Who has the best approach?

With a previous post ("Are You A Technician? A Psychometrician?"), I began to describe two perspectives the SLP might bring to the job, regardless of the customer base or service setting where the SLP might work. With the roles of the technician vs. the psychometrician,  I wanted to call attention to not only how each role is endowed with unique responsibilities, but also how each role can limit the autonomy of the SLP.

To keep it real, the majority of my days and those of most of my peers have significant portions devoted to repetitive,  focused tasks. We all spend time at specialized and circumscribed activities available for our use by our education, training and experience. But if this were the entirety of the workday, I would run, run like the wind from such a job. Growing in this profession means, to me at least, that you should be able to use all your skill set; to challenge yourself to think while you work; to use your good work to indirectly market your profession: I can hear it now....

(Sung to the tune of 'Dark End of the Street') -

"Do you know - what an SLP can do?
She may help you talk, but you hear better too;
He helps you swallow; helps you think on your feet -
She lives in the real world so your life's more a treat.

YOU AND ME - tangled tongue, straightened out by an SLP....

He sees the big picture,
Not just the skill constricture;
She works well with mothers, bosses
And your MDddddddddddddddd

YOU AND ME - tangled tongue, straightened out by an SLP" -

I am calling this perspective on the clinician, the "diagnostician". How do all three perspectives compare in a nutshell??

WHO DOES IT?		HOW DO THEY THINK?		WHAT DO THEY THINK?
SLP as technician		Let’s do this one thing.		I’ll do all the ‘x’ you want to give me.
SLP as psychometrician		Let’s do this exactly right.		I am your lab bench jockey.
SLP as diagnostician		Let’s do it so this person cans communicate/swallow/think better.		I do it all for person ‘Y’.

I see the diagnostician as the apogee of evolution in our field: the diagnostician draws her/his decision making skills from a broad general skill set, in addition to the specialized knowledge required for the CCC. Technician and psychometrician skill sets are folded into what the diagnostician does, but there remains much more. Perspectives #1 and #2 are domain specific, but #3 is more and more a generalist - though knowing how to be specific, for the needs of each of the persons she serves. Where the technician and diagnostician fill a role, the diagnostician embodies an identity.

I hope that these ideas can help fuel more thought and discussion about how the SLP approaches her work.