Alumni Career Q + A with Jocilyn Benninger, Speech-language pathologist
Why did you choose to go down the career path that you did?
My name is Jocilyn Benninger, and I am 30 years old. I am a speech-language pathologist working in a Skilled Nursing Facility with both skilled and long-term care patients. I graduated from NAU in 2022. My care for people dates to a young age. When I was in high school, I worked with children who had disabilities. I was always intrigued by cochlear implants and deaf culture. When I was in undergrad, I thought I wanted to be an audiologist until I learned about the variety of disorders a speech-language pathologist can treat.
How did NAU prepare you for your career?
NAU provided me with a well-rounded clinical experience with a multitude of populations and settings. It also provided me with the most recent evidence-based practice research. I have educated other speech-language pathologists and staff members at my facility (certified nursing assistants, doctors, family members, patients, and nurses) on the golden standard (instrumental swallowing studies) before placing patients on thickened liquids to determine if it is warranted.
Why should others consider pursuing a career in your field?
As a speech-language pathologist, I find that every day is different, and there is never a dull moment due to the acuity and diversity of patients I treat. I also feel a sense of reward by improving a patient’s quality of life. Even the simple act of performing oral care on a patient after a week in the hospital can make someone feel like a human again. You can also be a leader in whichever setting you choose, advocate on the patients’ behalf, and invoke change in the healthcare setting.
What do you hope to see in the future for your profession?
I hope in the future, universities create additional medical courses geared toward dysphagia and working with tracheostomy/ventilator patients. I would also love to see more multidisciplinary clinics such as the Barrow Neurological Institute and Mayo Clinic.
What’s the best part of your job?
The best part of my job is having a patient admit NPO (nothing per mouth), and I safely advance them to regular food and thin liquids. Another personal victory is when I collaborated with my SimplyThick representative and co-worker to thicken one of our patient’s ice cream for his birthday. Also, I enjoyed making a long-term care patient’s dream come true by using external memory aids to budget her money for an extracurricular activity outside of the facility.
What would you say to a student interested in pursuing your profession as a career?
If you are interested in this profession, find speech-language pathologists in your ideal setting and try to observe them. I would also say to explore all of your avenues and be very open-minded. I went into school with the mindset of working with pediatrics, and I could not be happier working with the geriatric population.
What are some ways you practice self-care to avoid burnout/what do you do for fun?
I like to go to the gym after work, converse with my grad school friends, and spend time outside on the weekend either at a baseball game or hiking with my family.
