No More Anxiety

NO MORE ANXIETY

Anxiety……. I was anxious going in because you just never know what to expect.  You get the chart and you see all these diagnosis and the only thing you think is “What am I going to do?”  You want to say it will be just fine, but reality of the situation is even if you know the diagnosis, each patient is completely different.  Actually seeing the patient in person vs. reading a chart was the most interesting part of the day.  I was expecting a patient far more worse than what I read in the chart.  I think that my session with my patient was interesting, because it tested my flexibility and how well I do with being able to upgrade and downgrade activities.  I was very comfortable with introducing myself and building a rapport with the patient. I feel as though my visual and verbal reinforcement took time but I could see the results that repetition creates. What I struggle with is the confidence in knowing that I am making the right decisions and being client centered during therapy.  My favorite part of the day was actually seeing my client eventually being able to perform 1-2 step instructions without needing reinforcement.  Today I have learned that I have more patience than I give myself credit for. After staying up all night trying to plan an activity, I meet my client and realize that everything that I planned was useless.  I took me just taking simple things in the environment to meet the expectations of my session, which was to follow 1-2 step instructions in order to perform basic ADL’s. So my expectations may have not been met based on his chart alone, but it was certainly met, based on the person he was this particular day. I take from this experience that each day is a new day, that being flexible will get you a long way in this career.