From a publishing house to our hospital
Liz Caraffi, Band 5 Speech and Language Therapist (SLT), talks about her professional journey ahead of AHP day.
My name is Liz, I’m 32 years old and work in the acute inpatient SLT team at The Royal London Hospital, this is my first job since retraining as an SLT.
With an undergrad degree in Journalism I originally worked in the editorial department at a publishing house but after some years I lost my mojo. Reflecting on ambitions I’d had when I was doing my A Levels, and after time spent volunteering and shadowing SLT’s in the field, I decided I wanted to retrain as an SLT and applied for the asters programme.
Originally I wanted to work with young offenders or within the judicial system but at the end of my degree I was set on working with adults in the acute inpatient setting. Our job as therapists at The Royal London involves the assessment and management of adults with communication and/or swallowing difficulties. These might be acute or chronic and our team support patients in all areas of the hospital from the critical care and stroke wards to the elderly and those with head and neck cancers.
Every day in the hospital is different from the last, no single patient is the same so you are always learning and being challenged. Our team is not only very supportive but also extremely knowledgeable. I feel very comfortable using the wealth of knowledge of my team and other AHP colleagues to ensure I’m as informed as possible, so I can try to make as much impact on a patient’s journey; from face-to-face inpatient care to appropriate onward referral.
Starting any new job has its challenges; getting to know those in your team and your way around the office etc. But I do think working in a hospital presents its own unique set. Working with those who are very unwell or elderly can, on occasion, be upsetting. I’ve learned to seek support from my colleagues and peers, making these situations easier to process. Also, as this profession relies upon evidence based practice and CPD in order to provide the best possible care for our patients, new research is always being published and keeping on top of that can feel overwhelming. However, no one expects you to know everything and your colleagues are always there to offer guidance and support.
As a profession I think many people think speech therapists work solely with more obvious speech disorders like lisps and stammering – I hadn’t even grasped how broad the profession was until I began my masters. But the reality of SLT life is that you have the opportunity to work with people of all ages, from all backgrounds with a host of different needs. If you are looking for a job that never gets boring, that you can use to work in other countries and that involves lots of communication and interaction with new and varied people on a day-to-day basis then speech therapy might just be for you.
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