Speech Language Pathology

[kats]

I have fallen in love with my Speech Language Pathology classes. I have decided to stick with it instead of trying anymore for the nursing program. I wish I could do both as well as major in other stuff like deaf education, interpreting, photography, and probably other stuff as well, but I need to start working eventually. :) The SLP degree actually has more stuff I like in it than any other. I can even work in the hospital in a NICU unit, with kids with facial deformities, or other patients with speech or swallowing disorders like stroke patients for instance. There are lots of other possibilities too and my pay and hours will be better than if I go to nursing. I am not trying to talk any of you into abandoning nursing because I know how desperately nurses are needed and it is a wonderful profession, but I wanted to let you all know what is going on with me and why I haven't been posting. This path is a bit longer as I need a minimum of a masters degree, but I was planning on that for nursing too. I will be done with my BA in SLP next Fall (2006) and my MA with my CCC (Certificate of Clinical Competancy) in Spring 2009. Of course I try not to think too much about that most of the time (so far away!). I would like to still post here now and then as it is important to be knowlegeable about others that one works with. We even had a speaker that came to the university who recommended after graduating to find a mentor in another field (nursing, PT, OT, etc.) to shadow one afternoon a week to avoid too much tunnel vision. Anyways, bye for now and good luck to all of you in whatever you decide to pursue.

[kellyo, LPN]

The exact same thing happened to a friend of mine. She started off in nursing and loved speech/patho. She eventually got her Master's and is now working with clinents of all ages.

Good luck to you!