End of year one (quite)

I haven't really been blogging much, I think I forget, and am rushing and thinking too many things at once. This semester is officially going to end Thursday of next week. It hasn't been a bad one altogether, very relaxed compared to other semesters in my lifetime. Annoying, but relaxing. One week break and then crazy summer classes and clinic will begin. I will then, be either ranting and complaining here, or not blogging at all. Please pray that I will get an externship for the Fall semester 2006, or I might just roll over and play dead in the on campus clinic.

Last Tuesday was my final day at the nursing home. Happy to get done with clinic, sad to leave those great clients behind. My individual one was not feeling well, she hadn't been for quite some time, so that was sad cause I didn't really get to spend much time with her, except to give her some gifts and say goodbye. She's found a spot in my heart, I had a tough time initially with her, but after a while, rapport was gained! and I found out her ways and managed to built a fun relationship with her. It's amazing how little things perk her up like nothing else. Finding out what she really liked, and especially those that can be incorporated into therapy seriously brightened up her day and helped temporarily forget the physical pains she had. So, here's challenges and lessons from the nursing home as a SLP student:

-Age does not matter, beauty and macho-ness is still important and must be taken care of at all cost.
-Not wearing glasses, hearing aids, and other assistive devices does increase boost the residents self-esteem, thus, work your way around this (i.e. learn how to talk in a very loud voice without killing your voice, and use extra large print whenever possible).
-Do not take comments from persons with memory loss and difficulties personally.
-Along with that, hoping that the person will not remember what you said wrongly just a minute ago is a valid kinda hope. But try not to say anything bad in any case.
-Talk about what they like, what they did in their time, and they will love you. Show care.
-The little things in life do matter, and bring joy.
-Things move very slowly, take your time, enjoy and smile, you don't get these moments just like these just in any place.
-Humor is a valuable and essential tool.
-Always check feeding and swallowing safety records for the residents, you can't just use food all the time in this setting, as you could in other settings. And anyways, food is not always a great motivator for residents to do what you want them to do. They get full to fast, and they usually can't eat the food they love (e.g. sweets and fried goodness).
-Don't make faces or cringe at 'accidents' that happen, even when the person is unaware of it...but the other residents are allowed to hold their noses.