A Day in the Life, Part II
Well, here is Part Two of the typical day of mine. Sorry there were a few blogs between since I promised this as the next one when I wrote Part One. Issues that I thought were more important than one of my boring days got blogged about first though.
The alarm rings and its back to the clinic after getting showered, dressed, breakfast and put together a lunch, then the short (thankfully) fifteen minute drive. Some days the elevator is quite slow and it might take another ten minutes to get from the bottom floor to the top floor. Walking the hall to the clinic usually gets one or two comments, updates or requests from staff, patients, or both.
Once in the clinic, the day begins with logging in on the computer to check e-mails and minutes. Writing up my daily log sheet as I check minutes lets me know who to go see first if possible. By the time the log is done, minutes noted, e-mails answered, the patients begin to show up for Physical Therapy. Some days it's down the hall to complete some dressing, bathing or toileting tasks to get those people to therapy. Some days there are three or four in the gym right away, and more than the P.T. department can handle at once. I'll hang around the gym those days and begin treatment there with some exercise, transfer training, or other activity. On days that people have been seen in their room for ADL's, they will now be ready to come to the gym. I'll be in the gym soon after to begin therapy with the first group, who are now done with P.T. The morning usually consists of six to eight treatments, depending on the minutes each person needs.
As the lunch hour nears, the people from downstairs begin to leave since their floor is served first. Patients from the rehab floor will hang around another half hour or so until their trays arrive. That makes it easy to get those few extra minutes in, but sure makes it hard to work on feeding at lunch time. By the time all the trays are out, I'm starving. It sure is hard to work on feeding when you're tummy is growling. Lunch sometimes consists of a sandwich in one hand, and the keyboard under the other. Some days it's one of the nearby fast food places, then back to the keyboard.
After lunch, there are usually a few room visits to do and finish up a treatment with at least one or two of the morning people. When all the treatments are complete there are usually one or two issues to be dealt with, one of the needier residents always seems to be wanting something. Then its log the minutes, write the notes, and answer the new e-mails that have come since lunch. Using the computer makes these tasks a lot easier, unless there are server problems.
So that is really not such a bad day. I find that most days are pretty similar; it's only the patient's that change.
Until next time, hope all your "Thoughts" are Good-
Tim