Our Best Laid Plans...

I came into this program a year ago with a very black and white thought process. My brain worked in theories and absolutes and I enjoyed a well thought out plan and I thrived off of being well prepared for situations. Hummmm…I’ve had to step outside my box a bit.

The more I learn about OT and am able to get hands on experience planning treatment sessions, the greater importance I see in flexibility. Not from a physical standpoint (although that can never hurt), but a mental and psychological perspective. I’ve realized that more often than not, going with the flow and being able to jump ship at any moment is key!

Our fieldwork site this summer is teaching me all about the importance of a treatment plan, but also the necessity of thinking on my feet if the plans go astray. Each week we have no idea what state our patient will be in, how much they improved from the previous week, when they have their real therapy appointments that day and if they are even in the facility or have discharged! Talk about being flexible. There is only so much we can plan ahead of time. This is where our therapeutic use of self, clinical reasoning and on the fly thought processing comes in. Although at first this proved to be a struggle for me, I feel an unexpected switch in my brain. I feel like I am getting comfortable with not always having the exact plan and actually thriving off of it! I’m starting to feel more competent in my knowledge and my critical thinking skills with patients and I’m starting to really believe that “I can do this”. Being able to think on the fly makes me feel like I am making big steps forward into becoming a therapist.

I’m very excited for fieldwork this week. I haven’t met my patient and only have read about him from the 2 page evaluation. Even though we can try, there is no way possible to capture the full picture of a human being on a double sided piece of paper. But this is the reality; we will more often than not get all our information for our first treatment sessions from a 1 or 2 page piece of paper. Planning will only take you so far...knowledge, experience, creativity and critical thinking will carry you through the rest. I hope I can at least have one of those skills on Tuesday :)

I’m very thankful for this out of the box opportunity that continues to breakdown my carefully built up walls. I feel like I am getting a great NON-sugar coated experience as a student that will help me tremendously in the future. I just have to keep reminding myself the "best laid plans of mice and men often go astray". In other words... “stuff” happens.