Final Entry

I really enjoyed this placement. After being at the placement for 5 weeks, you become very confortable and get to know what is expected of you. You become better at judging how much or little assistance the residents needed throughout the 5 weeks. At first this was hard because you didnt want a patient to fall on you, but towards the end you became aware of their capabilities.

I found it interesting when we went through patients notes and could read about their functional abilities when they first came in. I was amazed at a lady that was wheelchair bound and couldnt function very well on her own. This lady now walks everywhere and attends all physio groups, making her one of the more functionally capable people. Witnessing her current function allowed me to realise how important the physio treatment is. This was important to note, especially when you visit patients everyday and you can only get them to walk a couple of times. Even though it seems like you arent doing much it is very important to keep the patients moving.

I learnt that a nursing home is the residents home and that we need to treat it like that. Although it might be for their best interest to get up and moving, we cant force the patients to do so. Our Physio put it into perspective, we wouldnt like people coming into our bedroom at home and forcing us to move. This then set the way we needed to approach the patients. We had to spend time talking to them, being sympathetic and encouraging them.

I found it hard that you would have your patients you wanted to see in a day but on many occasion the patient wasnt around or was at other activities. This was difficult at first for me since I like to have everything planned out. By the end of the week we learnt that you had to have your patients in mind and then have back ups, which sometimes werent there either!

I was very happy with my supervisor, each week she gave us diseases common in tne nursing home. We then went through them and she told us patients who had these conditions. This really helped as we could clinically see the patients who had these conditions and then were able to recognise other patients with these conditions.

This placement allowed me to practice talking to older patients. I was able to recognise what strategies to use with hearing or vision impaired patients.

While on placement I learnt how close you become with patients. Especially in aged care, the patients tend to disclose information about their lives and you begin to learn about the person they are. I think that I need to learn not to become attached to patients, especially in aged care where they tend to stay until they pass on. I could easily see myself being attached to patients if I worked there for a extended period of time, especially to those patients who attend every group session and you do individual treatments om.

This placement was a great opportunity to work in aged care and I really enjoyed it.