Swallow the Gap: Dysphagia and Medical SLP

37 Episodes

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$The Cough That Won't Stop: Understanding Chronic Refractory Cough$

The Cough That Won't Stop: Understanding Chronic Refractory Cough

2026-09-1737:15

Episode details: Many SLPs think of cough as an airway protection mechanism, something patients either have too little of or manage fine. Dr. Miranda Wright, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Florida's Breathe Center, works with the opposite problem: hypertussia, or heightened cough sensitivity. What happens when a cough won't go away, even after every test comes back normal? In this episode, she breaks down the peripheral and central mechanisms driving chronic refractory cough, walk...

Diagnose and adios? Stay a while longer, my friend.

2026-08-0242:03

Diagnose, stabilize, and move on to the next chart. That's a common model in acute care, but it's the one this team walked away from. One patient sat trached, decannulated, retrached, and off food, stuck until his care team decided the plan wasn't working and changed it. Three days later he was doing seventy-five to a hundred swallows a session. Four weeks after that, he was eating regular food, off the trach, and walking home. That case was one piece of a bigger shift. The SLP team at Johns ...

Demonstrate, Advocate: Bring Your Value to Multidisciplinary Settings

2026-04-2040:11

What does it look like to bring value as a speech-language pathologist when productivity demands are real and time is limited? In this episode, I talk with Jaimie Anderson, SLP and clinical researcher at one of the nation’s first multidisciplinary swallowing centers. We get into what this looks like in practice. Not in ideal settings, but in the day-to-day. Hallway conversations. Documentation that answers questions before they’re asked. Building relationships with the right people over time....

Why So Many SLPs Feel Underprepared: What You May Have Missed in Grad School

2026-03-1138:09

Why do so many clinicians feel underprepared when they first begin treating dysphagia? In a discussion that applies to SLPs in various settings, Dr. Jordan Hazelwood and I dive into challenges students face when transitioning from theory to clinical decision making, the importance of mentorship and critical thinking, and how simulation and structured training may help bridge the education-to-practice gap. Gap Education: https://swallowthegap.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swallowpa...

When the Walls Come Down: Cognitive Care in Real Life

2025-11-2145:57

This discussion explores what cognitive communication therapy can look like when it moves beyond worksheets and test scores. Guest Lauren Schwabish, an SLP with more than two decades of experience, explains how shifting into community-based practice allowed her to engage patients in more meaningful, real-life problem solving. She describes using self-anchored rating scales, functional observation, and collaborative strategies rather than relying solely on impairment-based models. The episode ...

#box-pro-ellipsis-179448893198356{-webkit-line-clamp:2;}Swallow the Gap: Dysphagia and Medical SLP

Swallow the Gap: Dysphagia and Medical SLP