Me And My Job: Emma Killian has very busy working days in her job as a speech and language therapist in the new hospital in Tallaght, Co Dublin. Catherine Foley reports
You wouldn't know what Emma Killian might pull out of her pockets. She has a couple of cartons of Petit Filou, a tiny whisk, a number of spoons, a pen torch, a few tongue depressors and tissues.
She's a speech and language therapist at the new hospital in Tallaght - the Adelaide and Meath Incorporating the National Children's Hospital.
"You have to be highly organised," she says. As in most hospitals, she walks miles of long corridors every day going from one ward to the next. There's no time to dash back to the office between patients. Once she leaves her desk in the morning she's on the go, seeing up to 16 patients in the day. It saves time if she carries everything with her, she says.
Over her white coat she wears the trademark stethoscope. There's even more stuff in her pockets. They are crammed with patient's notes, illustrated charts on Deep Pharyngeal Neuromuscular Stimulation, pens, a notebook and her purse for buying lunch. Her coat is also decorated with a name-tag and a TLD badge for monitoring radiation levels.
Stamina is a must for every speech and language therapist, she says, but the key ingredient in her job are excellent communication skills. "You have to build a rapport with someone - to build a relationship with the patient. It's absolutely crucial, because you are dealing with sensitive issues."
She has to be "very exact and very clear in her descriptions" when she's dealing with patients, she says. And "you need to get information across in a sympathetic way - you need to talk in layman's terms.
"You can be very emotionally caught up in some cases," she continues. "It's very hard to walk away in the evening. You do have to distance yourself so that you can handle it. It's experience. People do die on a regular basis - especially the more elderly patients. Head injuries are very traumatic because it's often young people after car accidents."
Her interest in speech and language therapy grew out of an interest in singing as well as an interest in linguistics, which she studied at NUI Galway as part of a degree in English. After graduating there, she went to the University of Strathclyde in Scotland to study for her a career in this area of medicine.
It's a relatively new profession, she says. And it's constantly challenging, intellectually stimulating. In the hospital, the team of 12 speech and language therapists are mostly in their 20s. "You are actually learning all the time. You could fall behind in a week."
There is ongoing research and training. There is also an effort to raise an awareness among hospital staff and the public about the work of the speech and language therapist.
Killian worked at a number of placements as part of her four-year course in Scotland. She returned for her first placement to the Shantalla Community Clinic in Galway to work with Rena Lyons. "She started me on the path."
In her second year, she worked in a school for hearing-impaired adolescents in Glasgow. There is great variety in the job, she says.
In her third year she worked in Stobhill General Hospital in Glasgow and in Glasgow Royal Infirmary. In fourth year she worked in an outreach community programme.
After graduation, she went to St Joseph's General Hospital in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, and St Patrick's Hospital in Cashel, Co Tipperary. She's been in the new state-of-the-art hospital in Tallaght for almost two years. In her current job: "I'm attached to cardiology and orthopaedics," she explains. In those areas she deals with stroke victims, head injuries, post-operative trauma and neurological disorders. She's particularly interested in swallowing disorders and communication disorders.
"Up to 80 per cent of my work is involved in swallowing," she says. It's about how the nerves and muscles work together. But the key part of doing her job well is building a relationship with the patient and family.
