're able to take get your license in speech pathology in whatever state you're in, and also apply for your your clinic certification of clinical competency or Cs is what we call that. So once you have those things accomplished, you can be a practicing speech pathologist in whatever setting you want to be in.
Addie Hammer: Do you have to do a residency after getting your degree?
Will: You don't have to do what's called a residency, but you do have to do something called a clinical fellowship. So that's a nine month period where you are paired with a a licensed speech pathologist and you meet with them at regular intervals. So you're being paid to be a speech pathologist, but you're still checking in and then once you're done with your fellowship year or what's called your c like your CFY, then you can be a licensed speech pathologist. So it just depends on where you want to do that fellowship position.
Addie Hammer: What is a skill that matters enormously in your job that nobody would guess from the outside?
Will: That's a great question. I would really say, you know, pattern recognition and also what I would consider like
Addie Hammer: Mm-hmm.
Will: detective work. you know, we want to know not just that the patient that we see is having a problem, but why they're having a problem, which I think is a skill that, you know, takes a lot of time to learn and kind of craft. you have to connect a lot of important information from different areas, especially when you're working in acute care like I do. So you're looking at information like surgeries, medications, how long a patient's been on a ventilator. their history, imaging, anatomy, all those different things have to come together to complete a a picture. And that's not something you typically think about as much whenever you're just trying to learn the different pieces and get your degree and get out and become a speech pathologist. So I would say those are probably definitely the biggest skill that may not seem as obvious on the outside.
Addie Hammer: is the most difficult part about this job that nobody warned you about?
Will: I would definitely say there's kind of an emotional weight that comes along with it when you work in the hospital. There's kind of a a weight of uncertainty sometimes. you know, there's the science, but nobody really warns you about how often you're gonna have to make some of these decisions and recommendations without having perfect information. and patients and family members really rely on you to make the best decision possible for their quality of life. And you're just using the best information that you have available. So you really carry the responsibility for those outcomes. and this really these things really matter to patients and family members. So I think that's definitely what I would where I would go with that.
Addie Hammer: When most people think of a speech pathologist or therapist, they think of someone working with a lot of kids, which is a interest of mine. But I noticed when I was reading your bio that you work mostly with adults in a hospital setting.
Will: Yeah, that's a great point. I do primarily work with adults. we see basically from about sixteen years old all the way up to a hundred all the time. So we do see some, you know, teenagers that come in for different things, but I don't personally work with kids. There's a lot of opportunities to be working with pediatrics in the field of speech pathology, whether that be like I said, in a a children's hospital working with, individuals on the neonatal intensive care unit. working in feeding clinics and things like that, working home health with kids that you may need to actually go to their home to see these patients for speech swallowing, alternative communication type of therapy. So there's a lot of different avenues if you want to be working in pediatrics, which is a really interesting part of this career. there's different lanes you can go into and if you find something you like as a specialty, you can obviously pick that up and and learn more about it and make it something that you want to do.
Addie Hammer: So well you have the distinction of my guest with the most letters behind their name. I count a record breaking twelve letters. How did you get so many and are they all needed to be a speech pathologist?
Will: So a few of them are needed, if you want to be a practicing speech pathologist. So MS, Masters of Science, so you need your master's degree, and then you apply for your certification of clinical competency or your Cs is what we call those. so those are required, so C C C S L P and then the BCS dash S, which is board certification and swallowing and swallowing disorders. That is not neat necessary for to be a practicing speech pathologist. That is something I decided to take on and I finished in 2019. It was a three-year period where I took some extra time to and kind of engulf myself in a lot of more research and outreach about swallowing disorders. so there's a board of that that manages this type of certification. so once I got my application together and all my related professional activities and different projects and things and made my case about that. They accepted my application. I took an exam and then I became board certified in that. So that's not necessary, but it was definitely something I wanted to do to kind of push myself a little bit further in the field.
Addie Hammer: That is a lot of letters. Everyone my age is being pushed towards engineering, coding, and AI. What is one thing that you do in your job that a machine cannot?
Will: Well I think really being at the bedside, doing a good history taking c a clinical swallowing evaluation, that's something we do quite frequently where you're actually at the bedside doing some different things to look at a a patient's tolerance of
Addie Hammer: Yeah.
Will: food and liquid, and then you know, recommending the appropriate test that happens next and then doing those tests. You know, we do what's called a modified barium swallow study. where it's an x-ray of someone while they're swallowing, or we do what's called a flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing, where you take a little scope in their nose and look in their throat while they swallow. And I don't think those things can really be done by AI. some maybe some
Addie Hammer: Definitely not.
Will: of the yeah, maybe some of the video that comes after that could be interpreted by AI, but putting all those pieces together and then doing the appropriate therapeutic intervention afterwards, I don't believe could probably be completed by AI, so I think that's really important to to understand about the field of speech pathology.
Addie Hammer: What is the trade-off you made for this job that you would make again?
Will: That's a really good question. there was a period of time whenever I was working. I just had started at at the Methodist, the Acute Care Hospital, when I was younger and I decided to go for that board certification and it was a very challenging you know, moment in time where I spent a lot of really early mornings working on things, evenings working on things because my, you know, my responsibility was to patient care when I'm at work, so there's not a lot of time to work on those extra projects. So I'd say I spent a lot of outside time working on things. and you know, it's tough at times, but in the end I think it was really rewarding to, you know, have build up my foundational knowledge of speech, swallowing, upper aerodigestive tract, anatomy, physiology, those type of things. So I definitely think if I had to do it again, I'd still spend that time working on it because it was really a beneficial and rewarding thing for me.
Addie Hammer: what is one piece of advice that you would offer to a junior who is interested in your profession?
Will: I would say, you know, at this point, just treat it kind of like you're like a business journalist. You know, look think about what the field entails, research the field of speech pathology. If that's something that interests you, reach out to different places that have speech pathologists in your area, see about shadowing. I know all of us would be really happy to take a a shadow for a day just to watch us and look around and see if that's something they like to do. and then just kind of make an informed decision about if that's something you want to pursue.
Addie Hammer: Okay, great. Well thank you so much. We're so glad to have you on the podcast.
Will: Yeah, yeah. No problem. Thank you.
Will: Thanks for having me.
Addie Hammer: So tell me how you decided this was the right field for you.
Will: Well, I don't have a very conventional story about that, but I didn't really know what I wanted to do in college. When I got there, I was kind of undecided on on what my path was going to be. So I looked at a couple different things. I talked to some advisors and things like that. and I speech pathology came up as an option of something I wanted to do because I knew I wanted to do something that helped people, also had good, you know, career advancement opportunities, a field that was growing. and you you interviewed my mom, Lori, who's an occupational therapist. And she kind of helped me, we talked about it, and she kind of helps me guide towards that path is something I wanted to do that kind of mixes science with also helping other people and getting outcomes for people that help them move on with their life after something that may cause them problems with swallowing, communication, hearing, different things like that. So I decided to pursue it and then just kind of fell to love it over time and it's just been kind of growing and and evolving since then.
Addie Hammer: Walk me through the path from where I'm sitting now, 16 and a junior, to being able to sit in your chair.
Will: being in high school, you have time to kind of look around and see what types of speech pathology areas are out there. you can do a lot of different things when it comes to speech pathology, either working in pediatrics or adult. And then in those paths, you know, thinking about where you could go. So well, could that be home health? Could you you know, shadow somebody in that setting? Could you shadow somebody who does outpatient pediatrics, a feeding clinic? somebody who works in a children's hospital seeing patients in the neonatal intensive care unit. Or if you want to work with adults, you could shadow somebody who works in acute care like I do, somebody maybe works in a skilled nursing facility or an outpatient clinic. they even they also have home health and in the adult setting as well. So starting by just kind of getting an idea what area might interest you. and after that, it would be applying to a school that has a speech pathology program, something that has speech and language and hearing science undergraduate degree. So that's a four-year degree. and then at that point you would at in you would apply for a graduate program that has a speech pathology degree. It's a two-year degree after that to get your master's. You have one year of an externship where you go actually out to a facility where there you have to do a pediatric and an adult rotation. And once you pass those and graduate, you're you're able to take get your license in speech pathology in whatever state you're in, and also apply for your your clinic certification of clinical competency or Cs is what we call that. So once you have those things accomplished, you can be a practicing speech pathologist in whatever setting you want to be in.
Addie Hammer: Do you have to do a residency after getting your degree?
Will: You don't have to do what's called a residency, but you do have to do something called a clinical fellowship. So that's a nine month period where you are paired with a a licensed speech pathologist and you meet with them at regular intervals. So you're being paid to be a speech pathologist, but you're still checking in and then once you're done with your fellowship year or what's called your c like your CFY, then you can be a licensed speech pathologist. So it just depends on where you want to do that fellowship position.
Addie Hammer: What is a skill that matters enormously in your job that nobody would guess from the outside?
Will: That's a great question. I would really say, you know, pattern recognition and also what I would consider like
Addie Hammer: Mm-hmm.
Will: detective work. you know, we want to know not just that the patient that we see is having a problem, but why they're having a problem, which I think is a skill that, you know, takes a lot of time to learn and kind of craft. you have to connect a lot of important information from different areas, especially when you're working in acute care like I do. So you're looking at information like surgeries, medications, how long a patient's been on a ventilator. their history, imaging, anatomy, all those different things have to come together to complete a a picture. And that's not something you typically think about as much whenever you're just trying to learn the different pieces and get your degree and get out and become a speech pathologist. So I would say those are probably definitely the biggest skill that may not seem as obvious on the outside.
Addie Hammer: is the most difficult part about this job that nobody warned you about?
Will: I would definitely say there's kind of an emotional weight that comes along with it when you work in the hospital. There's kind of a a weight of uncertainty sometimes. you know, there's the science, but nobody really warns you about how often you're gonna have to make some of these decisions and recommendations without having perfect information. and patients and family members really rely on you to make the best decision possible for their quality of life. And you're just using the best information that you have available. So you really carry the responsibility for those outcomes. and this really these things really matter to patients and family members. So I think that's definitely what I would where I would go with that.
Addie Hammer: When most people think of a speech pathologist or therapist, they think of someone working with a lot of kids, which is a interest of mine. But I noticed when I was reading your bio that you work mostly with adults in a hospital setting.
Will: Yeah, that's a great point. I do primarily work with adults. we see basically from about sixteen years old all the way up to a hundred all the time. So we do see some, you know, teenagers that come in for different things, but I don't personally work with kids. There's a lot of opportunities to be working with pediatrics in the field of speech pathology, whether that be like I said, in a a children's hospital working with, individuals on the neonatal intensive care unit. working in feeding clinics and things like that, working home health with kids that you may need to actually go to their home to see these patients for speech swallowing, alternative communication type of therapy. So there's a lot of different avenues if you want to be working in pediatrics, which is a really interesting part of this career. there's different lanes you can go into and if you find something you like as a specialty, you can obviously pick that up and and learn more about it and make it something that you want to do.
Addie Hammer: So well you have the distinction of my guest with the most letters behind their name. I count a record breaking twelve letters. How did you get so many and are they all needed to be a speech pathologist?
Will: So a few of them are needed, if you want to be a practicing speech pathologist. So MS, Masters of Science, so you need your master's degree, and then you apply for your certification of clinical competency or your Cs is what we call those. so those are required, so C C C S L P and then the BCS dash S, which is board certification and swallowing and swallowing disorders. That is not neat necessary for to be a practicing speech pathologist. That is something I decided to take on and I finished in 2019. It was a three-year period where I took some extra time to and kind of engulf myself in a lot of more research and outreach about swallowing disorders. so there's a board of that that manages this type of certification. so once I got my application together and all my related professional activities and different projects and things and made my case about that. They accepted my application. I took an exam and then I became board certified in that. So that's not necessary, but it was definitely something I wanted to do to kind of push myself a little bit further in the field.
Addie Hammer: That is a lot of letters. Everyone my age is being pushed towards engineering, coding, and AI. What is one thing that you do in your job that a machine cannot?
Will: Well I think really being at the bedside, doing a good history taking c a clinical swallowing evaluation, that's something we do quite frequently where you're actually at the bedside doing some different things to look at a a patient's tolerance of
Addie Hammer: Yeah.
Will: food and liquid, and then you know, recommending the appropriate test that happens next and then doing those tests. You know, we do what's called a modified barium swallow study. where it's an x-ray of someone while they're swallowing, or we do what's called a flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing, where you take a little scope in their nose and look in their throat while they swallow. And I don't think those things can really be done by AI. some maybe some
Addie Hammer: Definitely not.
Will: of the yeah, maybe some of the video that comes after that could be interpreted by AI, but putting all those pieces together and then doing the appropriate therapeutic intervention afterwards, I don't believe could probably be completed by AI, so I think that's really important to to understand about the field of speech pathology.
Addie Hammer: What is the trade-off you made for this job that you would make again?
Will: That's a really good question. there was a period of time whenever I was working. I just had started at at the Methodist, the Acute Care Hospital, when I was younger and I decided to go for that board certification and it was a very challenging you know, moment in time where I spent a lot of really early mornings working on things, evenings working on things because my, you know, my responsibility was to patient care when I'm at work, so there's not a lot of time to work on those extra projects. So I'd say I spent a lot of outside time working on things. and you know, it's tough at times, but in the end I think it was really rewarding to, you know, have build up my foundational knowledge of speech, swallowing, upper aerodigestive tract, anatomy, physiology, those type of things. So I definitely think if I had to do it again, I'd still spend that time working on it because it was really a beneficial and rewarding thing for me.
Addie Hammer: what is one piece of advice that you would offer to a junior who is interested in your profession?
Will: I would say, you know, at this point, just treat it kind of like you're like a business journalist. You know, look think about what the field entails, research the field of speech pathology. If that's something that interests you, reach out to different places that have speech pathologists in your area, see about shadowing. I know all of us would be really happy to take a a shadow for a day just to watch us and look around and see if that's something they like to do. and then just kind of make an informed decision about if that's something you want to pursue.
Addie Hammer: Okay, great. Well thank you so much. We're so glad to have you on the podcast.
Will: Yeah, yeah. No problem. Thank you.
