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Discover Vanderbilt University Medical Center: Located in Nashville, Tennessee, and operating at a global crossroads of teaching, discovery, and patient care, VUMC is a community of individuals who come to work each day with the simple aim of changing the world. It is a place where your expertise will be valued, your knowledge expanded, and your abilities challenged. Vanderbilt Health is committed to an environment where everyone has the chance to thrive and where your uniqueness is sought and celebrated. It is a place where employees know they are part of something that is bigger than themselves, take exceptional pride in their work and never settle for what was good enough yesterday. Vanderbilt’s mission is to advance health and wellness through preeminent programs in patient care, education, and research.

Organization:

Medical Speech - Adult

Job Summary:

JOB SUMMARY
Evaluates and treats patients with speech, language, voice, cognition, fluency, auditory (re)habilitation, and swallowing/oral feeding disorders. Educates and counsels patients and families. Provides independent therapeutic services and identify area(s) of clinical specialization and competency. Supervises graduate students as assigned in clinical specialty area. Participates actively in identifying and conducting quality improvement activities. Collaborates with clinical practice team to achieve patient outcomes and system objectives.

Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) Acute Care PRN

Vanderbilt University Hospital | Nashville, TN

PRN (As Needed)

Advance Your Acute Care SLP Career at Vanderbilt Health

Join Vanderbilt University Hospital's Acute Care Speech-Language Pathology team and help care for medically complex adult patients in one of the nation's leading academic medical centers. This PRN opportunity is ideal for experienced acute care SLPs seeking flexibility, clinical challenge, and the opportunity to work alongside nationally recognized healthcare professionals.

Why Acute Care SLPs Choose Vanderbilt

At Vanderbilt, SLPs practice at the top of their license and are trusted members of the interdisciplinary care team. You'll collaborate directly with physicians and rehabilitation specialists while treating medically complex patients across trauma, critical care, neurology, transplant, oncology, and specialty medicine services.

At Vanderbilt, SLPs:

Treat high-acuity patients in a nationally recognized academic medical center
Evaluate and manage complex dysphagia cases using evidence-based practices
Utilize advanced swallowing assessment techniques, including FEES
Partner directly with physicians and multidisciplinary care teams
Exercise strong clinical autonomy and decision-making
Access professional development and continuing education opportunities
Build expertise across ICU, trauma, neuro, transplant, and specialty populations
Frequently transition from PRN to full-time career opportunities within Vanderbilt Health

Considering a future full-time opportunity?

Many of our full-time Acute Care Speech-Language Pathologists began their Vanderbilt careers in PRN roles, gaining firsthand experience with our collaborative culture, diverse patient populations, and clinical practice environment before making a long-term career commitment.

What You'll Do

As an Acute Care Speech-Language Pathologist, you will evaluate and treat adult patients with:

Dysphagia and swallowing disorders
Speech and language impairments
Cognitive-communication deficits
Voice disorders

Additional responsibilities include:

Performing comprehensive speech-language pathology evaluations
Providing evidence-based treatment interventions in the acute care setting
Assessing medically complex patients across hospital units, including ICU and progressive care settings
Collaborating with physicians, nurses, dietitians, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and respiratory therapists
Conducting clinical swallowing assessments and dysphagia management
Supporting safe discharge planning and patient-centered care
Maintaining timely and compliant documentation in Epic

Qualifications

Required

Master's Degree in Speech-Language Pathology from an accredited program
ASHA Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC-SLP)
Active Tennessee Speech-Language Pathology license
Clinical Fellowship completed prior to application
Minimum one year of recent acute care hospital experience within the last two years
Experience evaluating and treating dysphagia in hospitalized adult patients
Strong competency in bedside swallow evaluations and dysphagia management
Experience caring for medically complex patients

Preferred

FEES competency or significant hands-on clinical exposure
Experience in a Level I Trauma Center, academic medical center, or large tertiary care hospital
ICU, ventilator, and tracheostomy patient management experience
Experience with stroke, TBI, and other neurologic populations
Advanced clinical decision-making skills with high-acuity patients
Epic EMR experience
Expertise in evidence-based dysphagia assessment and treatment

PRN Commitment

To ensure successful onboarding and clinical integration:

Availability of 3 to 5 days per week during the initial 6 to 8-week orientation period
Ongoing PRN availability following orientation
Consistent availability strongly preferred

Apply Today

If you're an experienced Acute Care Speech-Language Pathologist, Medical SLP, Hospital Speech Therapist, Dysphagia Specialist, or CCC-SLP looking for a rewarding PRN opportunity in Nashville, we encourage you to apply and join Vanderbilt Health's nationally recognized rehabilitation team.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
• Analyzes comprehensive information from formal and informal assessment that is pertinent to the patient's care and management to determine a rehabilitation treatment diagnosis.
• Collaborates with stakeholders in establishing the plan of care, coordinates and implements care delivery while anticipating patient care needs across the rehabilitation continuum.
• Applies appropriate, evidence-based interventions to ensure effective outcomes and re-evaluates performance to assess patient's progress towards goals.
• Employs strategies to promote successful return to home, community, and school/vocational environments.
• Supervises graduate students by providing instruction, guidance/counsel and training to ensure provision of competent patient care and completion of appropriate documentation.
• The responsibilities listed are a general overview of the position and additional duties may be assigned.

TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES
• Rehab Therapist Patient Documentation (Novice): Demonstrates proficiency in documentation practices. Documents in the appropriate templates and utilizes only approved abbreviations within patient documentation. Meets institutional standards for quality and timeliness of documentation.
• Speech Pathology Patient & Family Education (Novice): Demonstrates proficiency in communicating functional impact of assessment findings, treatment interventions, treatment planning diagnosis, and disease process. Considers the communication needs/level of understanding of audience and may share appropriate information/literature. May supervise, educate and train students from professional programs of speech-language pathology.
• Discharge Planning (Novice): Demonstrates proficiency in the discharge planning process. Informs patients, family and members of team of the patient's needs based upon the assessment and/or treatment. Makes recommendations for continued services, follow-up, or referrals to other services. Seeks guidance consistently on the transition and discharge process including transition services and referral resources. May anticipate transition and discharge needs of the patient based upon understanding of pathology/diagnosis and relationship to their present functional status. Will have completed at least one year of experience with transition and discharge planning.
• Speech Pathology Treatment Implementation (Novice): Demonstrates proficiency providing treatment consistent with physician prescription and established plan of care. Identifies treatment objectives based upon assessment results and family input. Writes functional objectives in measurable terms that are consistent with the family's goals and resources. Applies evidence based clinical management practices. Identifies and recommends additional/alternative services when appropriate.
• Speech Pathology Patient Evaluation (Novice): Demonstrates proficiency in evaluating patients with speech-language, auditory, and/or swallowing/oral feeding deficits using the appropriate testing methods and equipment for the patient type, diagnosis, and reason for the referral. Demonstrates the ability to obtain the case history and selects appropriate measures and performs a functional assessment to document patient's status requiring skilled therapy. Interprets the results of the assessment and their significance for the patient, family, referring physician and other members of the health care team.

Allied health is among the fastest growing occupations in healthcare today. This area can be defined as credentialed professionals who perform supportive, diagnostic, and therapeutic health care services to promote health and prevent disease in a variety of settings.

These areas are crucial to Vanderbilt Health’s reputation for excellence in these areas that has made us a major center for patient referrals from throughout the Mid-South.

Each year, people throughout Tennessee and the southeast choose Vanderbilt Health for their health care because of our leadership in medical science and our dedication to treating patients with dignity and compassion.

Core Accountabilities:

Organizational Impact: Executes job responsibilities with the understanding of how output would affect and impact other areas related to own job area/team with occasional guidance. Problem Solving/ Complexity of work: Analyzes moderately complex problems using technical experience and judgment. Breadth of Knowledge: Has expanded knowledge gained through experience within a professional area. Team Interaction: Provides informal guidance and support to team members.

Core Capabilities :

Supporting Colleagues:- Develops Self and Others: Invests time, energy, and enthusiasm in developing self/others to help improve performance e and gain knowledge in new areas.- Builds and Maintains Relationships: Maintains regular contact with key colleagues and stakeholders using formal and informal opportunities to expand and strengthen relationships.- Communicates Effectively: Recognizes group interactions and modifies one's own communication style to suit different situations and audiences. Delivering Excellent Services:- Serves Others with Compassion: Seeks to understand current and future needs of relevant stakeholders and customizes services to better address them.- Solves Complex Problems: Approaches problems from different angles; Identifies new possibilities to interpret opportunities and develop concrete solutions.- Offers Meaningful Advice and Support: Provides ongoing support and coaching in a constructive manner to increase employees' effectiveness. Ensuring High Quality: - Performs Excellent Work: Engages regularly in formal and informal dialogue about quality; directly addresses quality issues promptly.- Ensures Continuous Improvement: Applies various learning experiences by looking beyond symptoms to uncover underlying causes of problems and identifies ways to resolve them. - Fulfills Safety and Regulatory Requirements: Understands all aspects of providing a safe environment and performs routine safety checks to prevent safety hazards from occurring. Managing Resources Effectively: - Demonstrates Accountability: Demonstrates a sense of ownership, focusing on and driving critical issues to closure.- Stewards Organizational Resources: Applies understanding of the departmental work to effectively manage resources for a department/area.- Makes Data Driven Decisions: Demonstrates strong understanding of the information or data to identify and elevate opportunities. Fostering Innovation:- Generates New Ideas: Proactively identifies new ideas/opportunities from multiple sources or methods to improve processes beyond conventional approaches.- Applies Technology: Demonstrates an enthusiasm for learning new technologies, tools, and procedures to address short-term challenges.- Adapts to Change: Views difficult situations and/or problems as opportunities for improvement; actively embraces change instead of emphasizing negative elements.

Position Qualifications:

Responsibilities:

Certifications:

LIC-Speech Pathologist - Tennessee

Work Experience:

Relevant Work Experience

Experience Level :

1 year

Education:

Master's

This role offers the opportunity to make a meaningful impact within Vanderbilt Health, supported by a comprehensive benefits package which may include health, disability, retirement and/or wellness offerings to enhance your well-being and professional growth.

Vanderbilt Health is committed to fostering an environment where everyone has the chance to thrive and is committed to the principles of equal opportunity. EOE/Vets/Disabled.

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