The Significant Role of Speech-Language Pathologists to Elevate Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice

by Lisa Milliken, MA, CCC-SLP, FNAP, CDP, RAC- CT, CADDCT
Chair Elect, Speech Pathology Academy

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are uniquely positioned to strengthen both interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP).  By bringing specialized knowledge of communication, swallowing, and cognition across the lifespan, SLPs help teams to better evaluate, communicate about, and manage complex patient needs. Their contribution is not only clinical; SLPs also model collaborative behaviors, teach communication strategies to teammates, advocate for patient’s communication needs, and help create shared goals that improve care coordination and learner readiness for team-based practice.

SLPs enhance IPE by offering content that naturally requires cross-disciplinary learning. Topics such as dysphagia management, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), cognitive communication, and feeding disorders demand coordination between medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, nutrition and dietetics, pharmacy, psychology, social work, oral health, and education.  Structured IPE sessions that include SLPs expose students from multiple professions to role clarification, joint decision making, and communication techniques (e.g., standardized handoffs, plain-language counseling); all competencies are tied to safer and more effective team practice.  Scoping and systematic reviews show that IPE improves role clarity, teamwork skills, and interprofessional communication when intentionally designed and competency based.

In clinical practice, SLPs raise the quality of IPCP by contributing domain-specific assessment frameworks and by facilitating shared management plans.  For example, dysphagia management requires rapid, coordinated assessment (clinical swallow exam, instrumental assessments), timely modification of diet/feeding, and family education. SLPs often lead or co-lead multidisciplinary dysphagia teams and create practical protocols (e.g., bedside screening algorithms, interprofessional rounds) that reduce delays, clarify responsibilities, and may shorten length of stay or improve adherence to best practices.  Systematic syntheses indicate that practice-based IPCP interventions (interprofessional rounds, checklists, facilitated meetings) can improve process measures and professional behaviors, though more high-quality trials are needed to define effects on hard patient outcomes.

SLPs also serve as bridges in education-practice translation.  When collaborating with nursing, medicine, occupational therapy, physical therapy, psychologists, athletic trainers, teachers,audiologists, and other interprofessional team members, they translate evidence-based communication and swallowing practices into discipline-specific workflows.  In addition to healthcare practices, recent mixed-methods reviews in school settings highlight how SLP–teacher collaboration improves therapy integration into classroom routines, increases feasibility of interventions, and supports student participation when their collaboration emphasizes shared planning, communication, and relationship-centered approaches. Likewise, SLPs often partner with nurses in acute care to strengthen bedside screening, referral pathways, and feeding plans.  These collaborative models reinforce the “teaching in practice” ethos that makes IPE meaningful and sustainable.

Involvement of the SLP enhances team outcomes by improving communication with patients and families.  Communication breakdown is a major contributor to medical error and suboptimal care; SLPs provide direct expertise in tailoring messages to patients with aphasia, cognitive-communication deficits, or limited health literacy, and they train teams to use supported conversation techniques and accessible documentation.  This not only improves patient experience and engagement but also equips other professionals with practical skills to maintain continuity of communication across settings.  Evidence reviews of IPE/IPCP link improved communication competencies with better teamwork and process indicators across care settings.

Finally, implementing effective SLP-centered IPE/IPCP requires attention to barriers, such as scheduling, workload pressures, siloed professional cultures, and lack of standardized competency measures. Emerging literature recommends competency-based IPE models, simulation and case-based learning, and workplace-embedded interprofessional activities (e.g., joint rounds, co-treatment clinics) to overcome these barriers and to make interprofessional collaboration routine rather than exceptional.  Recent scoping work calls for validated assessment tools and larger implementation studies to demonstrate impact on patient-level outcomes.

In summary, speech language pathologists elevate interprofessional education and practice by supplying essential clinical expertise, modeling communication and collaborative behaviors, and partnering to translate evidence into everyday team workflows.  When healthcare systems and educational programs intentionally integrate SLPs into IPE curricula and IPCP structures, the interprofessional teams become better prepared to deliver person-centered, and coordinated care, which is especially significant for patients whose needs depend on finely tuned communication and swallowing management.

References

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (n.d.). Pediatric feeding and swallowing. ASHA Practice Portal. (Practice guidance and interprofessional recommendations).

Armstrong, R., Schimke, E., Mathew, A., & Scarinci, N. (2023). Interprofessional practice between speech-language pathologists and classroom teachers: A mixed-methods systematic review. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 54(4), 1358–1376. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_LSHSS-22-00168.

Bloom, R. D., Tufano, V. E., & Perez, C. T. (2022). Registered nurses’ and speech-language pathologists’ interprofessional collaboration: A systematic scoping review of the literature. Nursing Forum, 57(6), 1129–1136. https://doi.org/10.1111/nuf.12802.

Patel, H., Perry, S., Badu, E., Mwangi, F., Onifade, O., Mazursky, A., Walters, J., Tavener, M., Noble, D., & Malau-Aduli, B. S. (2025). A scoping review of interprofessional education in healthcare: Evaluating competency development, educational outcomes and challenges. BMC Medical Education, 25, 409. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-025-06969-3.

Reeves, S., Fletcher, S., Barr, H., Birch, I., Boet, S., Davies, N., ... & Kitto, S. (2017). Interprofessional collaboration to improve professional practice and healthcare outcomes. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CD000072. (Update published 2018).

Wallace SE, Farquharson K, Berdik M, Foote LT, Manspeaker SA, Hankemeier DA. Speech-language pathologists' perspectives of interprofessional collaboration. J Interprof Care. 2022 Nov-Dec;36(6):801-809. doi: 10.1080/13561820.2022.2039106. Epub 2022 Mar 25. PMID: 35332835.