Sarah Pilsworth, is a Macmillan senior specialist speech and language therapist (SLT) who joined the CUH family in 2002. Sarah trained in London at the Central School of Speech and Drama where her interest in voice work began. Here Sarah tells us more about the 21 years she's worked with us.
What is your name and your role in our hospitals?
My name is Sarah Pilsworth and I am the Macmillan senior specialist speech and language therapist (SLT) working in the head and neck cancer, and ear, nose and throat (H&N/ENT) team. I am also currently job sharing the professional head of service (SLT) role.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
Supporting patients through life-changing treatments – it can be a very challenging but also extremely rewarding job. We are lucky to see patients from their diagnosis, right through their care. I feel that we can have a real impact on patient’s lives through our assessment and management of their swallowing, voice and communication difficulties. I love the variety in my current role - seeing patients but also working with other SLTs and the wider multidisciplinary team (MDT), looking at service delivery and improvements, helping manage our department and build a strong and skilled workforce.
Tell us a bit about your CUH journey:
I joined in May 2002, sometimes it feels like a lifetime ago but other days it only feels like yesterday.
I originally joined as a speech and language therapist working in a split post across the H&N/ENT and adult neuro teams. I was quickly able to move across into a fulltime H&N/ENT role due to expansion in this area, and have been lucky to progress into more senior and specialist roles over the years.
I have always felt immensely lucky and proud to work at Addenbrookes. The hospital has such a huge expanse of knowledge and learning opportunities, with a wonderful reputation in so many specialist clinical areas.
The teams I have worked within are so supportive and progressive, it’s great to be around people who are such experts in their fields, and learn from them. I enjoy being able to share my knowledge and help others also develop a love of this area of work too.
Having being in the hospital for over 20 years its lovely to have seen the huge growth that has taken place – but I also get to see familiar faces regularly – a testament to the fact that many other staff stay here because they love it too. There is always such a buzz and I enjoy the fast paced nature of work here.
How did you come to work at CUH? Did you work elsewhere before joining the CUH team?
I trained in London but retuned to rural Lincolnshire working around Skegness, Boston and Spilsby when I graduated. I was in a wonderful mixed, generalist post there which covered everything from neonatal care to geriatrics, hospitals, clinics, schools and home visits. It gave me a wonderful overview of many different areas of working, but after 4 years I felt a need to specialise more and looked for something based purely with adults.
Whilst on the lookout for jobs a post at CUH became available, working with adults across the neuro and H&N/ENT teams. I applied and was luckily successful in my application and interview. I had never been to Cambridge and didn’t know anyone here, but drove through the City centre after my interview and was struck by the beauty of it. The interview was daunting, but also a really positive experience and I could really see myself working in this hospital setting.
Where did you train?
I trained in London at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Sadly the course I was on ceased to exist the year after I left. I loved the training I received there; it was such a unique centre – with lots of drama, acting and stage management courses on the same site, giving the place quite a theatrical feel. I guess this is where some of my interest in and enjoyment of voice work began.
What does a usual day look like for you?
I am usually first in the office and help to plan the day for our team. Most days I have some meetings where I act as representative for our SLT department, but then also have clinical commitments to work into the timetable too.
I may be helping cover our radiotherapy clinics – where we see patients who are undergoing radiotherapy to their head and neck area, due to a cancer. This treatment can be hugely debilitating but a necessary evil as it were. We work very closely with the dietitians, and rest of the MDT to try and help the patients manage their side-effects to give them the best chance of tolerating their treatment.
We may be assessing peoples swallowing, and providing them with advice on how to eat and drink more safely, to avoid chest infections, or providing them with equipment to enable them to communicate with others. Throughout the day I will check in with the rest of my team;
I am lucky to be surrounded by a very supportive group of SLTs and we share our work out as things change frequently across the day.
We can often get calls regarding ‘emergency’ situations during the day – for example a patient who has undergone laryngectomy (removal of the voice box due to cancer) and needs their voice prosthesis changing. This needs to be managed quickly to avoid a need for admission to hospital, so we need to request a room from clinic, and get our PPE ready to see the patient.
I also often have time built into my day for supervision sessions with the staff that I directly line manage. At the end of the day I am usually checking and replying to emails and sorting out admin that needs to be cleared before the next day.
Tell us about a case study/experience at CUH that really stands out to you.
I was referred a lady from our joint ENT / SLT voice clinic who had been suffering from spasms in her neck for a number of years. This had recently developed into an additional spasm in her voice box which affected her voice. She would struggle to make sound and get words out. This had a huge impact on her work, and her social and family life. We were able to work together in 1:1 voice therapy sessions, and greatly improved her voice quality so she could speak to her family and friends more easily, and could go back to work again - although it was still a great effort for her to speak.
We managed to get her referred to a specialist centre for injections of Botox into her voice box to reduce the spasm. This was hugely effective and she is now able to speak almost normally.
She was very grateful and explained what a help those initial voice therapy sessions had been both for her physical and psychological health.
It was great to make a difference. We are hoping to be able to provide the specialist injections at CUH soon so that the whole pathway could be managed by our teams on site.
How do you feel your role benefits our patients?
I am lucky to have direct contact with patients so can help to problem solve their complex clinical issues. We often become a main point of contact for patients, as we work with them and their families so closely - we are lucky that they put their trust in us. We are able to provide them with information to help them make an informed choice about their treatment, and support them on their journey.
In my role I can also help support less experienced SLTs from our hospital and neighbouring Trusts by being an advisor and sharing knowledge/experience to enable them to manage complex patient cases effectively too.