Humility

Sometimes you can lose your focus, in the heat of the day. One Friday not so long ago, it was a typical Friday at the adult nursing facility. Patients out for appointments, but the information was not readily available....you double check on the electronic health record or ask nurses, before the shift starts. Surprise discharges, three the night before. There was then the remaining caseload to schedule, with competition for treatment times with the other therapy services abutting your plans. The times at which therapists start their day are staggered, so you may or may not communicate with all your peers immediately. So many progress reports, and updated plans of care to be done. Then it started.

Amongst the treatment sessions, there are new consults to be screened. Family,  requesting meeting times to clarify treatment issues. Reminders that a written status update on some patients is needed, for the insurance companies. When your schedule tells you that a patient is available but the patient is not there, - Is she in therapy? Outdoors/indoors relaxing? Sequestered in the bathroom? Saying "leave me alone; I've had my therapy already". In the beauty salon? At bingo? Taking a shower? Nap time? Family has taken her out for a meal? So many things could be happening.

Then, when all your visits for the day are completed, you are expected to demonstrate that you maintained maximum productivity while seeing all your patients. Your written documentation is meant to portray all that has happened for each person served that day. It should lay out your daily execution of the plan so well, that the parties that pay the bills should not quibble about reimbursement for your services.

If you let this craziness, to any degree, capture and overwhelm your workday - if you let any feelings of anxiety or fear about how complex and random seeming the day is; if you let it infest your work - you are sunk. Dead meat. Yesterday's news. Up the river without a web browser, much less a paddle. A question mark in your supervisor's balance sheet. A worse insult than that one slung by one Presidential candidate against another. It is so hard to keep your head some days, when all about are losing theirs, thank you Mr. Kipling.

How do you combat the urge to run from such a treatment day, if you are the speech-language pathologist on duty in this adult nursing facility? Your training and your experience will tell the tale. How well you live in the moment during your treatment day; that will help you string a successful moment upon a sequence of successful moments. How well you keep to mind, and hold close to your heart, that all this energy is not swirling about for YOUR benefit, but for your patient's benefit - that will lead you to bring that person the best service. Stay humble, stay focused, stay doing what you do.