While I've found different mentors here and there throughout the years, I still always wished I would've had a fairy godmother SLP to turn all my curious, incompetent, and #newbie regrets into one competent, confident, and quick clinician with all the fancy skills. Even though I'm still waiting on my magic wand I ordered from grad school to arrive, there seems to be hope for future mentors/mentees for this collaboration! So dust off those raggedy scrubs and grab your fave ear-to-learn clinician pals so we don't have to keep listening to the negative step-sister attitudes and become the clinician of our patients' dreams!!🤩👸

To follow up after last month's post, we're now exploring the evidence into the mystery behind the Masako/tongue-hold maneuver🧐. With so many questions piling up even before I started on my quest and after the process of eliminating irrelevant or unrelated results with all the resources used before, I was left with only a handful of studies to dig deeper into as I set out to find any answers I could in order to clear up and clean out anything in my swallow toolbox that was fiction or fantasy. . . .

It's been one wild ride since this whole thing started at SLP R&R!🤪 A year ago, I was fortunate to have a great Guest Post from Rebecca Brown from ASHA’s National Center for Evidence-Based Practice in Communication Disorders who shared some incredible Resources for clinicians to get organized and more familiar with the process of evidence-based practice for our patients. I've since used these Resources each for their own separate purpose at different times. Now I want to share my experience with this process and the insights I've had along the way. Since there won't be any statistic-jargon or in-depth analysis to discuss, feel free to sit back and enjoy a clinician's review of reviewing the research!😃

It’s the age-old story of what came first: the chicken or the egg? We’ve thought about the quandary between aspiration and dysphagia in a similar way as well, and just like everyone else we’ve come to similar conclusions when trying to answer this famous riddle. Now, it’s nutrition’s turn to enter into the mix. Does dysphagia increase the risk for malnutrition? Or, is it truly the other way around? Whether you've either got the registered dietician's number on your speech cell speed dial or click that box for a consult as frequently as you sip your coffee, even if we are separate entities we also have a close, special relationship that I think no one else truly gets😅. This article seems to be an interesting grab at diving deeper into the above adage and at the very least can give us insight into how to think about and manage this complex and intertwined relationship.

We never talked about that in Anatomy!!?! You don't even have to know the whole song to be able to understand that these two areas are nowhere near each other, let alone physically connected. So, why are we talking about it?? I was introduced to this article during an amazing continuing education course centered around the aging adult with all the myriad of issues and sticky complications, so after hearing that we might finally get an invite to the exclusive PT/OT party, I was in!🥳

Who here likes to save money? I know, duh, right.🙄 Answering that one question is pretty quick and easy for most people, but the authors did their duties to really analyze and break down just what we are doing and how much it costs🤑!

"I have a patient X. What should I do?" That's basically what our brain automatically defaults to when we cannot come up with a solution or rationale immediately, right? The good news is we can always go back to the basics (and our favorite EBP triangle) to help us come up with some more updated answers in order to create the best assessment and treatment plan for our patients, which is just what this article attempts to assist with when it comes to intubation and laryngeal injury. But don't worry! The article is NOT like one of those pizzas where you have to pick things apart to get what you actually want (or is that just me with pineapple??😅). Instead, it's much more like a beautifully delicious and authentic margherita pizza, with those basic ingredients that make it OH SO GOOD.🤤👍👍

I don't know about you, but I would absolutely be a patient who would have the hardest time to "eat small bites," "eat slowly," "minimize distractions while eating," and "eat sitting upright 90 degrees." BUT--is this exactly what we should maybe stop telling our patients to do🤔?! Either way, if someone actually tells me to lay back, relax, and swallow my slurpee, I am DOWN to learn more about whatever angle they are prescribing!!😅🤤

While I could pop 20 in my mouth, chew a few times, and let my sensory nerves run wild with these lil treats, I've never really thought about how the sweet-sour taste-sensation actually impacts how my body manages what I just placed in my mouth...🤔🤔. Why do I enjoy it? How do my tongue and body react to it and why? What makes us make that funny sour face? I don't know if it's because I'm biased since I'm hooked on these lil guys or the fact that I am always fascinated when it comes to sensory dysphagia, either way, this article definitely hit MY sweet spot!😊

While I chugged along reading this article, I found myself with an even greater awareness of the impact our field can have. As clinicians, we're naturally always looking for "the next best thing," and guess what? So are our patients! Sometimes we get that A+ 🏆prize-winning intervention or result, and other times we come home with a dud and disappointed mindset😞. BUT we owe it to ourselves and our patients to continue to be open to new approaches while continuing to have discussions with our patients, colleagues, and medical co-workers.❤️