FEES Virtual Training

SA Swallowing Services (www.sasspllc.com) will not offer or provide virtual training for any of its FEES course offerings.

Our position is based upon years of training thousands of SLPs and years of clinical experience administering this instrumental procedure to thousands of patients and nursing home residents.  Face-to-face, hands-on, real-time, and real people training with an experienced mentor is the best avenue to properly learn to use a nasoendoscope, feel confident to perform the FEES protocols and procedures, and accurately score and interpret the results for a well-written and meaningful report and better intervention.

Virtual education has its place in disseminating information and knowledge, but it has its limits.  While the academic-related issues of FEES may be presented virtually-anatomy, physiology, infection control, equipment, and medical issues-continuity of academic learning with clinical skills is significantly reduced.

Our training experience for over 16 years has proven time and again that new FEES learners who received virtual FEES training have major problems later—many unable to institute a FEES program at their facility.  First and foremost, they are rusty having forgotten important supportive and procedural information and this has to be retaught.  This relearning process is time-consuming and makes scope manipulation training and its relationship to administering the protocol more difficult.  We have found that receiving all of the training face-to-face in one training event is the best avenue to learn this professional procedure and to be readily useable following training.

No virtual learning from SASS.

John R. Ashford, Ph.D., Education/Research Director,
SA Swallowing Services, Nashville, TN