The knowledge and skills required by speech and language therapists working in Neonatal Intensive Care Units
Sara Panizzolo
The increase in births and in the survival rate of premature infants has required an evolution in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) in terms of organisation and treatment patterns. The figure of the Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) has been inserted into the multidisciplinary team. The clinical interest for the 0-3 year-old population has expanded the role of the Speech and Language Therapist as a professional who provides support and assistance within the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit team. The «recent» focus on recognising the role of SLTs providing services in NICUs has led to the development of a position and a technical report by the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA). This informative article intends to disclose, in a concise way, the contents of these documents in order to convey an overview of the state of the art of a specific professional field that is still little known and practiced in Italy to the scientific community. The principles set out in the documents on the knowledge and skills that SLTs must possess in order to collaborate in Neonatal Intensive Care Teams will be reported.
Keywords
Knowledge, Skills, Competences, Role of speech and language therapists in Neonatal Intensive Care Units.