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Drop the CCC Flex — It’s Just Making ASHA Richer | Otter.ai

Drop the CCC Flex — It’s Just Making ASHA Richer

Jeanette Benigas21min

Jeanette Benigas

00:03

Welcome to the Fix SLP summer school series, where we're schooling the system all summer long. If you're ready to challenge the status quo in speech language pathology, you're in the right place. Subscribe so you don't miss an episode. And if something fires you up, leave us a message on the minivan meltdown line at fixslp.com, grab your favorite summer beverage and let's get to work.

Jeanette Benigas

00:28

Hey everybody, welcome back. It's Jeanette. We've got Elizabeth Nielsen today. Our What's your new title? You're not

Elizabeth Nielsen

00:40

Ummm...digital.

Jeanette Benigas

00:41

We don't know.

Elizabeth Nielsen

00:42

Manager of content stuff.

Jeanette Benigas

00:47

She creates stuff. Yeah, she's our fancy content person. She's with me because Preston is on a vacation and he's out for the week, we have a minivan meltdown waiting. But minivan meltdowns are Preston's brainchild. They are his baby, so we're going to save that to talk about with him. In the meantime, I am going to be changing the email that those minivan meltdowns go to. They will begin going directly to Preston. He wants more of those flood the man with minivan meltdowns, please. They and they don't have to be meltdowns. They can be celebrations. They can be complaints. They can be like if you're a fan girl of Preston, you can send him a love note. Do whatever you want to do, I'm going to be changing that email today, so by the time you hear this, they're going straight to Preston, and he'll be so pleased to have all of those in his inbox. So let's jump in. We are on a tight timeline today, plus this is the summer series, and we want to keep it short. So Elizabeth, what are we talking about today?

Elizabeth Nielsen

02:00

So today's episode of our summer school is calling the CCC a license. We see it an ASHA license. We see it everywhere all the time. We're loving our fixers, though. We're seeing lots of corrections. We're seeing people say, Don't call it a license. It's not a license. But we're still seeing it, we're seeing it popped up, and so that's why we're creating these summer school series. So like, just remind people, spread that education, because we have a lot of content to scroll through. So I think these little episodes are good little reminders, and share it. Share it with friends. We need more people aware, because, again, there's just so much misinformation out there that we're trying to just correct, because the more that we're seeing is misinformation, it's not helping our field. And we need, yeah, we need some education. That's why we're here. Yeah, that's why summer school exists.

Jeanette Benigas

02:57

Asolutely. So Elizabeth, we pay attention pretty carefully on the pulse of what's going on in social media. And you came across a post where someone was concerned because they let their ASHA license or whatever go, why don't you just read it to us and then we can talk about it?

Elizabeth Nielsen

03:15

Yeah. So I saw this post, and I thought it was good to provide a little bit more guidance for this person. So they had lost their the CCC due to not meeting their 30 CEU requirements. And they were asking like, how hard is it to get recertified? They haven't worked as an SLP since 2021 and then she says, like, oh, I have until August 31 to submit my CEUs, because ashes now sending all of these invoices for people that haven't paid their dues. So she also was on that list. And so she was just concerned about getting her CEUs for her certification. My first thing that I said, I advised her, I'm like your state license also requires continuing education. Make sure that your state you're meeting your state you're meeting your state license, continuing education first, that's what you need to practice. The CCC is optional. And so this misinformation, or like even just having the license as an afterthought, because we've been so conditioned to think I need the CCC. The CCC is required to practice. It's just been ingrained in us where then the license is just like, Oh, it's just paperwork that we have to fill out after we graduate. Each state licensing board has different CEU requirements, sometimes more than ASHA, and we've talked about that we need to prioritize the license and what's required for that. And so people are just so ingrained to think like, oh, I just need it for my certification.

Jeanette Benigas

04:42

Yeah. And my recommendation is, unless you live in Hawaii, always follow what your state requires, because if you fulfill the state requirements for professional development, you will meet the requirements for the CCC if you are still holding that. Yet the PDH, the professional development hour requirement for the CCC, is the minimum, not the gold standard. There are many states that require more. And if you do the math, most states are on a one or two year cycle. ASHA is on a three year cycle, so they require 30 hours every three years. Most states are requiring 10 to 12 every two years, and so depending on when you take those hours of education, you're likely getting more maintaining your license, even at 10, than you are maintaining the CCC, which makes the CCC the minimum standard, and makes this a very easy argument in every state that it's harder to maintain my state license than it is for the CCC, because I have to do more PDH. And if you weren't around in the fall when we discussed that, PDH is professional development hours. CEUs are continuing education units. They're all the same thing. They don't have to be ASHA approved. In most cases. There are some states that require that, or at least a portion, ASHA does not require ASHA approved. CEUs, they only require professional development hours related to the practice.

Elizabeth Nielsen

06:22

yeah, and the point one CEU is one hour. That was another concern that this person has, was, I have to get 300 hours. No, the point one is the one hour. So 3.0 is 30 hours. So just little clarification on that too.

Jeanette Benigas

06:40

Yeah, so I wanted to bring up with this topic, then how to sign your name, because we have people maintaining the CCC who want to support what's happening. We have people who are letting the CCC go, who now don't have it, and we have people who are thinking about it. And so the other question, and this kind of relates to all of this, is, well, how do I sign my name? Well, you need to sign your name with your degree. So for me, it's Jeanette Benigas comma, PhD. For you, Elizabeth, it's Elizabeth Nielsen, comma, M, a, and then all you have to do is put dash. SLP, that's it. Yep, that's it. Dash, SLP, because it would be illegal for you to sign that. SLP, if you weren't licensed, or maybe it wouldn't be illegal, but it would be a misrepresentation for you to sign that without a license to practice. So signing SLP, indicates that you are licensed in the state. Many years ago, ot used to sign L O T or L O T R, or O T R, dash L, that is a very old habit and pattern that we do not have to do anymore, and I'm guilty of doing it. Your state license stands on its own, so you don't signing SLP, dash L is not a formal post nominal credential. There is nothing that it is tied to per se for the license. There's no standardized way to sign with that L. You could stick it anywhere. You could stick it as your middle initial. It means the same thing no matter where you put it, because it's not a thing. Again, your state license stands on its own. It gives you the legal right to practice. You don't need to add that L to prove that your state license number and your board record already do so people can look you up. Every state has something called a state Practice Act. The regulations by which you need to abide are in that state Practice Act, we have all the state practice acts linked up fixslp.com under regulations for SLPs. In those state practice acts, they protect the title speech language pathologist or SLP, and then your state governs the use of that title. ASHA created CCC dash SLP to promote their paid credential. They did it as a promotional tool every time we sell or every time we use CCC, dash, SLP, we are advertising for ASHA for free after we've paid them $250 we are advertising for ASHA, I'm saying it louder. Okay, your state board doesn't need advertising, which is why you don't need to use the L your license. Your license is implied by using the protected title.

Elizabeth Nielsen

09:57

Yep, and it's like this little bit. Edge of it's like, oh, I want to add more letters to the end of my name. You don't. You don't need to have extra letters. You are a qualified speech pathologist without having extra letters behind your name. And once you realize what the CCC stands for and how it just is the same process as your state license, you start to realize, like, oh yeah, I really don't need to add this. This doesn't add any value to how I am practicing as a clinician. None of my clients parents knows what the CCC is. I removed the CCC from my signature a year ago. No one questioned it. No one was like, Well, why isn't this there? They just don't they don't pay attention to that. They know that I'm a licensed therapist. I have my license hanging up like, that's all that really matters for these parents.

Jeanette Benigas

10:53

So Elizabeth, we are now in the middle of this CMS crisis with new grads who are either in their clinical fellowship, if they're pursuing the CCC, or because their state requires, quote, the clinical fellowship, and it's called that. A bunch of other states have a six or nine month supervision period that's required, and they call it something else. And during that time, everyone is practicing under this temporary or provisional license, which we've explained in previous content and podcasts. So when someone is in this period, do you want to tell us how they should sign?

Elizabeth Nielsen

11:36

Sure. So if you have the temporary provisional license. You typically sign your name as SLP, because of the state license, even provisional, that's what grants you that protected title. You do not have to add CF BY LAW. People do again because we've been taught, we've been conditioned adding extra letters behind your name makes you look fancy, but we don't.

Jeanette Benigas

12:05

Mmmmm.

Elizabeth Nielsen

12:07

We don't.

Jeanette Benigas

12:09

I would almost say that not putting CF looks a lot fancier because it puts you on the same playing field as the rest of us who are old and tired,

Elizabeth Nielsen

12:18

Yeah, yeah. And you are, you're competent. You are a competent speech therapist when you graduate and the provisional license. And this is something that we want to talk about. We're going to be talking about with our state licensing boards. We want that mentorship still there. We are not saying to get rid of that mentorship, because it's still good to have, but you are an, SLP, you are a qualified therapist, and we want to be able to bill because you're qualified, yeah, so, SLP, that's all you need.

Jeanette Benigas

12:54

SLP

Elizabeth Nielsen

12:55

That's all you need.

Jeanette Benigas

12:56

Hashtag, we are. SLP.

Elizabeth Nielsen

12:58

yes

Jeanette Benigas

13:01

We keep saying it.

Elizabeth Nielsen

13:02

So....

Jeanette Benigas

13:04

So then that this little pet peeve of mine, I have entered the TikTok space for Fix SLP, because, not because I want to be a tick tocker, or, as my son says, that he wants to be a YouTuber when he grows up. I don't want that in my life. But here we are because our younger SLPs Are there more than they're on Instagram or Facebook, and the younger SLPs the grad students whose universities aren't going to tell them about us or tell them about what we're doing. You know, the they're living in the dark ages, they're not going to find out this stuff until you tell them in their clinical rotations if you're still taking students. Or they enter the field and start complaining online and then get tagged like this poor person did to Fix SLP, the number of people on Tiktok with really good accounts. Really I've I've been watching them all. I'm engaging with all of them as I see them. The number of accounts with CCC in the handle makes me want to crawl under a rock and die,

Elizabeth Nielsen

14:22

Free advertisement for ASHA!

Jeanette Benigas

14:25

It gives me a pseudo anxiety attack every time I sign in to Tiktok and I don't get mad. It shows me that, oh my gosh, there are still so many people who need our information, and this is why we ask for the five star rating and review on podcasts. This is why we ask you to share our content. Facebook will give me notifications when someone follows our page from a reel. So someone had done that from the reel that I posted earlier today, who didn't know about us. Yes, my favorite thing, although it's annoying to have to clear these things out, is when someone finds us for the first time on Facebook and likes 30 pieces of content. You I can always tell when someone is new and invested, and I will gladly do that 100 times over to get more people finding us. I will. There are so many people who don't know about us, and this is never going to end, because there are new students every year, there are new grads that are new every year, there are entry level professionals every year whose universities did not tell them about us. Did not tell them the truth by omission. Yeah, right, they lied by omission. Yep. And when I first started this platform, I used to get so annoyed when people were asking the same question over and over and over again, it didn't take long before I realized how to come to Jesus with myself. Jeanette, this is what you're doing now. You're an educator. Just like you educate about dysphagia, you say the same thing over and over and over again, because people left grad school not knowing how to do these things that you talk about, or spaced retrieval. How many times have I done a space retrieval lecture? I say the same stuff over and over again. This is the same thing. There are people who don't know about this that need our information so they can make the choice that is best for them to at least know and to freaking stop calling it an ASHA license.

Elizabeth Nielsen

16:37

Yes, and that's like all this stuff that we're talking about needs to be talked about at the university level. Students deserve the truth. Yeah, and it's being fed that the CCC is required, it's needed. And then again, the license is overlooked. Then some people might be out of compliance with their license if they're not even renewing that, because they think I need my CCC to renew, right? And that's a problem, right? And so we need to continue to educate, even if we're doing the same topics over and over and over. It's important because, like you said, there's new grads coming in, and they need to know, especially if their universities are not talking about it. And these students needed to have these conversations with the universities.

Jeanette Benigas

17:31

I've been sharing my mugs the last couple episodes, and this one is in front of me that I'm drinking from. It feels appropriate. This is probably vodka. Okay, this is how I feel every time I see the CCC handle on tick tock I need to drink if, if I turned it into a drinking game. We should do that someday. We should play tick tock roulette as a team of fixers and just scroll and land on one and if the CCC is in the handle drink. We could have jello shots. Oh, my God, we should do that at our Fixer retreat.

Elizabeth Nielsen

18:07

I'll make the the board.

Jeanette Benigas

18:11

Um, it's happening. Okay. So here's a call to action. We can't get mad at these young professionals. They're sharing good information. Sometimes they're not. And then, you know me, I'm getting in there, like giving the correct info, but they're sharing good information. They're reaching each other in the way that they should be, which is so cool to see, because sharing is caring, right? But they're putting the CCC because they are proud of that credential, because that is how they have been groomed to feel. They have been groomed by their university, by their professors, by nsla, by ASHA, to be proud of that credential. So now they're putting it there to advertise for free. So we can't be mad at them. We can't victim blame, right? We can't victim blame they don't know. They don't know what they don't know. So we need to keep sharing this. And if you're on Tiktok, challenging people, this is the episode to share. We'll have a couple clips. Share the clip on Tiktok. Share the clip on the reel. This is going to go what I'm about to say is going to be a clip on Tiktok. If you have the CCC in your handle on Tiktok, consider exploring the idea that you are advertising for the American Speech Language and Hearing Association for free. You are advertising their proprietary product for free. In fact, you are paying to be able to do their advertising for free. That's a problem, and we're going to challenge you to remove that CCC from your handle and just leave it SLP, because you are a licensed SLP.

Elizabeth Nielsen

19:58

Boom.

Jeanette Benigas

19:58

(clap) Boom. Okay, Elizabeth had to leave two minutes ago, so should we let her go?

Elizabeth Nielsen

20:04

Yes, I think so, yeah.

Jeanette Benigas

20:06

All right, everybody. This was episode three of our summer school series. Keep tuning in. Keep sharing, please. Five star rating and review. Also, I haven't said this yet, we are speeding down the track to 100,000 downloads by our two year anniversary. I think as soon as we get a moment to breathe, we're probably going to have a contest to share some of our episodes or to go back and listen to something and review it. We're going to come up with something, but we're on track. We want to make sure we get there strong. So please, if you have not listened to our back episode, if you're new, go pick one and listen to it, and then share, if you see our new episodes coming out, listen to them in the first week. That really helps us in the first seven days, and then share, share these reels that point to these podcasts. Share, share your favorite information. Point people to the podcast, because it would be so cool. It's just a personal goal of mine that means nothing, really, but I'd love to see it happen. So anyway, we'll see you next time. Guys, thanks for fixing it!

Jeanette Benigas

21:08

Thanks for listening to the Fix SLP podcast. If this episode helped you feel more informed or empowered, take a second to leave a five star rating and review. It helps more SLPs find us. Fix SLP runs on $5 sustaining partnership donations that small monthly support pays for everything behind the scenes, including our website, legal fees and advocacy work. Want to be a part of it? Join us at fixslp.com enjoy the sunshine, stay scrappy and we'll see you next time!

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