"Believe in yourself, our strength grows out of our weakness."


As an OT student, we learn so much in a very short period of time. Some things we are good at, some things… not so much. It is important to identify strengths and weaknesses as both impact our performance as health practitioners. You can’t just not see a patient because you aren’t good at a certain aspect of your profession. You need to be able to help whoever walks through the occupational therapy department doors with whatever diagnosis.

I have always been one of those people that focus on my weaknesses, as these are places that need the most improvement. On one hand, this is a good thing as I am always looking for things I can improve on. On the other hand, it can become very… depressing if you are constantly looking at your downfalls.


With intervention being a whole new aspect of being a third year student, the weaknesses list is going to be A LOT longer than your strengths list.

So to list a few weaknesses I have identified during fieldwork…
Difficulty writing SMART aims – outlining a specific aim for the session
Time management – ensuring I get to everything I need to do regarding practical’s, tests, assignments and presentations
Principles of treatment – specific and integrated
Sub programmes – specific and integrated
Adapting to 2 days of fieldwork a week instead of one – twice the amount of write ups and preparation for prac.
Communication errors – problems with mixed information
Integration of assessment findings, problems lists and aims
Keeping up with all the appendices for the case study – there are a lot of extras needed in the case study.
… To name a few.

As you can see from this list, the main problem is integration. I struggle to connect all my assessment findings together into a problem list. This affects my prioritised aim statements, which in turn affects my intervention plan. However, after feedback today, I am able to see how to go forward to improve this and have a more holistic intervention plan. Hopefully I can add some of the things from this list to my strengths list by the end of this fieldwork block.

With regards to strengths…
Client therapist relationship – I am able to relate to my clients easily and establish a good rapport quickly to ensure optimum engagement in therapy
Handling – giving the correct amount of assistance at the right times
Multi-disciplinary team interaction – being able to negotiate times to see my client if he has a full day of therapy or when I am leaving early, such as on a Wednesday.
Session planning – activities that are planned are beneficial and take the clients wishes into account
Resilience – I am able to bounce back after a stressful day or session and continue on with the rest of my day or week productively (more or less productively)

As this list shows, my strength is mostly in interaction with people, whether it be with my clients or other therapists. I am able to put this as a strength as it has been confirmed by 2 separate supervisors – so not blowing my own horn.



It is important to look at both as you need to build on your strengths and improve your weaknesses. Many weaknesses progress to become strength as we work on them and improve them.
“Strength does not come from what you can do, it comes from overcoming what you thought you couldn’t do.”

Enough motivation and insight into self, now onto how my sessions went this week.

My first client, who I have had since the beginning of fieldwork has progressed very well in terms of wheelchair mobility and wheelchair orientation. He is able to go down declines and up inclines with minimal assistance. This has improved from last week where he needed moderate assistance.



I was not able to see him today as he experienced a clinical syndrome known as autonomic dysreflexia during another therapy session. “Autonomic dysreflexia is a potentially dangerous and, in rare cases, lethal clinical syndrome that develops in individuals with spinal cord injury, resulting in acute, uncontrolled hypertension.” ("Autonomic Dysreflexia in Spinal Cord Injury: Overview, Pathophysiology, Causes of Autonomic Dysreflexia", 2019)

I noticed he was not doing the therapy exercise and went to ask him if he was tiring, but he would not respond to anything I said. Nor did it look like anything I said registered with the client. I called the therapist and she immediately contacted the nurses and the doctor. It was quite scary to witness as Doctors and nurses were rushing around to check his blood pressure and get him on oxygen. He was still unresponsive when we left the facility.

I have started with standing frame activities for my second client. He has a spinal cord injury at the level T3. He presents with weakness in the lower limbs and increased tone at the hip joint. He coped very well with the session, and has progressed from Monday where he used his hands to stabilise himself to now no longer using his hands for support. This is only I third session in the standing frame and I can already see an improvement in his lower limb muscle strength.

So to make this blog post really clichéd… As you can see, even our clients have strengths and weaknesses that they need to build on and improve. Over time, a lot of those weaknesses will eventually become strengths that they can use to become independent and functional in their daily activities – see what I did there? Integrating my week evaluation with the topic of the blog :p

So to end off with a quote, as I do with every blog:
“In the end, some of your greatest pains become your greatest strengths”
And I sincerely hope that this is this case with regards to integration of assessment findings, problems lists and aims.

References: 
Playing Trumpet GIFs - Get the best GIF on GIPHY. (2019). Retrieved from https://giphy.com/explore/playing-trumpet
150+ Quotes About Strength And Being Incredibly Strong [TOP LIST]. (2019). Retrieved from http://www.quoteambition.com/quotes-about-strength-being-strong/
How to Identify Your Strengths and Weaknesses - Bplans Blog. (2019). Retrieved from https://articles.bplans.com/how-to-identify-your-strengths-and-weaknesses/
Autonomic Dysreflexia in Spinal Cord Injury: Overview, Pathophysiology, Causes of Autonomic Dysreflexia. (2019). Retrieved from https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/322809-overview
21+ Quotes About Strength | Text & Image Quotes | QuoteReel. (2019). Retrieved from https://quotereel.com/21-quotes-about-strength/
63 Top Weakness Quotes And Sayings. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.askideas.com/63-top-weakness-quotes-and-sayings/


Comments

  1. Sanchia27 March 2019 at 22:38

    Patient handling is half your battle won in OT so yay for that! The other half is evidence based research adding to your skill set of OT specific intervention. Well done on your patients progress!

    With regard to your "weaknesses", what do you think you can do to help overcome these speed bumps on your road to success? Could you employ some organisation tips off the internet to assist with being more prepared or read a book on OT intervention planning? Let us know what worked in your next blog!
    Good luck!

    ReplyDelete

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