Wednesday, August 22, 2012

DONE!

Well as of Friday, I have successfully completed my first Level 2 Fieldwork!! I never would have imagined that i would have loved it as much as I did. I am truly blessed to have been placed at Springtree and to have met the wonderful people that I met. On thursday, my supervisor and the other OT staff threw me a surprise party with yummy food and a cookie cake! It was so nice of them and I was completely surprised. Also on Friday, I gave them each a small thank you gift and card.  This is what I made for each of the OT's and COTA's:

Luckily I pinned this idea on Pinterest a while back and was able to use it! I had originally thought I was going to use vinyl and my friends Cricut machine to put each of their initials on a mug. But because her Cricut was being used by a family member out of town- this was plan B! I actually liked it a lot better than just their initials anyways and they seemed to really like them too! All you need is a mug (I found these at TJ Maxx for $2/each) and sharpees. Once you write on the mug, they go in the oven for 30min at 350 degrees to make it 'permanent'. They do need to be handwashed after they have been used tho- apparently the dishwasher messes up the writing/drawing.

Anyways, that was on Thursday. On Friday I saw my final patients, said my 'Goodbyes' and my supervisor and I had our final meeting to go over how she evaluated me and my eval of the fieldwork site. I honestly couldn't believe how high she rated me on the AOTA form. I was shocked to see the final percentage, especially when the form itself says that 4's are very rare, and here she is giving me all 4's and two 3's.  She said she didn't think she has ever rated a student that high...which makes me feel pretty proud.
She also took me to speak with the HR person about working there doing PRN work (unless a full time OT spot opens up) when I get back from my next placement. Will definitely look into that because I just loved the facility and everyone so much, and by the end of the placement it felt like I worked there already anyways.

Now that I'm on a two week break, I have just been relaxing and getting prepared for my next affiliation. I'm moving down to Newport News next Thursday- eeek it's SO soon!!! Will keep you posted on how that goes!!


Friday, August 10, 2012

week 11

I've just finished by 11th week at fieldwork! SO crazy. only 1 more to go!
This has been a weird (but good) week- Two of the ladies I have been treating were discharged. One of them was just my favorite patient, I always looked forward to our sessions and we just had a great relationship. she really trusted me and let me push her a little past her comfort zone...we laughed a lot during every session and just had such a good time together. She taught me some good recipes and made copies of her fave ones for me when she left. As she was leaving yesterday she came to the rehab gym with tears in her eyes telling me just how much she enjoyed working with me and told me she loved me! Which of course made me tear up- I'm such a sap! Its hard to see these people for so long, build a relationship with them, and then they get better and go home. That's the hardest and the best part of this job.
I was SO proud of her for how far she had come. When she first got there, my supervisor and I were reading the eval and it said she was a danger to her self and staff, and that she required max A x5 people to get out of bed. We went to perform her eval and she was just anxious and explained how difficult her hospital stay had been, how she didn't trust the CNA's at the hospital and that's why they had put that stuff in her paper work. She just cam out of her shell so much within those first couple weeks, It was amazing to see her progress to where she was yesterday. That's what makes all of this worth it and I am so thankful that I get to help people like her get back to living their lives.

Its time like that where I know I chose the right profession! I hope everyone feels that way about their job/future job.


This week I have really been on my own with treating pt's and doing about 1 eval a day- one day I had to do 2 evals. One lady was just so feisty, and not nice to me! which was a first. but I made it through the eval and then got to pass her tx session to one of the COTA's. She was just frustrated and confused...I think she will start on the upswing soon.

Anyways, that's about how my week went.
I'm SO sad that next week is my last week, but then again I know it's time to move on. I will miss everyone there so much and I hope I'm lucky enough to have such great co-workers at my future job site. I'm going out this evening to get thank you gifts for my supervisor and the other OT's there. Hopefully I have luck finding the kind of things I am looking for!