Pre-arrival: Preparation

Hi everyone!

Well, day one at CMMC (children's memorial medical center) is already next week!! I'm excited yet nervous yet confident yet feeling incompetent all at once. Not so much right now because I'm still in south Florida on vacation, but the feeling's there (and growing!) all the same.

Over the last couple months, CMMC has been sending me oodles of documents to read. I was getting overwhelmed, especially when I found out my classmates haven't gotten much at all, even those going to other children's hospitals. These documents included:

1. A welcome letter which summarizes the status of my pre-arrival requirements, my tentative schedule (inpatient on M, W, and F, and outpt on T, R)and contact info about my supervisors. There's info on parking, transportation, meals, dress code (no lab coats tho b/c "some children find them frightening"), and documentation, too. Also included are instructions for my first day, Jan 3. I must "arrive a little before 8:30am" for orientation that will end at noon. I'll get my badge, a tour, and info about the required testing. Yes, she said "testing". More on that later.

2. Info on parking ($26/day at the connected garage... uh, NO THANK YOU! but there are other options)

3. "Documentation Competency"-- Intro says: "Prior to proceeding with the testing for the documentation competency, please review this information. If you have any questions, speak with your manager to clarify PRIOR to taking your written test."
... and the rest of the document contains the following headers: I. Referral/Authorization Process, II. Types of Notes, III. Goals, IV. Documentation of Patient/Family Education, V. Discharge Planning, VI. Pain. Each of these have sub-headers, and each of those are separated into inpatient/outpatient. Unfortunately, I don't think this will be the only test I'll get... read on.

3. "Student In-service Suggested Topics" -- This document lists 18 topic ideas, ranging from "Test log creation. Go through all tests in outpatient clinic and create a chart of test/ages targeted, skills targeted." to "Developmental apraxia of speech versus severe phonological disorder" to "Auditory processing disorders - what are they and how can we treat?" I guess doing an in-service won't be too bad, because if I'm teaching something to an audience that is not knowledgeable in speech/language/swallowing pathologies, then I can keep it kind of basic.

4. "Speech Language Swallowing Orientation and Guidelines Manual... Subject: Objectives of the Speech Language Swallowing Affiliation" -- and there are 3 pages of bullet points listing the objectives. These include things like "Demonstrate knowledge of...", "Complete projects for the department...", "Give appropriate referrals...", "Identify potential safety issues..."

5. "Clinics at Children's Memorial Hospital" -- this lists just as it says. The intro to this says they want us (students) to observe other departments/teams that we are interested in (like cochlear implant team, nutrition clinic, and special infectious disease clinic). I think that's the coolest thing ever that they encourage this. I hope to be able to observe every one of them ^_^ They list 6 clinics that allow student observers.

6. Timeline for students. This is a week-by-week chart for my outpatient rotation which delineates therapy, evaluation, and project goals. It goes to 10 weeks, but my rotation is only 9 weeks. Week 1 is observation mostly, and the rest builds responsibility from writing SOAP notes for 2-3 pts/day & writing up evals, to planning tx activities & doing more during evals, to seeing all patients for tx, doing all evals, and presenting the final project to the team.

7. a copy of a "Student Observation Feedback" form. Based on the document title and what's on it ("Strengths of session", "Next steps", and "Supervisor signature"), I'm still not sure if this is where I write about what I observe, or what the supervisor writes of her observations of me. It's probably the latter...

8. a copy of a "Treatment Session Plan" form. There's a chart with "goal", "activity", and "data" labeling the columns.

9. And finally, I get a notice via email that I should come pick up "2 binders of reading material which [I] will be expected to read during the first 2 weeks of [my] placement"... She suggested I come get them over Christmas break so I can get a head start. I took them with me to Florida, and let me just say that if I wasn't overwhelmed before, I am now. There's a binder each for my "speech-language placement" and "oral motor-feeding placement". These include typical development, definitions to terminology, several articles about the disorders and etc., and some articles about treatments for them, and some samples of parent hand-outs, and etc etc. Also some sample official reports. I tell myself it only looks like a lot of info because the papers aren't printed double-sided, but I dunno. And guess what I found in the oral-motor/swallowing binder - a "Competency Protocol" AKA a test! "Give three reasons to refer for a feeding/swallowing eval... what types of foods/feeding methods are appropriate for a typical: 1/4-6/9-12 month old... describe the progression of development of chewing" Yikes! Having caught sight of this last week, I have been making flashcards, but I still don't know how much I really have to know yet. Of course I want and need to know for the sake of my clients/patients, but I do have a week of observation first, right?? ::sigh::

Well that's enough of an update for now. That's all I know at this point anyway. For those who plan to do Chicago for their outplacements, I'm moving into a studio in Lincoln Park (north Chicago) this weekend so I don't have to commute from my parent's suburbian home. It's literally around the corner from the CMMC outpatient clinic, and 9 mins walk to the hospital. I'll commute on the 'EL' when it comes time for UIC Hospital, probably for 30 mins. Found the place on www.craigslist.org . It'll be expensive, but I'm sure it'll be worth it.

Next time I post, I'll have a lot more to share about orientation day! :-)

Pre-arrival: interviews

Hi everyone!
This will be my new site for journaling my outplacement experience, just stuff that I would like to have known during my first year. My personal online journal with random thoughts and etc. is www.xanga.com/autosmiler but I don't recommend viewing that b/c what I write there is dumb and I'm boring. Haha anyway, let's get on with it.

My two places will be Children's Memorial Medical Center (www.childrensmemorial.org) from Jan 3-March 3 and the University of Illinois at Chicago Hospital (http://uillinoismedcenter.org/) from March 20 - May 12. No schools for me!

Already I saw a major difference between the workings of these two places. They both wanted an interview, but Children's asked for me to bring along my resume and list of relevant courses, and UIC asked for nothing. Children's also asked for me to have a current CPR card for healthcare providers, a list of immunizations, and two kinds of liability insurance documents. UIC only wanted my TB results. Correspondence with Children's was always immediate and thorough (even asking for replies so that they know I've received something), while UIC waited weeks before responding with something fairly short, or not at all (and I had to call!).

Regarding the interviews, Dr. Louko said not to get too worked up about them because they usually just want to see if we were "weirdos" or something. Basically check us out. I think she's right - I don't think there's any reason any of us from Iowa will make them turn us down.

Children's lasted about an hour, and included a tour of the outpatient facility. My interviewer was an SLP who coincidentally went to Iowa for undergrad. She asked about my experience with clinic and children and my future practicum experiences in Iowa, but didn't quiz me about everything I new about children, which I was afraid of. There were a couple questions that made it feel more like a real interview. First she asked about my strongest and weakest areas. Next she asked me to give a percentage for my level of independence. My interview was mid-spring semester, so I had not had a lot of clinical experience at the time (which she understood), so I told her that it varied with each practicum team I was on. For example, I was quite comfortable and independent on the voice team (up to 80%), but not so much on phonology team (about 50%). She also asked what kind of "hours" I'll need, and I told her I expected that I should get all my hours from Iowa. As it is, I do have more ASHA client contact hours than is required in many of the areas on that yellow form, except for child speech evaluations. But looking at the schedule they sent me (which I will summarize for you in future posts), I'm certain to get it all filled out. Lastly, she asked where I wanted to work - outpatient or inpatient, and whether I needed part-time or full-time status. I didn't know at the time, but YOU MUST HAVE FULL-TIME STATUS FOR OUTPLACEMENTS. I will be in the main hospital (inpatient) setting 3 days a week, and outpatient clinic the other 2 to make up my 40 hours.

UIC lasted about a half hour, and did not include a tour. This was just after ASHA this year, so I didn't have the excuse of not having a lot of experience anymore! But it turns out I was worried for nothing. The interviewer was in her scrubs and white coat, and asked me only about my practicum experiences. It was very casual, and she even brought in their current outplacement student to talk to me. She just said at first she was very nervous, but after the first couple days she was already on her own most of the time. I had a major edge over her because this was her first time in a hospital, while I've had UIHC and VA experiences. The interviewer was impressed, and said I will do fine there. I asked about their level of supervision, and she said I would be quite independent, and only helping if I wanted it. I will be working from 7:30am-3:30pm every day.

Well, that's all I feel like writing right now, so check back in soon! I've got a lot to say :-) Please feel free to ask any questions you want.