Why SNFs Are Healthcare’s Best-Kept Secret for Clinical Growth!

Hello everyone and welcome to Exactly, the podcast where clinical education meets the future of healthcare. I am your host Brooke Macintosh Ball. And each episode that we bring to you all, you know, we're really bringing together leaders from across health care, academia, workforce development, um, and beyond to really explore the challenges and innovations and opportunities that are shaping the next generation of care.

So, from clinical placements to career pathways, we're really connecting the dots exactly where education meets practice. Today's conversation is one I am especially excited about. I feel like I say that every episode now. Um, but it's true. Um, but today really because we're diving into a setting that I think is widely misunderstood. Um, and honestly undervalued in clinical education. Um, and that is skilled nursing facilities. So today we're going to unpack what makes sniff such powerful training environments, what students gain from these experiences, and why the setting might be one of the best places to grow as a clinician. So we're going to challenge the narrative a little bit.

Um because if we're being honest, there is a perceived hierarchy in clinical education and sniffs do not always land at the top. Um but the question today that we'll answer is should they? So um I am joined today by two leaders who bring deep expertise and real world perspective into this space. Um first of all, I'd like to welcome Key Kent who is the executive vice president of compliance and quality at Continuum Therapy Partners. She is a physical therapist with deep experience in long-term care and postacute settings with a focus on clinical outcomes, regulatory strategy, and quality.

Welcome, Key. Hey, happy to be here. Awesome. And then we also have David Gerst who is the vice president of clinical integration and development at Powerback Rehab where he leads clinical learning initiatives and overseas student programs with a background in speech language pathology and system integrations. Welcome, David. I'm so glad to have both of you here.

Thank you so much, Brooke. Awesome. Thanks for joining. So, um I'm going to selfishly say upfront, um that longer ago than I care to admit, um I had a rotation within a skilled nursing facility myself. Um whenever I opened up my envelope, right, because that's back in the day, um how we learned where we were going on rotation. Um I opened it up and I saw that I was going to a skilled nursing facility. Um I reached out to my DCE, Dr. Lori Shimco. Hi, Dr.

Shimco. Um, and I was like, I am an excellent student. I, you know, I I do I go above and beyond. I have great grades. Why am I not at the, you know, level three trauma center? Um, why am I going to skilled nursing? Um, and as most students should do, they should trust in their DCES. Um, because it ended up being one of my best rotations of the ones that I had when I was in PT school. Um, but I, you know, I think a lot of this happens because students go into these experiences with perceptions kind of already formed before they step in the door. So, let's go ahead and start there. Um, when students think about their clinical rotations, again, I kind of mentioned this before, SNIPS don't always make the top of the list.