Top Three Continuing Education Resources for SNF SLPs
6/2/2026
1. Aspiration, Pneumonia, and Diets: Protecting Your License from the Big Three
This free webinar was put on by Aspire and the recording is available on YouTube. Ed Bice presents the most up to date research regarding aspiration, pneumonia, and modified diets, and how to use this information in your daily practice. He also touches on the topic of informed consent and provides an example of how to document informed consent.
2. From Principles to Practice: Implementing Informed Consent for Texture Modified Diets
This free webinar was put on by the National Foundation of Swallowing Disorders and the recording is available on YouTube. Hillary Cooper, President and Co-Founder of the Dysphagia Outreach Project, explains in depth how to implement informed consent for texture modified diets with functional, practical advice. The information provided is relevant, up to date, and essential for navigating dysphagia management in skilled nursing facilities.
An understanding of the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) is essential to developing plans of care for persons with dementia. While scores from other standardized assessments can be very informative, you can use the GDS stage to determine what skills are and aren’t appropriate to be targeting with your patient. For example, it is generally not appropriate to target orientation to time with someone who is GDS stage 6. Someone in GDS stage 6 would benefit from goals directed towards caregiver training and procedural memory.