What is it about?
The SLP must have a basic understanding of respiratory disease and function to understand the implications it may have on swallowing. Patients with trachs and vents need an SLP can help them eat, drink, and communicate again.
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Why is it important?
There is a growing number of patients requiring trach and vent management. With the aging population and an increase in the incidence of respiratory disease, speech pathologists must have a basic understanding of the disease processes to understand why respiratory failure occurs and how we can improve the function of our patients. Our role carries with it a tremendous amount of potential value to our the interdisciplinary team as well as to our patients in this setting. While most of us were not trained or educated directly on this area to any significant degree in graduate school, it is nonetheless a crucial area for the medical SLP to understand in order to effectively manage our patients.
Perspectives
I have been working with patients with trachs and vents since early on in my career. I have a love for food that runs deep and so my motivation to help people enjoy this same pleasure in life runs deep as well. I hope that this overview of the SLP's role in trach and vent management will help a recent graduate student or somebody looking to transition into this area of the field better understand what our role is and how we can help with this population. It is extraordinarily rewarding work as we are seeing patients communicate, eat, and drink for the first time in a very long time. Our role in helping them meet this goal carries a tremendous amount of responsibility and value.
George Barnes
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: An Overview of Tracheostomy Tubes and Mechanical Ventilation Management for the Speech-Language Pathologist, Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, August 2021, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA),
DOI: 10.1044/2021_persp-20-00105.
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