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This was my quote for March and was fitting as I get closer to graduation.

March included spring break (aka lots of food as I caught up with friends) and 50 nights until graduation-an event my school holds every year for those graduating.

It feels surreal that graduation is so close. I honestly can’t comprehend that I will have my Master’s degree in OT in less than 2 months. I started this 5 year program when I was 17 and now it is almost over.

April will bring me even closer to graduation, which also means boards, jobs, moving, becoming an adult, and not sitting in a classroom for the first time in 18 years. Aka a lot of change which can be terrifying. So my April quote is going to be….

Because, yes, some of these changes will be scary, but they will also lead to amazing things.

Bring on April.

Hi all! I was feeling creative and looking at planners online.

During my peds fieldwork, I had made a little chart for myself to keep track of my schedule.

I decide to make a new chart and wanted to share it with all of you. It’ll work great for students & therapists that have patients scheduled on the hour! Even just students with a lot to keep track of might like it!

I’m already 5 days late with this post but what’s new?

So…. February

February included the TherapyEd board prep course, a lot of drama, and some crazy stomach pain.

My quote of February was “don’t overthink it”

Which turned out to be a great quote the month.

During the board prep course, “don’t overthink it” turned out to be one of the biggest take aways. As a chronic second guesser, I had to remind myself not to keep thinking about a question after I had picked an answer.

During all the unexpected drama, I reminded myself “don’t overthink it.” It is just silly girl drama and will pass by.

And when it came to mysterious stomach problems… I definitely did overthink it. WebMD here I come.

But now it is a new month and that means a new quote.

This month I’m looking forward to being even closer to graduation.

And as ready as I am to graduate, I feel the need to remind myself to slow down and enjoy the moment.

So this month, my quote is “remember when you wanted what you currently have.”

Because there were so many times that I could only dream about being this close to graduation and being an OT. So I am going to remind myself ho far I’ve come, how close I am to being done, and try to enjoy the moment as much as possible because I will never be at this point in my life again.

January included a huge transition back to school after living at home and completing fieldwork during the fall semester. I hadn’t sat in a classroom, wrote a paper, or even talked to a lot of my classmates since May so saying I was nervous to go back to school would be a major understatement.

I was terrified.

I did not want to go.

But my mom reminded me how far I had come and how close I was to the finish line.

Luckily, the move back to school went smoothly (besides a few forgotten things) and my roommates and I quickly caught up and fell back into a rhythm.

Switching my brain from practitioner to student was a little more difficult though. I made sure to fill out my planner and write down assignments but I still find it hard to sit through hours of classes because I’m used to being go-go-go at fieldwork. I am also still having a hard time with balancing schoolwork with the rest of my life and find myself cranking out hours of work and then having days with no assignments due.

I was hoping I would get back into a nice routine of class, homework, and the gym, but the weather (hello polar vortex) and multiple compressed schedules & snow days has made that a little bit difficult.

I had chosen the quote “you are exactly where you need to be” for January and it was exactly what I needed to hear during all these crazy transitions and life changes.

And while January did not go 100% as planned, February is a new month. And with this new month brings a lot more assignments, a weekend board prep course, and just more of the general life stress that comes with being in your last semester of grad school.

So in February, I am going to remind myself “don’t overthink it.”

Don’t overthink it when you are doing assignments and someone else is doing there’s a slightly different way.

Don’t overthink it during board prep when you get another question wrong-you will still be an OT.

Don’t overthink it when your mom doesn’t answer her phone-she was a life too and will call you back.

Don’t overthink it when your roommate seems a little grouchy, you can be quite a grouch too.

In February, don’t overthink it.

When I was assigned my level II fieldwork in acute care, I had little idea of what to expect. Based off what I had gathered in class about this setting I imagined I would begin my placement by working with orthopedic patients who recently underwent joint replacements (hip, knee, shoulder, etc.) and then transition to more complex patients on the oncology or cardiology floors.  I was completely caught off guard when I was assigned to be in the intensive care unit (ICU) for the duration of my 12 weeks in this setting.  If you find yourself in acute care for your fieldwork, my advice is do not fear the ICU! It’s an amazing place to develop confidence and competency while really honing in your skills of grading and adaptation.

Acute care is an fast-paced, high-energy setting that gives therapists flexibility in planning their day. In my opinion, the benefits of this setting as a fieldwork student are invaluable as you are able to see a wide variety of diagnoses and deal with patients of all ages and backgrounds. I absolutely loved my time in acute care but there are definitely some things I wish I would have known beforehand that would have made me more confident in my abilities. I have divided advice as it relates to you, your patients, your treatments, your supervisors and co-workers.

You

• Be flexible. The day is not always going to go as planned with patients in x-rays, CT-scans, receiving medication, etc. when you want to do your treatments.
• Find a way to organize the information gathered during evaluations. As a new practitioner, there is a lot to remember when you complete an evaluation (i.e assist level for grooming, feeding, toileting, dressing,  UE range of motion, UE manual muscle test, vision screening, sensory testing, etc.) I created a chart that had boxes for each of the assessments I needed to gather during an evaluation and made copies of it at the beginning of everyday.
• If you are unsure about something, ask for help! If you are nervous in moving a patient with all the lines they are hooked up to, ask a nurse for assistance. Nurses are usually willing to help disconnect a line, but they will not be happy with you if you do so without them, or even worse pull a line/ IV out! Along with this point, learn what all the lines and leads do (there can be quite a few when working in the ICU).
• Try to go to rounds if the hospital your at does them. The attending doctor usually runs this daily and it basically is an overview of each patient and their current status.
• Learn medical abbreviations. All the charts and documentation will use these.

Your patients

• Get to know them. Although treatments in acute care are short (15-30) minutes, it’s so valuable to connect with your patient and understand more about who they are and what is personally meaningful to them. In acute care patients are skimmed over by many other disciplines that don’t have the time to really get to know them, so we bring a unique value here.
• Take into account comorbidities. If a person is admitted following a motor vehicle accident and also has dementia, they may need extra time to follow instructions and simple, short phrases for cueing to complete activities.
• Empathize with the stress and anxiety of being in the hospital. Remember that when you leave for the day, they stay. Try to bring hope and understanding when you work alongside them. Remember what a privilege it is to be allowed to walk side by side people during the most traumatic and stressful times in their life.

Your treatments

• Although treatments can be somewhat limited in this setting (ADLs), try to focus on wat the patient is motivated by and wanting to do. For instance, I would always ask my patients in morning sessions if they wanted to brush their teeth (answer was usually yes because they hadn’t been able to do so until I arrived).
• Organize lines and leads before moving a patient! Can’t emphasize this enough. Plan out where you are going and make sure the IV poles, catheter, etc. are on the correct side.
• Know how to read digital monitors for vitals. Understand what critical values are and when to stop treatment. Along with this, always check your patients for a change in status (i.e. were they conversing normally and suddenly stopped talking?, are their eyes closed?, etc.)
• Have a few different plans of treatments when you go into a room. Things rarely go as planned in the ICU.
• Be comfortable with transfers. Patients with high complexity are likely going to need assist for mobility and transfers. Ensure you feel comfortable with this before attempting it with patients.
• Always have a backup plan if things go awry mid-treatment. Sometimes I would drag a chair behind me if I thought a patient may not be able to tolerate walking all the way to the in-room toilet.

Your supervisor

• Ask for feedback. Make it a regularly scheduled occurrence. My supervisor and I met every Friday to go over my goals for the week, how I could improve and what I did well.
• Ask them questions, show them your eager to learn more!
• Tell them about your learning style at the beginning of the rotation, so they can better assist you.

Your coworkers

• Get to know them. Acute care staff and especially the ICU staff functions as a team. They will be more willing to help you if they know who you are!
• Ask them questions. I learned so much from the nurses, PTs and SLPs at my setting because I was always asking them questions. I found that most people in this setting had a sort of specialty area they were more experience with and thus could provide more in depth information about.
• Make yourself a valuable member of their team. I helped out whenever I could to make the jobs of my co-workers easier. For instance, I would come in 10-15 minutes earlier than my supervisor and assist in setting up the board of patients delegated to therapists each day.