I looked and looked and I did not see real personal goals on our evals. The goals are the same for everyone (ADL's, transfers etc), not written in a goal sentence, and recommended treatments which tend to get checked off a list (self-care, theraputic activity, theraputic exercise) and the occasional cognitive goals. It is up to me, the COTA, to infuse a sense of purpose in the treatment I suppose.
-----Original Message----- From: otlist-boun...@otnow.com [mailto:otlist-boun...@otnow.com]on Behalf Of Brent Cheyne Sent: Friday, July 24, 2009 20:44 To: Ron Carson Subject: Re: [OTlist] Vision vs Reality Everyone is making great points in this dialogue, My practice patterns would fall closely in line with how a lot of you are describing- Ron, Chris, Diane, Joan too. It's nice to hear other people have the same challenges and frustraions. Here are 2 that bug me alot! 1) Don't get me wrong, I love working with COTA's and with PRN OT Staff- we usually need the extra help at our busy SNF but...I find people don't read the evals and goals that I so pain-stakingly design and select with patients. Frequently, I can look across the treatment area as see a colleague of mine having the pt I evaluated doing pegs or bicep curls or some other task with a Total Knee patient whose goal are lower body dressing and shower transfers and meal prep etc......I had absolutely NO goal for UE ROM for strength or hand dexterity etcc.., I always try to teach and instill in new staff or students to read the eval, PLOF, goals and design treatment based on those, I am frequently frustrated by people just making up any old activity or exercise willy-nilly to put in time. If you are taking on a patient that you didn't eval, be sure the treatment matches the planned goals and treatment set out in the eval, also see if the eval matches what the patient is presenting with and talking about...talk to the patient. 2) Despite high productivity and stressful schedules, therapists not taking time to know the patient, or engage and educate their family members and communicate to assess their needs and goals and incorporated them into the eval goals and plan....basically making the interventions skilled. There's an old adage that hopefully is appropriate here --Management is all about doing "things right"-( productivity, filling out forms, schedules, compliance) --Leadership is about doing the "right things", (client centered occupations and interventions) We clinicians may not be managers but we still can and should be Leaders.. Keep up the good work people! -- Options? www.otnow.com/mailman/options/otlist_otnow.com Archive? www.mail-archive.com/otlist@otnow.com -- Options? www.otnow.com/mailman/options/otlist_otnow.com Archive? www.mail-archive.com/otlist@otnow.com
