Working Things Out At Work

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So I'm finally starting to work things out at work, at least I hope so lol. Apparently there were some new systems that have been put into place before I came that not everyone is completely comfortable with and not all the kinks have been worked out yet. So that is cause of the majority of the confusion and the "who does what when" type of stuff. We are starting to get it worked out (my coworkers and I) and we are planning to have a meeting with the three of us involved and the boss to try to come up with a definitive plan, so I'm excited about it. I like new projects and coming up with new systems and stuff. It's a bit more difficult because I really don't know everything that needs to be done anyway, as far as if there are monthly reports weekly reports and all of that. But at least now I have seen most of the clients and have a good idea of what I need and want to work with them on, so that I can at least put some info in on who is doing what of the functional activities. I've also started to get into the flow of things and have done quite a few group sessions which are obviously getting easier by the day.
For those of you who know about my confusion with this job and my role as an OT at this facility, I think I finally understand it. For the most part, I will be seeing the clients on an evaluation and I will be deciding what I want to work on with them and what is the most urgent for me to be doing with that person. It is a great facility, and the clients get so many different therapies, and the follow through and carry over into all the sessions from all the sessions is one of the best I've ever seen. So although it is not what I am used to by any means, and it has taken quite some time for me to adjust my way of thinking, I feel more comfortable here. Basically the clinicians do evaluations (speech, OT, PT, behavior, psych) and we determine within our realm of practice what is the most important things we need to work on. So if someone has upper extremity weakness, increased tone throughout their arm and hand, and this is mainly the reason they are unable to perform dressing, grooming, bathing tasks.. then I will mainly concentrate on strengthening and stretching and getting that arm moving again. Now instead of me having to concentrating on that and the dressing, grooming, bathing stuff.. I can just concentrate on getting their arm moving again in a functional way. But, because this facility is very holistic the client will get functional skills, which works on dressing, grooming, bathing.. etc, etc, etc. So once I can get more active movement and range out of their arm then I would probably move to hitting those functional activities even more, and I would probably take over the role of dressing, grooming, bathing, the basic stuff, where their functional skills would move on to cooking, cleaning, etc in order to give them practice at it and to keep it from getting completely neglected. Also I do all visual deficits, and unfortunately the majority of my clients have those. Like I already said, everyone uses carry over from the others sessions, so I am working on cognition and their behavior as well as reinforcing what they are doing in psych and their speech throughout my sessions. It's really nice and the client's goals are always being reinforced by the support staff as well, even after the clinicians go home.
Anyway, I have a lot of fun at work, and I am getting things sorted out so that I can give the most to my clients while I am there. It also helps when your boyfriend just happens to send you flowers on a hectic day just to make you smile. 😊

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