Communication Disorders Faculty, Students Lead Interprofessional Education and Collaboration on Stroke/Aphasia
Faculty and students in the UMass Amherst Department of Communication Disorders, working in collaboration with the Pioneer Valley Interprofessional Practice and Education Collaborative (PV-IPEC), recently held a virtual interprofessional education (IPE) program on stroke/aphasia. The event continues the longstanding arrangement that began in 2019 between the department and PV-IPEC to participate in and deliver interprofessional education programming throughout the region.
Led by Associate Professor Jacquie Kurland, Clinical Associate Professor Lisa Sommers and a cohort of second-year graduate students in the Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) program, the event was held for over 100 students from other local universities including Western New England University, Springfield College, American International College, Bay Path University, Elms College and Greenfield Community College. Participants were pursuing degrees in occupational therapy, social work, nursing, and physician’s assistant programs.
In a blog post written for the PV-IPEC website, SLP graduate students Jessica Bodish, Neaama Bourote, Renee Clark, Maria Girardin, Johanna Gray, and Amelia Iglesias shared their experiences and insights on the IPE event.
“Sharing a room with members of your cohort who have the same passion can be educational,” they write. “Sharing a room with students from related professional programs, albeit a Zoom breakout room with tiny square boxes, is both educational and empowering. You can be the ‘expert’ in the room and still leave with a notebook of knowledge you hadn’t considered before.”
The program opened with a presentation that documented the basics of stroke/aphasia etiology, their signs and symptoms, and the impact of aphasia on identity. Breakout sessions allowed students to discuss the role of their individual professions with stroke and aphasia, their experience and comfort level when interacting with a person with aphasia (PWA), and advocacy proposals.
The authors note that, for many of allied health profession students, aphasia was a relatively unknown topic in their education. This provided a learning opportunity to “take the time to understand the many varieties of aphasia presentation and the impact of living with aphasia on individual stroke survivors.”
Many participants expressed difficulties and discomfort in communicating with people with aphasia. The writers state that not only could these students “learn from the SLP students who are trained broadly in language and communication, but it was also beneficial for SLP students to recognize that they should continue to provide interprofessional guidance to their colleagues in their future careers.”
The second half of the IPE event included a presentation from Debra Meyerson, author of “Identity Theft: Rediscovering Ourselves After Stroke,” and her husband Steve Zuckerman. As co-founders of Stroke Onward, their goal is to tell the stories of PWA and their journeys of discovering a new identity post-stroke, with a unique focus on the emotional journey that supports stroke and aphasia recovery.
“Their powerful presentation supplemented our prior discussions perfectly,” the students write. “Debra and her family’s individual story of aphasia’s impact truly solidified the importance of all of our work, while also highlighting that this was only one story of many. Debra conveyed, for example, the importance of talking to individuals with aphasia directly and using the same tone and register as you would with any patient, so that they feel respected and heard. She also emphasized the critically important need to educate psychologists and counselors on treating people with aphasia.”
The students conclude that the “main takeaway from the IPE event was that our clinical skills will benefit, as will our future stroke and aphasia clients, when we learn to collaborate on an interprofessional team with our future colleagues. While there may be comfort in sticking to our own separate fields, when we come together, we can create connections with other professionals to become more effective providers. It is helpful to us individually as professionals; more importantly, however, when professionals of different backgrounds come together to share knowledge while promoting patient-centered care, we improve both our individual and collaborative team practices, a win-win for the team and for our clients.”
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