We asked an SLP who recently completed our onsite FEES mentorship program to talk about her experience.
Here is what she had to say!
The task of developing a new FEES program in acute care is a daunting undertaking on multiple levels. The process of obtaining adequate education of the procedure, performing the required number of supervised passes, determining which patients are appropriate for assessment, and developing appropriate disinfection procedures, is immense. In addition, being able to competently interpret and document studies as a new endoscopist can be intimidating. When we were starting our FEES program at our hospital, we knew excellent mentorship was key in order to develop the diagnostic skills required to best assess and treat our patients. After researching Carolina Speech Pathology and attending one of the their public FEES training courses, we knew we would have the support and education we needed to make our program a success by continuing with their direct mentorship at our facility.
Our Carolina Speech Pathology mentor Selena Reece was incredibly knowledgeable, patient, and thorough in assisting our department in developing and implementing a new FEES program. She assisted not only in providing mentorship in performing and interpreting studies, but also in developing appropriate cleaning protocols for our scope. In addition, we faced the challenges of COVID, which initially, halted the development of our program all together. Carolina Speech Pathology and Selena went above and beyond to ensure that we still had the mentorship and support we needed to get our program up and going in the middle of a pandemic! Selena’s dedication to developing appropriate protocols to best serve our patients while maintaining staff safety throughout this process has been unwavering. We cannot overstate how excellent Selena was in developing our skills as clinicians as well as interpreting our studies! After her mentorship, we felt confident to utilize this procedure to better assess our patients and write accurate and detailed reports.
We highly recommend Carolina Speech Pathology to any SLP department in the process of developing their FEES program as well as looking for direct mentorship to further their knowledge. Their dedication to excellence and advancing our profession by providing comprehensive knowledge and mentorship to speech language pathologists is second to none!