Regret ever training as a Speech and Language Therapist

[oneanddonemaybe]

I am a SLT and have been working for 9 years. I haven't liked my job for most of this time. Its too long to get in to aaaall the reasons why i don't like my job, if anyone has specific questions I am happy to help. If you go on reddit there are so many people like me but most of them seem to be American. Would love to speak to UK SLT's who feel the same as me.
i don't see myself retraining because it took a lot of effort to graduate. Had a lot of personal stuff going on at the time and also an absolute nightmare final year placement which I had to 're-sit'. I know i am good at my job. But its costing me my mental health and my personal time outside of work. I am also a mum of a 3 year old.
I don't want a paycut and there is no job i could slide into with no further education, which would give me the same salary as I am on now (top of band 6 payscale).

I think i like working in a health related career, but out of all the Allied health professions i could have chosen, i think SLT was the worst decision. I wish i did audiology or radiography. At the same payscale as me, i know for sure there is less admin and less pressure in one of those careers.
I am going to be doing dysphagia training next month, which means about 7 months of studying, coursework and a final exam, but i am willing to put in the work. I have wanted to do dysphagia training for the last 5 years or so but the only way you can do it is if your workplace will allow you the time and give you a supervisor for those 7 months, this is even if you are willing to pay the 1k it costs to do the training, which i was. thankfully my work is paying for this. I really hope i feel a lot happier with a dysphagia caseload. i really think i will. Time will tell!

Would love to hear from any UK SLT's or even students who are regretting their decision. Just so I don't feel like the only one out there!

Hi, fellow SLT here; been practising a similar length of time. Not sure I regret training entirely, but have definitely had moments of ‘why didn’t I choose something that suited me better?’.
As an introvert and someone who’s easily overstimulated the role/the workload challenges me at times and prevents me from being happy and present with my young family at home.

You will have lots of skills from the training and your extensive work experience that will be transferable to another job role, so it would not be a total loss if you did decide to switch. But as you mention it might be that you’d have to take a pay cut, but could be worth it for a short time for your overall happiness and well-being as it sounds like you’ve been unhappy for a long time.

I’m currently considering retraining in another field and also independent practice as a possible solution. I’m finding it hard to leave the security of the NHS as an employer, though, not going to lie. My husband says they’re keeping me prisoner!

Sorry to hear you feel like this after all the training you’ve done. Just to note that in the NHS (and organisations that provide services to the NHS) there are quite a lot of non-clinical roles where having a clinical background is valuable. Could be worth considering.

Try private consultancy? Private schools? Get away from public service ...

Doing the face to face sessions is great (IMO) and I love it, but there is a LOT of admin and in public sector you get really overloaded, which means usually feeling overwhelmed and playing catch-up. If you're a perfectionist at all or even just want to do a really, really good job, you can get pretty low and frustrated/burned out. You have to be really into it (I am and read and study all the time even after 10 years) and sort of obsessive because it's a really broad field and things change all the time. A lot of the most difficult part for me is working in defective systems and underfunded services. It gets very disheartening, but the actual bit where you see a client and support better communication is great.

Surprised to hear you hate it as I had (obviously mistakenly) thought it was a dream job!
Here are my assumptions about why, feel free to put me straight:

1. 9-5
2. Having a specialism / expertise that others value
3. good job prospects and career structure
4. Being able to make a difference to children (and others, but only ever met child salts)
5. Even if you have annoying patients / families to work with, you only ever see them 1 hour a week.

Interested to hear your perspective on this?

💔😖💔

I’ve just left to work in education. I love communication but spent all my time on dysphagia. I never felt I achieved anything at the end of the day. The workload was relentless.

How about something like this:

https://www.jobs.ac.uk/search/?keywords=Speech+therapy&location=

You’d get to keep and share your skills and experience, it’s a higher salary, you wouldn’t have to retrain (you might have to do a teaching qualification but it’s pretty light touch, in house, and they give you the time to do it) and the terms and conditions are quite good in universities- decent pension scheme, flexible working, good annual leave allowance.

Other unis and colleges are available - I just did a search for an example and this one came up.

😬

I think it’s so individual and if you feel it’s not for you that’s fine. I will say, most SLTs I know who say they dislike their job or feel undervalued work with kids. I’ve always worked in acute hospitals doing dysphagia and I genuinely enjoy my job and my colleagues have all felt the same. If you’re really interested in dysphagia then this may be a route to a more fulfilling job. I find it more intellectually stimulating working in the medical field, I found my paeds placements mind numbingly boring to be honest.

My son is 5yo and has ASD currently pre-verbal, we have been through 4 NHS SALTs in 2 years because of people changing jobs leaving roles etc one seemed so sad and stressed everytime I saw her.

He is now in a SEN school who have 5 SALTS on staff and they all seem to love it, talk about the kids their job and their role with such passion. Could you maybe look at moving to a school or something like that see if you find that more satisfying?

Fraudornot · 19/10/2023 19:34

Could someone say what it is about working as a SLT that is bad

I would also like to know this.

Watching with interest as my daughter is thinking of training as a SaLT.
I naively thought it wouldn’t be as stressful as nursing or teaching.

Please could someone explain this? I appreciate the NHS caseload is relentless but why do you feel that SALT is more challenging than other allied health professions?

Another who is confused why is it such an awful career?
it was something I was vaguely considering as a next career move

Is it worse (heavier workload) now, post CV masking? I’m only asking because I read many children are behind due to mask wearing at key stages.

I've been an SLT for 20 years. Always with adults and am currently a clinical lead in dysphagia - I've never hated anything about it.

I love dysphagia - I work across acute wards and clinics - I love the puzzle solving diagnostic work, the getting people to eat and drink again and seeing them smile and thrive, FEES and videofluoroscopy - all really advanced stuff. The patients are a mix bag - often lovely and eternally grateful sometimes hard to work with but I still love it. I LOVE training new staff in dysphagia.

I find the NHS paperwork fairly easy to keep on top of - albeit long winded at times, I'm pretty fast at it which helps. The worst bit (and I don't mean the OP or people on here) is the endless moaning at work - the negativity drags everyone down. I understand where it comes from though.

I'd be interested to know what it is you dislike too.
I work alongside quite a lot of different professionals, and, as a whole cohort, I'd put SaLTs as the most content.
Even before you consider the opportunities to work Privately if you choose.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm sure virtually everyone in any role at all could list things about their job the dislike / the job would be so much better without, but taking work as a whole....

I've worked as a paediatric NHS SLT for nearly 10 years now. I enjoy the interactions with patients and their families and being able to give support and advice. I do feel that the role has become more and more stressful each year and this has got worse since COVID. Our waiting list for an initial assessment is over 45 weeks and there is a lot of pressure for therapists to see more and more children each week to bring this wait down. There is little time give for follow up admin tasks such as reports,care plans and onward referrals so this ends up snowballing into a huge to-do list. Also, I find we often don't get to follow children up after an initial assessment, someone else will do a review or an assistant might do therapy etc and you don't really get chance to get to know the children well, or devote anywhere near as much time and support to a child's needs as you would like. I find it hard to accept I cannot offer what I think is needed, and this is after they have waited so long to be seen in the first place. Unfortunately we really do really do rely on parents and Schools to do what we don't have the time to.
The role itself is an amazing role and it is mostly a privilege to work with children and families. Years of underfunding, understaffing and increased demand results in high levels of stress and burnout, It's a shame but not unlike many other areas of the NHS, sadly.

Interesting thread! I qualified but then went into research after a year of practice, with some dabbling in private practice. I loved my job in a hospital but I don’t think I’d have been able to stay in love with it for years.

The suggestions of sidesteps seem like potentially good ones, I know someone who went from wards to autism assessment and found it a relief to have 9 to 5 and manageable and predictable caseload.

To me dysphagia is the reason I don’t think I will have a long clinical career in the NHS. I find it both boring and anxiety provoking. I want to work with communication, and to be a good specialist at that I need to not be squeezing it in around doing urgent swallow assessments. I hate it that there isn’t protected time just for communication, and the possibility to only work in communication. But I know some people love dysphagia, and if you might be one of them then maybe the training will change the job completely for you. You could look at teaching or research, but I don’t know that that is less stressful, just differently so..

For the people asking what’s stressful about it, it’s probably the same as most potentially very rewarding public sector jobs - the job you are trained to do is fascinating and fulfilling, and then you don’t have time to do it properly, and barely have the brain power to keep straight which patient is which, let alone be able to really spend the necessary time to build rapport, do a full assessment, and find the interventions or supports that will make a difference to that person. You can do all of that if you work privately, but it’s expensive because a lot of the work is not the face-to-face session so then you’re not able to work with many people who might really need it. It’s disheartening.

Have you thought about going into the private sector?

I have to say I sadly feel the same, having worked in the NHS for roughly the same amount of time.

I’ve also worked very closely with OTs/Physios/Dietitians and in my experience there is certainly more admin associated with SLT - time taken to carry out assessments, write therapy plans, collate materials, write reports. Massively understaffed and under resourced so ever increasing caseload with far fewer staff over the past few years which adds to the pressure.

I find the dysphagia side easier but less fulfilling.

I’m also intrigued to hear your reasons. SLT is a job I have thought about retraining in often it would be good to hear the other side

Most children with diagnoses and an EHCP (high level of SEN need) aren’t getting therapy actually with a SLT these days. If you’re lucky you’ll get a zoom call and an email with some generic advice.

There is a real need for Speech and language therapists with a greater understanding of deafness and British Sign Language. It is really lacking in many areas.
Think too many dismiss BSL and promote Makaton which is having a hugely detrimental impact on deaf children.