Sometimes I forget that not everyone is as passionate about hand therapy as I am. I don't think she wants to go into hand therapy. I am treating her as if she does. She is only a level I student, but I am having her do some things. I do a lot of talking about why I am doing the things I do. I think I explain more than she sometimes wants to know- or maybe is ready to know at her level of experience.
I taught one college course in my life, while I was a graduate student in psychology. I taught Cognitive Psychology. And it was my subject, I loved it- it was a little disappointing to see that my students just needed the credit. (It was a summer course). Most of them didn't see the awesomeness of the material. And of course I was a statistics TA for two years- a subject I like but I know I am pretty unusual in that. My students just wanted to pass. For many, it was the only math class they would take in their college career. I had to help get them through it.
I haven't had level I students before, only level II students. So I think I am treating her a little like a level II. Still, I think she will have had a very good experience and that it will help her in her level II fieldworks- even if she never sees another hand patient in her life.
I haven't had level II students at my current job. And I really don't want them until I get better at my paperwork. I am pretty sure that going to computerized notes will make things a whole lot better. But until then- while I am struggling so much- I am not sure that I want a level II student. But I do want one again eventually.
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2 comments:
I taught a few semesters of English composition at the local community college but found I was not a teacher. Plus, I've come to loathe grammar in general. (It's for chumps.) Mostly I couldn't figure out how to fill the hour with instruction.
One of my level I placements treated me as a level II. She was very strict and I had to do a ton of outside reading as well as participating in all the treatments the 2 days she was there; on the day she wasn't I worked with the activity person plus I helped with meals and did feeding and other stuff. I also had one patient directly assigned to me and did a treatment plan/assessment the best I could and then worked with him on what I came up with both with her and 1:1 on her day off.
I had the hardest level I in my class as far as demands (others had a long drive which I think was even worse because of how we were scheduled with fieldwork and a class; one day a week I didn't even get to eat anything from 9 AM until 7 PM and it was worse for the people with longer drives). But I was very grateful for the experience and glad I was pushed. Granted this was in an area I was very interested in spending my whole career doing (unfortunately they don't have the same kind of programs anywhere else; this was set up by the university) and so that's not what happened but I was really interested in what I was doing.
I say don't feel bad, push her and what she doesn't absorb she'll get later. I always tried to remember that I might not have wanted to do hand therapy but the very first question on my NBCOT exam was about a hand...the experience will still pay off for her.
(And for the sake of thoroughness my first level II place treated me as a new grad able to do independent tx and evals for the final 4-6 weeks; I was just watched from afar most of the time unless it was something I didn't know how to do at all. It was a wonderful experience and made my 2nd level II where they had no idea what to do with me and just used me as filler awful and hard to get through. I didn't get the same extremely high scores on the 2nd as the first and I think that's because I was held back in the 2nd one. I used stuff from my first level I through all the years I worked; it was fabulous (VA Hospital and I got to do inpatient rehab, psych, seating clinic where I found my great love, nursing home/palliative care a little, and outpatient. My very first day they asked if I was squeamish and I said no so I got to watch them work on a Dupuytren's release for the first post-op visit, with all the open anatomy (and a patient who had re-dressed his wound in turpentine soaked rags....).
JMJ
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