By nicespeechlady.com / June 28, 2020
Starting July 1st 2020, Swallowing Training Education Portal (STEP) will be offering CEUs for all of it’s courses, according to researcher and professor Ianessa Humbert, Ph.D., adding “think of it as Netflix for swallowing.”
STEP is a subscription-based “all-in-one learning solution for swallowing and swallowing disorders,” according to the website, that allows for cancellation at any time, with more than 60-plus hours of content, prepared by Humbert and co- creator, Rinki Varindani Desai, M.S., CCC-SLP.
The rate will be $15 per month starting July 1 of this year to include CEUs.
“STEP is probably the only place where they can get a wide range of learning options all in one place at a low cost where they can quit at any time,” Humbert said. “High quality learning, low cost— easy in, easy
out,” adding that some participants can opt to acquire all 60 plus hours all in one month.
“Having the CEUs available was really important because it was something that we have been asked about a lot,” Humbert said. “As of July, 2020, we will be offering CEUs for STEP, so that means all of the people who have gone to STEP over the years, as it has been around for two years now, who want to be able to get credit through ASHA formally through ASHA CEUs now can do that.”
“Our goal was to make low-cost, high quality information video access for people who want to learn about swallowing and, it has been translated into multiple languages: Portuguese, German, Korean, and we are adding Mandarin and other languages,” she added.
Preventing expensive trips to in-person conferences is a plus for utilizing STEP, Humbert said, adding that “everybody can get online these days.”
“STEP has a lot of training modules that they can use, as swallow instructors that may not have access to video swallow assessment examples, etc., — modules on normal swallows, disordered swallows, professional issues, the clinical swallow exam — what you can and can’t do,” she said.
“Those type of things are nice starting points for filling in additional information to as opposed to having to do everything themselves — because now in this COVID era, most programs aren’t even going back to being in-person, So it’s there,” she said. “It is ready to go for people who need it. If you are a student or an instructor or a CF instructor or you are a clinician — the rate is $15 a month.”
The roots of how STEP came into existence lay in approval of an ASHFoundation grant, which examined not swallowing itself, but the speech pathologist — opening the door to learning about training the speech pathologist to use physiology and critical thinking in their practice. The research involved an online survey as well as an in-person meeting which was called Critical Thinking in Dysphagia Management.
“I have to say big ups to the ASHFoundation, “ said Humbert. “So had they not funded it, I would not have had the opportunity to explore this area and it not take away from the science I was doing — because there was no way I could have done all of this work without them at least paying for hiring somebody to do the survey, putting the meeting on, etc.”
“Planting that seed meant that all other good things could flourish,” she added, stating again that she is thankful to the ASHFoundation for their sponsorship of the clinician- specific research about practice patterns in dysphagia management that eventually lead to STEP coming into existence.
The Normal Swallowing Module within STEP is the most popular course Humbert receives positive feedback upon.
“It really does have a nice range from really didactic fundamentals about physiology, all the way to the higher concepts about how to be in a medical setting”. Humbert hopes that STEP will help people who have said “I can’t keep saying I’m a swallowing specialist, but I can’t explain how a swallow works”.
“Those are the professional issues where you have to work on yourself,” Humbert stated.
“And there are other things, like I just need to remember what cranial nerve that is,” she added.
Each video has learning assessments for assessing understanding.
STEP is just one of Humbert’s projects; she also has been producing a podcast: “Down the Hatch” for the last four years with Alicia Vose, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, and it allowed an opportunity for the first-ever dysphagia podcast at the time — for an informal format for processing swallowing research and various swallowing issues.
“I’ve had scientific labs where we have studied swallowing and people are talking and a very rich discussion ensues I would always say that I wish that ASHA or the Dysphasia Research Society would have more of a format of 90% discussion and 10% formal slides,” she said.
“What happens often is — for example — a ten-minute slot and eight minute presentation, and only 2 minutes for discussion,” she said. “and it gets cut off,” she said, adding that her podcast’s format is more of a “free-form” format that is non-structured, as opposed to an interview-style.
“We have a cell phone, we put it down and we just start talking.” Humbert said.
When topics arise that are worth discussing to Humbert and Vose, recordings occur and podcasts are created.
“If there is something worth talking about, we let the passion around the topic drive us instead of specific intervals where things have to be said,” Humbert stated.
The most surprising aspect of the podcast is the feedback received that discussions which occur have changed the practice of clinicians because of an episode, she said, adding that they receive 10,000 listens per podcast on average.
Humbert said that she utilizes podcast as a method to share research findings, clearing the barriers of journal memberships access or understanding research jargon.
“We can still do the science, but we can take the science and explain it in a real way where we don’t have the peer review criteria of what we can and can’t say — and it is free.”
“We find it is a way to fill in the space between what a clinician needs on Monday morning vs. what comes out of my sterile hyper-experimental laboratory,” she added.
Vose and Humbert work well together on “Down the Hatch,” Humbert said.
“She balances me out,” Humbert said, adding that they both work together as scientists.
Likewise, Desai and Humbert had previously collaborated together in Dysphagia Grand Rounds, an online dysphagia journal club.
Humbert said Desai is also the administrator for the popular Facebook group, Medical SLP Forum, with about 40,000 members.
“She can command a large audience and I have loved partnering with her,” she stated. When asked about a current topic to address in the field, Humbert desired to address the current shortage of SLA PhDs in academia.
Humbert said universities could utilize experts in the field online for sub-specialties, such as swallowing, and there would be a benefit to breaking down the barriers to having to have professors be on-staff/on-site at specific universities in order to teach.
“We have an issue with trying to cover all of the things that a speech pathologist does,” she said. “So there’s stuttering, there’s reading, there’s autism, there’s A/AC, there’s voice, there’s language, there’s swallowing — and some of these things don’t overlap.”
“If we could get the experts in any area that tends to be more of a sub- specialty, swallowing and voice may be a good example of that — and allow them to be involved in training the students to get over the barriers of having to be a professor at the university there,” Humbert said.
Outsourcing and contracting via online may be the solution to the shortage, but also the need for expertise, she said.
“I would much rather know that these universities had a really good online program that they outsourced or contracted in as opposed to assuming that you are going to have a faculty member that will have expertise in every possible course. That is a lot more money. There’s not going to be 300 of us that get around to all of these programs,” she said.
“But there are several of us that would love to be involved in training remotely.”
“I am hoping that with all of the online things that have been forced upon these institutions that they be more willing to break down these self imposed barriers about the content coming from someone who is affiliated,” she said.
“Because frankly, it is far easier for me to be here in several online discussions with students who have looked at information on STEPS and the basics, and we do some kind of combination of you watch the videos and we talk — rather than me being a faculty member at all of these places.”
Humbert added that there is additional cost in having professors being on-site, including benefits and needing to be full-time, adding expenses.
“It just doesn’t make sense there is no reason for that to happen. We really have to really re- think our field otherwise we will have so many more ill-prepared individuals, especially when it comes to swallowing, because we won’t think out of the box. Or we won’t think outside of the ‘voice box,’ as I like to say.”
Wilson Nice, M.A., CCC-SLP, is the owner of nicespeechlady.com.
Nice created a platform for medical SLPs to have free access to
practical clinical resources on Nice Speech Lady.
She also enjoys blogging and writing news articles on medical SLP issues. She works full-time as an HH SLP.