Day one
Well I made it through my first day at work and while it was not really a great day, at least i got it over with.
The quality of sleep i got last night was in no way helpful to my anxiety. I can home early and was in bed by 11pm where i tossed and turned for at least an hour and a half. I then work up at least once an hour to look at the clock. The only benefit to this was waking up at 7:18, three minutes after my alarm should have gone off. I am fairly sure i had it set correctly so ill have to make sure to set my phone tonight as a backup.
The drive to work wasnt bad at all. It took me about 30 mins door to door and the highway was almost completely empty. I hope that its not too much different when schools are open.
My main supervisor doesnt work on Mondays so i was with my monday supervisor today. She seemed nice enough but im kind of glad i have someone else the rest of the week. From speaking to my main supervisor on the phone im pretty sure im going to like her a lot more. The whole place was a lot bigger then i expected. Between OT, PT and speech there are about 12 therapists which is significantly larger then the other departments ive worked in. The staff all seemed fairly young and very friendly so i think that once this 'new girl' thing wears off ill get along with them fine.
I spent the good part of 9-12 sitting at a little desk reading the employee manual. PAINFUL. About an hour after meeting the head of the building my supervisor gives me a copy of the dress code and tells me that the big boss lady made a copy of it for me and highlighted the part about no visible piercings or tattoos. Doh! I felt like such an ass. The annoying part was that i asked my supervisor about this when we spoke on the phone and she told me that as long as it was small and not a ring that could be grabbed then its fine. Oh well.
At 1pm, our FIRST client of the day comes! An adorable one year old girl with incredibly low tone. She cried for about 10 minutes and then fell asleep.....and that was the entire session.
At 2pm, we actually had a session for a full hour with a 4 yr old boy with Autism. My supervisor was all like "it will probably take him about 3 sessions to really acknowledge you" but as i suspected she was very wrong. It took him about 10 minutes. For some reason kids find me very nonthreatening which i definitely think is going to work to my advantage in this setting.
Our 3pm was 30 mins late so after reading her chart for those 30 mins i didnt even get to see her because i had to drive out to a second office to get a little name badge thingie.
And that was my day....
The one kind of cool thing that happened today was I realized that I do have a fairly strong knowledge base for what im doing. My first internship at the subacute rehab i clearly remember feeling like i could have been a random person they pulled in off the street. I hardly had any hands on experience at that point and felt like i didnt have a clue what i was doing. It was a little better in FL this summer but i still had that feeling on the first day of not having a clue what i was doing.
Today, i didnt feel like that. I almost feel like i could run the next session with both of the kids i saw today. I kept hearing Tara (one of my professors) voice in my head while we were working with the little boy with autism. It was very cool cause i felt like i was understanding his behaviors and like i knew what to do with him.
I hope that my main supervisor lives up to the standards i have for her cause if i can get into a groove with the staff i think im going to have a really good experience.
The quality of sleep i got last night was in no way helpful to my anxiety. I can home early and was in bed by 11pm where i tossed and turned for at least an hour and a half. I then work up at least once an hour to look at the clock. The only benefit to this was waking up at 7:18, three minutes after my alarm should have gone off. I am fairly sure i had it set correctly so ill have to make sure to set my phone tonight as a backup.
The drive to work wasnt bad at all. It took me about 30 mins door to door and the highway was almost completely empty. I hope that its not too much different when schools are open.
My main supervisor doesnt work on Mondays so i was with my monday supervisor today. She seemed nice enough but im kind of glad i have someone else the rest of the week. From speaking to my main supervisor on the phone im pretty sure im going to like her a lot more. The whole place was a lot bigger then i expected. Between OT, PT and speech there are about 12 therapists which is significantly larger then the other departments ive worked in. The staff all seemed fairly young and very friendly so i think that once this 'new girl' thing wears off ill get along with them fine.
I spent the good part of 9-12 sitting at a little desk reading the employee manual. PAINFUL. About an hour after meeting the head of the building my supervisor gives me a copy of the dress code and tells me that the big boss lady made a copy of it for me and highlighted the part about no visible piercings or tattoos. Doh! I felt like such an ass. The annoying part was that i asked my supervisor about this when we spoke on the phone and she told me that as long as it was small and not a ring that could be grabbed then its fine. Oh well.
At 1pm, our FIRST client of the day comes! An adorable one year old girl with incredibly low tone. She cried for about 10 minutes and then fell asleep.....and that was the entire session.
At 2pm, we actually had a session for a full hour with a 4 yr old boy with Autism. My supervisor was all like "it will probably take him about 3 sessions to really acknowledge you" but as i suspected she was very wrong. It took him about 10 minutes. For some reason kids find me very nonthreatening which i definitely think is going to work to my advantage in this setting.
Our 3pm was 30 mins late so after reading her chart for those 30 mins i didnt even get to see her because i had to drive out to a second office to get a little name badge thingie.
And that was my day....
The one kind of cool thing that happened today was I realized that I do have a fairly strong knowledge base for what im doing. My first internship at the subacute rehab i clearly remember feeling like i could have been a random person they pulled in off the street. I hardly had any hands on experience at that point and felt like i didnt have a clue what i was doing. It was a little better in FL this summer but i still had that feeling on the first day of not having a clue what i was doing.
Today, i didnt feel like that. I almost feel like i could run the next session with both of the kids i saw today. I kept hearing Tara (one of my professors) voice in my head while we were working with the little boy with autism. It was very cool cause i felt like i was understanding his behaviors and like i knew what to do with him.
I hope that my main supervisor lives up to the standards i have for her cause if i can get into a groove with the staff i think im going to have a really good experience.