Making people laugh is the greatest feeling!The title says it all - I love making people smile and laugh!
One of my clients is "blissfully demented," meaning she is perfectly content sitting in her chair, not interacting with others, her eyes closed and listening to everything going on around her. She normally doesn't make noises other than little grunts and groans, but today I heard her chuckling at the conversation going on around her. And not a soft chuckle either, it was a deep, hearty chuckle. The other therapists and I were joking with one of the clients about his flirtatious nature and apparently my client found our jokes to be comical. She let us know with a deep chuckle. It caught me off guard and I snapped my head up to look at her, only to be further surprised to find a real, gentle smile on her face! Now, my client is a gorgeous woman, and as she sits quietly in her chair, she looks austere yet dignified. But when she smiled, it was amiable and motherly, and you could literally feel the warmth radiating from it. It reminded me that her true self is still there behind the dementia. I feel that a lot of healthcare professionals, myself included, forget that dementia patients are more than just a body, they still have their personalities intact. I had been working with my client for 2 weeks, but this was the first time I had experienced a true "response" to what was happening in her environment. It was refreshing, and honestly gave me that "pep in my step" to finish out the rest of my day. I am so grateful to have had this experience because it will be something I can draw from in the future when I feel discouraged for not getting a response from a client. I need to remember that it takes time to build a relationship with people, especially with a therapist who is often times associated with discomfort and strenuous work. Going forward I need to remember to not expect it to happen in the first go-around because people are complex and require time to build trust and rapport. But when you do establish that relationship, just like this instance with my client, it is worth all of the toiling. Until next time! -Lauryn E. Hill, MOTS
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"Hi, this is Lauryn with occupational therapy. I'm calling about your mother..."Bittersweet is the perfect word to describe my day.
One of my first clients this morning was a woman with a diagnosis of a glioblastoma stage 4 (GBM), a nasty brain tumor that is difficult to treat. My own grandfather had the same diagnosis in 1994. Unfortunately medicine back then was not what it is now and he lived only a few months after his diagnosis. It came as quite a shock to my family because he was a very healthy guy: always worked out, ate right and no longer smoked. This was an interesting similarity between my grandfather and my client today. When I looked at her charts, her medical history was nearly spotless; the only "flaws," if you will, were her recent biopsies and radiation therapy. Prior to her evaluation, my fieldwork educator asked me about the client's past medical history and I told her, "I couldn't find anything." My fieldwork educator replied, "Nothing? Really?" and took the occupational profile to review it. She was shocked, just as I was. But then again, I don't think I was as surprised as she was because with my family's own experience with the GBM seemed to follow the same pattern. A perfectly healthy person one day, and a totally dependent person the next. The worst part was making the telephone call to the client's son to fill in the blanks of the occupational profile since the client has expressive aphasia, meaning she has trouble communicating what she is thinking. I could easily hear the emotion in his voice as he struggled to get each word out. And, of course, as each word entered my ear, the heavier my heart began to weigh in my chest. This was certainly not an easy phone call. Based on his answers, the outlook seemed grim for my client, and it took everything I had to remain calm and professional on the phone. It was an emotional phone call. As an empathetic person who is naturally inclined to "fix" things, this was one of the toughest experiences for me personally because there was nothing I could do except to remain professional while talking to the client. I tried to keep my voice steady, not stumble over my words, and keep my tone constant throughout the entire conversation. That was hard. But after I hung up, I realized I had done fairly well considering I was not expecting most of the answers I had received and I maintained my composure as best as I could in that situation. Nevertheless, this was a good experience to have at the beginning of this adventure. I now have a better idea of what I would say in the next situation and how to separate my emotions from the job at hand in order to get through it as professionally as possible. That will be one of my biggest challenges but I am glad I have time to work on that before I graduate. Sorry to end things on such a sad note. I will find a positive story from this week to share with you all. -Lauryn E. Hill, MOTS P.S. Check out the link below to learn more about glioblastomas. I learned the survival rate has increased for individuals diagnosed with this condition. In 1994, the odds were not in the person's favor at all and longevity was only a few months. www.curetoday.com/publications/cure/2016/winter-2016/brain-trust-cuttingedge-treatments-on-the-rise-for-glioblastoma Hi, I'm Lauryn and I'm growing my confidence!My responsibilities are already starting to grow as I become more acquainted with this setting and this facility in particular. Yesterday, my fieldwork educator let me participate in the evaluations and treatments of her clients. Of course I am nowhere near as skilled as she, so I fumbled around quite a bit, incidentally making me stumble around a little more because I was nervous to mess up.
Now when I say "mess up," I mean drastically create a problem for my fieldwork educator. For her, that may be something as simple as I forgot to take the gait belt off the client after the therapy session and we have to turn around to retrieve it. But for me, that is putting my mentor into an inconvenient situation, which distresses me because I want this teaching experience to be effortless for her. Fortunately, I think my fieldwork educator was aware of my nervousness and brushed it aside without a second glance because today she let me run at least three therapy sessions on my own! Yes, you heard that right: THREE. The sad part is that I didn't realize that she was letting me work with them on my own until I was halfway through my first client's treatment... *palms face* Once I made the connection, I had to quell my excitement. It's exciting for several reasons: a) I know my "stuff" and so she trusts me to work with her clients; b) since she has faith in me, I should also have faith in myself; and c) I was doing myofascial release, trigger point massage therapy, splinting, and Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) of the upper extremities! My professional confidence is progressively developing, but I am so grateful that I can already see the scope of my classroom knowledge in the application of my fieldwork. It was at this moment that I was so glad I had learned something while in school because I could now apply it to real-life situations! Continuing with this, I want to brag about The University of Tennessee Health Science Center's Master of Occupational Therapy program. It has been one of the most challenging programs I have ever been a part of, but the hard work is paying off. I am so grateful for all of the wisdom, energy, and knowledge that my professors have provided to me. I hope I can represent the program well along this journey. They have done me a tremendous favor and I only wish to repay it! Until next time! -Lauryn E. Hill, MOTS Week 1 is in the books!As I mentioned in my last blog post, my fieldwork educator shared her expectations of me since I will be her student for the next 12 weeks. What I did not mention earlier, was that I mutually shared my expectations from her as my mentor.
Since it is my first Level 2 Fieldwork (L2F) -- and that means I will be assuming more responsibilities at my site -- I needed her to be patient with me since there is a large "learning curve" that comes with the role of L2F student. She was super understanding and 100% supportive of my learning process. (Seriously, she's just the best!) I also told her I expected her to share any and all information that would benefit my learning process. I am a lifelong learner, meaning I enjoy learning new things as often as I can, and I expect to make the most of my days at her facility. Luckily for me, this wasn't her first rodeo. By the next day, she already knew a plan for what we would do for the remainder of the week to help me learn the ins and outs about documentation, the facility, and working with clients both inside and outside of the rehab gym. She set the tone for the rest of the week, and certainly for the rest of the 12 weeks I will be there. The rest of the week I followed my fieldwork educator around the building, introducing myself to the nursing staff, CNAs, speech therapists, physical therapists, dietitians, physical therapy assistants, and maintenance staff, all of whom I will be working closely with in the upcoming weeks. Much of this time was also spent observing my fieldwork educator as she worked with clients. If she recommended an approach with a particular client, I heeded her advice and continuously evaluated the situation/person. There was a moment that I was totally out of my comfort zone. On my first day working with my fieldwork educator, we had a client who had succumbed to MRSA. I'll be honest, I didn't know a lot about MRSA, but I did know it was serious, especially for healthcare professionals to work around for an extended period of time. Before we walked in, my fieldwork educator told me to put the gown, gloves and mask. She told me she normally "double gloves" and that totally had me worried prior to entering the room. I fumbled to get my personal protective equipment on, but finally dressed out and we entered the client's room. The entire time I was in the room, I anxiously worked on the client until my fieldwork educator finally excused us from the room. Writing this down I feel so guilty about admitting all of that, but I know that I did grow from the experience. In fact, the next day that we worked with this same client, I noticed I was being more vocal with the client and actually focused on the massage techniques used by my fieldwork educator. And by the last day of the week, I was much more relaxed, which allowed me to focus on learning correct massage techniques to reduce hypertonicity of the muscles. I am grateful for this experience, especially jumping into it on the first day, because it allowed me to be forced outside of my comfort zone, and I had to struggle to get back into that zone by working through this experience. As the old adage says: "If you're not uncomfortable, you're not growing." I would have to agree. If no pressure is being applied, then I am not being challenged. If I am not challenged, then I will never learn how to overcome a situation, and grow from the overall experience. This situation was definitely a challenge. So much so that I was very uncomfortable. Nonetheless, I am very grateful for this experience because I now feel more confident to jump into a situation similar to this one. Until next time, ya'll! -Lauryn E. Hill, MOTS |
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AuthorI am an occupational therapy student at The University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, TN. The purpose of this blog is to demonstrate competence in my graduate-level program through journal reflections pertaining to one of the four main competency areas. Through practice, I hope to become consistent at journaling so that I can help my future clients to the best of my professional ability. Archives
August 2017
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