Northeastern University speech therapy student Mary Cho’s eyes grew wide as the electrical shocks hit her arm.
“Do you feel it?” Emily Wiskow, an occupational therapist, asked.
“Oh yeah,” Cho answered.
Then Cho let out a squeal as her hand began moving involuntarily.
“It kind of feels like when your arm falls asleep, but it makes you do things!” Cho exclaimed.
The shocking (pun intended) scene occurred Tuesday evening in professor Elizabeth Martin’s advanced clinical seminar for students earning their master’s degree in speech-language pathology.
To emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of a therapy team — a team that may include occupational therapists, physical therapists, other specialists, nurses and doctors — the class regularly hosts guest speakers from a variety of professional settings, such as schools and hospitals.
This highlights not only the job opportunities available to the future SLPs, it also enables them to learn some of the tricks of the trade before graduation.
“The students’ eyes are opened to things they never realized are going on in clinical settings,” says Martin, an associate clinical professor at Northeastern’s Bouve College of Health Sciences and an SLP. “They’re intrigued and excited, and it only helps them when they get to their first job and they can say, ‘Oh yeah, we learned about that with this guest speaker.’”
So, on Tuesday evening, Wiskow and Kate Bendix, a physical therapist, visited after their jobs at Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Braintree.
“I think it’s important to come in because when we’re out practicing in the field, you’re collaborating with all different disciplines,” Bendix says. “I think it’s really important to start to foster that kind of teamwork when learning.”
Student Gabrielle Sturgeon agreed.
“We all work together within the medical profession to evaluate the patient and get to the patient’s end-goal,” Sturgeon says.
For instance, Sturgeon says that a patient may not just want to eat with help from a speech-language pathologist; they may want to eat the cookies they bake with their grandchildren — this means collaborating with the physical therapist who helps the patient stand and move around and an occupational therapist who helps them manage a stove.
“At Northeastern, we really focus on the functionality of patients in their end goals,” Sturgeon says. “It’s not just that you can walk, or that you can speak, but about really tailoring that to their specific goals and their quality of life.”
But Wiskow and Bendix didn’t just come with advice. The therapists came with props.
There were ankle braces, utensils with swivels on them to accommodate a patient’s tremor, a “scoop plate” that enables a patient to eat with only one hand and equipment to help a patient dress.
Cassie Alves, who like Sturgeon is finishing her first year in the SLP master’s program, found the “sock aid” (essentially a tool to help people put on a sock if they are unable to move their arms and legs as normal) “harder than I imagined.”
“I’ve helped people use it before, but I have never used it myself,” Alves said. “It was really good to get that perspective.”
But the functional electrical stimulation unit that Cho experienced got the most reaction.
As Cho’s fingers extended and her wrist turned her palm to the ceiling, the students gasped.
“That’s insane!” someone exclaimed.