1. Advocates for clients who have been neglected or underrepresented in the system.
- As a healthcare worker, I believe it is our responsibility to advocate for our patients. Throughout my fieldwork experience, I have had clients who needed more time at the IPR facility and in the outpatient setting to reach their full potential before discharging. During my outpatient rotation, re-evaluations are performed on the clients often in which I update the progress that has been made and what they still need to work on. I have often asked for more therapy with many clients when writing re-evaluations and when discussing with my FWE about progress. During my IPR rotation, our PT partner and I had a conversation about how to better serve clients of my religion and culture. I was able to educate him and he was receptive and appreciative because it gave him some insight for how to approach situations and treating his patients. Being a minority, I believe I have an advantage to be able to advocate for others because I can educate others about my religion and culture. I also believe that being a minority myself gives me more of a responsibility to advocate for all who are neglected and underrepresented. I have attached a flyer from a volunteering activity I participated in through my Jamatkhana to make goodie bags for a homeless shelter in Memphis.
2. Fulfills commitments to the professional community.
- As an OT practitioner, it is our role to be commited to our professional community whether it is by growing our skill set, physically doing our job, attending conferences, or maintaining continuing education units (CEUs). One of the biggest job roles as an OT is to perform evaluations. I had a hard time with performing and documenting evaluations because of its broad ray at each setting. At every fieldwork experience of mine I made it a goal to confidently perform evaluations by taking measurements accurately, performing special tests, making a checklist to ensure I assessed everything, and ensuring I obtain enough and important information from my clients through interviewing. Becoming confident in my abilities to perform evaluations was neccesary to ensure I was fulfulling my role as a practitioner. I have attached screenshots of my discussion board posts pertaining to my short and long term goals of becoming a better evaluator.
3. Represents the unique perspective of occupational therapy when participating in inter-professional situations.
- During my time at IPR, family training was an important aspect prior to a client's discharge. In family trainings, the PT and OT would update the family on the client's progress as well as what each discipline works on. I participated in family trainings multiple times in which I explained OT, progress and goals, educated on any equipment if it was needed, and answered questions the family would have. Another time I recall representing OT in interprofessional situations was with a new nursing technician. I had set the client up at the sink to wash himself and get dressed and I stepped out of the room because the client was set up at this point in his stay. When I came back to check on the client, I saw the nursing technician was helping him get dressed. I immediately started joking with the client and asked why he needed help getting dressed. After my conversation with him. I explained to the nursing technician that he is able to dress himself and doesn't need assistance. Instead, this is how his sense of humor is and he tends to be self limiting when there are others present in the room. I also directed her to the ADL board in the room which states the clients assistance level so that staff allows clients to be more independent.
4. Assumes responsibility for professional behavior and growth, in accordance with AOTA standards.
- Professional behavior and growth is something I prioritized everyday throughout my entire OT school and fieldwork journey. Whether it was arriving 10 minutes early each day or just being professional in tough situations when there are clients or other members around. As far as professional growth is concerned, there have been many techniques, knowledge about settings, diagnoses that I wasn't aware of when starting fieldwork which I was able to learn while on fieldwork. For example, in outpatient, my educator performed manual therapy on clients such as joint mobilizations. I knew the basic rules and how to perform them, but it was scary to actually perform on a client who needs it. I asked my educator to teach me how to perform thoracic spine joint mobilizations, special tests, and even ultrasound. Whenever I would see my educator perform manual therapy I didn't know how to do I would ask him to teach me so I can grow my skill set. Another thing I have done is look over past evaluations he has written so I can better write evaluations of my own. I am not afraid to ask questions when I am not understanding something or need further clarification. I will continue to do the best I can at becoming a well rounded practitioner for professional growth by increasing my knowledge and skill level.
5. Functions autonomously and effectively in a broad array of service models.
- All three of my rotations were different from each other. Therefore, different frames of references and theories were used to treat clients. For example in the school system, it was education based; in IPR, it was medical based; and in outpatient ortho, it was biomechanical. I feel like I have gotten a mix of every type of framework to treat clients. However, from IPR to outpatient ortho, there was some carry over and I was able to use what I learned in IPR in the outpatient setting. During my IPR rotation, group therapy was very common. There would be days where I would be doubled with clients and days I had 3 or more clients scheduled at the same time or within a 30 minute gap. This was difficult for me to juggle but I eventually learned that it was okay to ask for help when I needed and was able to reach out to my educator and the therapy techs to help get clients ready or bring them to the gym. By the end of each of my rotations, I was able to treat the whole caseload using various service models including group therapy.
6. Upholds the AOTA Code of Ethics in practice.
- The AOTA Code of Ethics was designed to guide us in our practice to make ethical decisions in our professional behaviors. I have always followed the Code of Ethics at any interaction with my clients. During my outpatient hand rotation, I was often faced with questions from clients about what other clients were there for especially when we were doubled. I always said to them I wasn't allowed to tell them but they were allowed to ask each other. Another time, I upheld the Code of Ethics was at my IPR rotation. I had a client who had suffered a stroke and was unable to take care of himself due to loss of movement on his left side. When my educator and I walked into his room to bring him to the gym, he was not ready. Instead he was laying in soiled clothing. The night nursing staff had not cleaned him. We were the first ones to help him get cleaned and ready for the day. He was laying in that condition overnight and for some of the morning prior to our session. My educator ended up reporting the night nurse tech. This was a hard situation for me to be a part of because I couldn't understand how a professional can leave their clients when they are unable to care for themselves. However, I do know that this was very unethical situation and I am glad that I was able to assist my client and make his day better. I have attached a screenshot from my discussion board about this situation.
7. Serves as a role model for honesty, integrity, and morally grounded decision making.
- During my fieldwork experiences, I learned the importance of proper and accurate documentation. Though all of my rotations were different settings, it was important to document how the clients were performing, any changes, goals they have met, and anything was important. In IPR, I was in situations when a client suddenly becomes orthostatic, goes into A-fib, and needs to be taken for imaging among many other situations. I learned to document as accurate as I could, especially when evaluating a client who not in our section, so that the therapist who is seeing that client understands what is going on with the client. I had to be honest when scoring in IPR with the GGs to accurately portray the client's level of function. Another time I have met this objective at both IPR and outpatient settings are by being honest with my charges. In IPR we had to document the minutes which would then generate the report of time for the next day to calculate which clients are behind, needs to be individual, or can be grouped for the following work day. In outpatient, the charges were billed a little different, but I made sure to only charge for the time I was seeing the client. For example, if the client is 10 minutes late to therapy, I only document 50 minutes worth of activities that were performed. I have attached a screenshot from my educator's evaluation from IPR about my documentation.