New Year - New Placement!

Happy New Year! 

A break over the Christmas holidays proved to be well needed! As I stopped everything, all the stress and tiredness seemed to catch up with me and I ended up feeling rather run down with a nasty virus over the holidays - pretty much all the way up until placement, but I was so glad of a break. It was nice to be able to spend some quality time with family and friends too.

"What? You commute to Carlisle!?"

Over the holidays I found when talking about my course to people I constantly get this reaction when I explain that I go to uni in Carlisle... I feel like I have to justify myself all of the time! But to be honest whilst I was resting over Christmas, I did reflect back and think... "how the heck do I manage getting up at 5am to travel to Carlisle and back twice a week!" That's determination for you.

Practice Placement 1.

I am now a week and one day into placement! It has flown by already. I'm really enjoying it so far and the team are really lovely and have made me very welcome. As it is a community placement I had an awareness of how they work and was familiar with their process of record and note keeping as my previous placement was in a community team.

I have been out on a few visits and have seen varied long-life conditions ranging from MND, MS and Rett Syndrome. I have also spent a day at a rehab unit which offers re-ablement therapy for patients for 6 weeks prior to leaving hospital, working on performing their ADL's as independently as possible providing support for their individual needs and making sure they are safe and well to return home. I have also purchased my first ever tape measure and have been to do a hip precautions assessment! I had a trip to the community loan store and have been learning about the huge variety of equipment available! Also about the different processes of ordering different pieces of equipment and the clinical reasoning behind it.

My educator has highlighted some of my strengths from previous work experience with visual aids to support a patient with MS - This is allowing me to come up with some strategies for them through activity analysis and standardised cognition assessment (MOCA) to highlight problem areas within their cognition and memory. Visual memory aids will then be put into place where necessary. I'm really excited about this and it's is great to be able to use my skills in OT intervention and feel like i'm progressing by doing something more independently. The aim is by the end of the placement for me to go out with support from one of the occupational therapy assistants and run an assessment on my own with this patient which would be a great opportunity!

I have been busy creating some basic visual structure examples relating to the patents specific needs.

I am hoping to utilise all of the resources and experiences possible to gain lots of experience from this placement. I am working hard with my educator through supervision highlighting how I can reach my learning outcomes for the level of this placement. I am hoping to go on some visits with the physio's during this week and pick their brains about anatomy! (excuse the pun).

My ID badge
(Excuse the awful photo)

Ive not only had to get used to a whole new placement, new people, and new places. Ive also been getting used to living in student halls! I am staying in Preston in short term student accommodation whilst here as It was too far to commute from home. Everything is new! The commute to placement from Preston is difficult to get used to as well. I cannot go out anywhere without my sat nav at the moment! I am glad to have my friend staying with me in the same flat who is on placement here too. It's always good to have someone here for some support! As results day is looming in the back of our minds and getting closer...

I'll leave you with a picture from my very cold student halls room... Notice Bertie the skeleton came along with me too!

My little desk area in my student halls room!

I will post more throughout my placement about my progress and experiences! Thanks for reading :)