Skill Builder: Bedside Swallow Evaluation - Patients with Tracheostomy

Outline:
Steps in Performing a Bedside Swallow Evaluation

Interpreting Dysphagia Assessment Results

Course Contributors

Resources

Natalie Scott, M.A., CCC-SLP is a certified and licensed speech-language pathologist with over 20 years of experience. Natalie graduated with her bachelor’s degree in audiology and speech sciences from Michigan State University and her master’s degree in communication disorders from Southeast Missouri State University. She has over 16 years of experience providing comprehensive evaluation and treatment in acute, long-term care, and home health settings treating medically complex and fragile patients with significant cognitive, communicative, respiratory, dysphagia, and/or swallowing instrumentation needs. Natalie has provided clinical mentoring ensuring appropriate clinical programming and training needs were developed and executed throughout a long-term care company. She developed evidence-based therapeutic clinical pathways and programs to assist with identification and treatment of long-term care patients in need of dementia, cognitive-communication, pulmonary, and dysphagia programming. She has spoken nationally and regionally on topics related to dysphagia and dementia management and was a trainer for US and international customers related to techniques to improve rehabilitative outcomes. Natalie has over 5 years of experience in pediatrics working with both the birth to three population and within the public-school setting. She has provided comprehensive speech-language and swallowing treatment to children with medically complex needs including tracheostomies and ventilator dependence, sensory processing disorders, autism spectrum disorders, and behavior management difficulties.

Susan Almon-Matangos, MS, CCC-SLP, is a certified and licensed speech-language pathologist with over 30 years of experience. She obtained her bachelor's degree in psychology from Jacksonville State University and her Master of Science degree in speech-language pathology from The University of Alabama. She worked with clients of all ages and a variety of diagnostic conditions in school, hospital, skilled nursing facility, outpatient clinic, and home health settings. In her previous role as a national clinical director for Aegis Therapies, she created training programs for physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology related to the clinical rehabilitation needs of older adults in post-acute care. She currently draws upon her expertise in her role at Relias as Lead Subject Matter Expert Writer for Speech-Language Pathology. She is a certified member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and the Pennsylvania Speech-Language-Hearing Association.