Random tidbits

1) Friday afternoon I went to a health networking event at my undergrad Rhodes College- they asked alumni doctors, pharmacists, dentists, PTs, OTs, etc to come and serve on the panel and then invited current students to come ask questions. It was 1.5 hours long and I spoke to four students total, two who were very serious about rehab and two who hadn't really heard about OT before but were intrigued when I explained all the possibilities – from babies to old people, etc. We discussed internships, scheduling, majors, volunteer/observation hours, pros/cons, etc. They were all really smart girls wanting to do majors like physics or pre-med. Anyway I think it went well.

2) One of the speech therapists brought up an interesting point, about how some of the doctors come in in pal-mode, “Hey how are you doing, ::checks patient very briefly:: yeah great to see you we're going to get you out of here okay goodbye!” while others come in “Hello. Here's what is going on. X, Y, Z, and here is what we will do about it. Bye.” And that most of the patients seem to relate better to the jokey-schmoozey doctor who gives them no information, rather than the straight-forward doc. It doesn't seem like many of the doctors I've encountered have a good combination of warmth AND straight-forwardness. One or the other.

3) Census is really low…as in, inpatient, there were only SEVEN patients today…yet an OT, a COTA, a Level II student, and a Level I student. I think the rest of the week will be very slow as well.

4) Today I did two evaluations with quite a bit of assistance. The first one was a stroke and I have only seen one stroke eval so far and it was a very minor one. So my supervisor had to show me a lot of the stuff to do because I've primarily seen ortho evaluations which are much more straightforward. The second one was a very deconditioned woman with a lot of problems and depression and again I needed a lot of help. It was somewhat nerve-wracking/scary to do these evaluations, but really they were pretty straight-forward. I just need more experience. This week- well at least Weds, Thurs, Fri – I think I'm primarily the one seeing the patients and just getting help from my supervisor, versus observing. I guess considering it's only my second week I shouldn't feel disheartened – I'm pretty much writing up a lot of notes/evals etc by myself and navigating the computer system well and getting a feel for hospital layout and procedures – but I just want to like, know exactly what to do and when, and I'm not there yet.

5) I went to traffic court this afternoon…for my 10-over speeding ticket I had to pay 61 dollars but it won't go on my record so my insurance won't go up. Yay on insurance, boo on the cost. What a bummer. Oh well.

Ummmm……it's almost 11pm…I've been so tired…I want to go to bed now…even though I'm way behind on e-mail and feel like I've neglected a lot of my friends….but I need to be on my game tomorrow….tomorrow I don't know if we'll have any evaluations, but I know I have to be ready to treat the patient with the stroke, and the patient with depression and deconditioning, plus a few others I'm sure.

Oct 08, 2008 | Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: 1