Good continuing education courses are an efficient way to keep abreast of new developments. The presenter saves you hours by reading the literature and distilling the most important information. This allows you to learn what you need to know in a short period of time.
Subscription services are great, because you pay one yearly fee and then you can take as many of their courses as you want. But many excellent courses are only available on a pay-as-you-go model.
In addition to courses, we can also learn a lot from podcasts, books, and other publications.
Outline:
- ASHA requirements and resources.
- Earning an ACE award.
- MedBridge discount.
- Medical SLP Collective.
- SpeechPathology.com.
- 40+ places to find continuing education for SLPs.
- Learning from podcasts.
- Read to learn.
- Related Eat, Speak, & Think posts.
ASHA requirements and resources
ASHA requires that speech-language pathologists earn 30 Certification Maintenance Hours during each 3-year period in order to maintain their CCCs.
Starting with the 1/1/2020 – 12/31/2022 interval, at least one hour must be in the area of ethics. And two hours in the area of supervision or clinical instruction is required once for anyone who supervises a student or Clinical Fellow. Here are two free supervision courses that expire 7/26/2021.
Search ASHA’s CEFind to find ASHA-approved continuing education courses.
Earning an ACE award
If you complete 70 Certification Maintenance Hours (7.0 CEUs) within a 36-month period and you participate in the ASHA CE Registry, then you will automatically earn an ACE award.
MedBridge discount
SLPs can save up to 55%, and OTs, PTs, nurses, and athletic trainers can save up to 40% off the regular subscription rate and support Eat, Speak, & Think* by using the promo code EatSpeakThink to sign up for a one-year subscription.
Learn what comes with the subscription and why I recommend MedBridge continuing education courses.
*As an affiliate of MedBridge, I may earn a small commission on qualifying new subscriptions. There is no extra charge to you, and it will help keep Eat, Speak, & Think sustainable.
Medical SLP Collective
The Medical SLP Collective* is a subscription-based membership group whose goal is to help SLPs practice at the top of our license and provide the best possible care for our patients.
This is an affiliate link. As an affiliate of The Medical SLP Collective, I may earn a small commission on qualifying new subscriptions. There is no extra charge to you, and it will help make Eat, Speak, & Think sustainable.
I’ve been a member of this community since the beginning and have found it to be tremendously helpful.
Members of the Collective have free access to a large and growing library of CE courses, with a new course added every month.
The CE courses and downloadable resources for clinicians, patients, and providers are vetted by experts in the field.
The resources fall under these categories:
- AAC
- Aphasia
- Clinical Experience
- Cognitive-Communication
- Dysphagia
- Head & Neck Cancer
- Important Documentation
- Inservices (ready to be used)
- Motor Speech
- Neuroscience
- Pediatrics
- Specific Conditions
- Supervision
- Tracheostomy
- Voice Disorders
In addition, members of the Collective can ask patient-specific questions in a private forum and receive same-day answers by expert clinicians. I’ve found this to be particularly useful when I’m preparing to evaluate someone with a problem I don’t have much experience with.
SpeechPathology.com
SpeechPathology.com offers unlimited access to 450+ courses for $99/year (affiliate link). I’ve earned at least 3 ACE awards listening to courses while driving from patient to patient. I highly recommend these informative and convenient courses.
While I paid for my own subscription for years, I currently receive a free subscription as an affiliate, plus I may earn a small commission if you purchase a subscription. If you do, thank you for supporting Eat, Speak, & Think!
40+ places to find continuing education for SLPs
I’ve compiled a list of 43 providers of ASHA-registered CE courses, from the AAC Institute to the University of Wisconsin Voice and Swallow Lecture Series.
For each CE provider, I’ve included:
- Cost.
- Location.
- Time-frame.
- Format.
- Additional Information.
Learning from podcasts
We now have access to well over 20 podcasts specifically related to the field of speech-language pathology.
- ASHA Voices.
- Down the Hatch – The Swallowing Podcast.
- SLPs of Color podcast.
- Speech Uncensored podcast (can earn CEUs).
- Swallow Your Pride podcast.
If you’re looking for more podcasts, check out my post describing more than 24 podcasts (see comments for more).
Read to learn
There are so many journals and books that we can learn from that I couldn’t possibly begin to list them. Some offer the opportunity to earn CEUs, and others don’t. Here are a few resources and examples.
- ASHA SIG Perspectives.
- Dysphagia (journal).
- Journals published by ASHA.
- speechBITE monthly newsletter.
- The Informed SLP.
Related Eat, Speak, & Think posts
- 40+ places to find ASHA CEUs.
- Top 10 AT and AAC research sources.
- 24 podcasts for adult medical speech-language pathologists.
- Free course to improve conversation skills in aphasia.
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