Speech-Language Pathology

The Department of Speech-Language Pathology at Munroe-Meyer Institute offers externship training for graduate students.

Pre-Externships

MMI's Department of Speech-Language Pathology provides part-time, semester-long, graduate pre-externships to gain experience in specialty areas, including but not limited to:

• Acute (Inpatient) Care.
• Augmentative and Alternative Communication Preschool.
• Autism Spectrum Disorders.
• Hanen Program (It Takes Two To Talk).
• Multidisciplinary Clinics: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Head and Neck Cancer, Autism Diagnostic.
• Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Full-Time Externships

Full-time graduate medical externships are offered in the settings of acute care or outpatientt pediatric and/or adult care. These externships provide graduate students the opportunity to gain clinical experience in a wide range of assessments and treatments related to speech, language, voice, swallowing and cognition.

Students in the acute care setting will work primarily on the Nebraska Medicine main campus with the possibility of coverage at Bellevue Medical Center. They will have opportunities to:

• Develop the knowledge and skills required to support hospitalized adults and children who have acquired deficits related to a trauma, rely on a tracheostomy and/or ventilator, have had a head and neck cancer, or experienced a neurological event, etc.
• Participate in instrumental swallowing exams including Modified Barium Swallow studies and Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing.
• Observe multidisciplinary clinics including Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and Head and Neck Cancer.
• Collaborate with other members of the patient’s health care team, including physicians, nurses, dieticians, physical and occupational therapists, and respiratory therapists, among others.
• Participate in interdisciplinary education encounters, such as nursing inservices, speech-language pathology department journal club, and TheraChat which is a monthly discussion about clinical topics pertinent to medical speech pathologists and multi-disciplinary professionals.

Students in the outpatient setting may work at the Munroe Meyer Institute, Nebraska Medicine main campus, and Bellevue Medical Center. They will have opportunities to:

• Develop the knowledge and skills required to support children and adults with acquired or developmental deficits impacting their ability to communicate via verbal speech, use of AAC technology to support communication, explore social communication development in a group setting, conduct group educational support and intervention programs (e.g., Primary Progressive Aphasia groups), among more.
• Participate in instrumental swallowing exams including Modified Barium Swallow studies and Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing.
• Observe multidisciplinary clinics including Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease, and Head and Neck Cancer.
• Collaborate with other members of the patient’s health care team, including physicians, psychologists, physical and occupational therapists, behavioral therapists, BCBAs, and more.
• Participate in interdisciplinary education encounters, such as in-services, communication engagement activities, and speech-language pathology department journal club.