Looking for a great SNF OT to take my assignment in April!

Hey, guys,

I am leaving my current assignment in Ft. Bragg, CA (north of San Francisco 4 hours, right on beautiful Hwy 1 between the Redwood Forest and the Pacific Ocean) at the end of March in order to return to the Midwest to spend time near family for a bit. I want to help my building find the right OT to take my place!!

I arrived there in Sep 2011. They had not had an OT for 10 years. I've done a lot of program development with contracture management, wheelchair postioning and a lot of dementia programming using the ACL and Global Deterioration Scale, setting up modified activities. I'm looking for a travel OT who enjoys this part of the job who can continue the programs I have set up.

There are approx 6-10 Med As at any time. You can fill in the rest of the schedule with Med Bs when timing permits. The area doctors are great to work with. The building's administrator and DON are new and making very positive changes in the building!

The best part is the area, which is in Mendocino County. Lots of rocky beaches, hiking, mountain biking, art, music, spas, kayaking and canoeing. If you like the outdoors, this is the place for you! Oh, did I mention Anderson Valley wineries and awesome restaurants, too?

I live in a great little brand new studio I found on Craig's list. I was the first person to rent it, and it's been a charmed space. Whoever is interested in coming next could move right in as soon as I move out March 31. The landlord is fantastic, and the neighbors are quiet.

Let me know if you have any questions about the assignment, the town or the living space. My email is treccad@gmail.com.
Thanks!
Tre

You're making me wish I was an OT! :-)

Jana,
This assignment started off as a real headache, but I have come to love the facility and its people. I also am head over heels in love with living right on the Pacific Ocean. I think I am going to cry big tears when I leave here, but I have to be near my parents for a bit due to their health. I sure hope the right person comes along to slip into the OT position!

Have a great week!
Tre

I wish I had more dementia experience. Been an OT for 13 years.  Anyone that fills your shoes will be expected to do what you did. Thats not always a good thing. I would love CA though

There are a lot of PT and OT positions in CA.  Ft Bragg is a great area.  We also see a lot of jobs in Eureka and the Bay area as well if anyone was thinking about heading to CA earlier.     

I'd love to go to CA.........I will look into it

Jcraig, learning the dementia bit is a work in progress. I would recommend if you work in SNF that you learn how to use the ACL lacing screen and download info on the Global Deterioration Scale. It's a good starting point. It's really about looking at the person and not at their disability - find out who they were before they started declining cognitively. Feel free to contact me if you have questions about patients with dementia - treccad@gmail.com

I spend the majority of my days rehabbing Med A patients back to home. Usually have 6-10 Med As on at a time. I fill in the rest of my schedule with the long term care residents, which I love.

By the way, if you look into California, the Ensign SNF bulidings are great. I enjoyed working with them for a year before I moved to Ft. Bragg.
Tre

I live by a simple rule....do your job nothing more nothing less. The facillities I have worked in have a set batteries of tests they want the traveler to use. I don't rock the boat anymore. I can't even get decent WC's where I am now let alone a specific dementia test!

I use a slightly different approach.

I've found that if I go in with my own tools, I don't frustrate myself with what the assignment doesn't have, including dementia assessments, my own tool box for fixing wheelchairs and my own reference materials.

If you find that you don't have "good wheelchairs" in a SNF (common), at least you can take some apart to create good fits for your patients. Building administrators are very open to conversations about how your ability to properly fit a patient will end up costing them less money if they purchase the correct product for their patients. It goes like this, "I would like to order (such and such) for (so and so)...in order to properly treat their (deficits), I will need to treat that person (frequency and duration)....this will provide your building ($$) in billing, which more than covers the cost of the equipment.

In some cases, if you can't get the equipment, it's difficult to treat, therfore the building loses on two counts.

As a former manager and regional VP, this works. If you learn "the speak," you can get what you need.

Really.

Anyone out there interested in working in this great building of mine?? I hope to return here in November for winter months, but need someone to give these beautiful older people good care from April to October!!

I will tell you that when you speak "down" to another professional don't be suprised if they punch you in yur face! Being disabled my whole life I know what it sounds like. In the future know your audience or invested in tissues. Enough on this topic you are too good for us!

Hey , John.....I dont think Tre is "speaking down" to you.  While it is really hard to communicate well with only the typewritten words,  I must tell you that your posts have led me to think that you are very frustrated with your career, not just the situation you are currently in.  You have posted numerous negative messages.  Tre sounds like she is trying to help you see that sometimes there is another way to approach a bad situation.  I agree with her, as a traveler it is up to you to bring your tools with you.  Including the tools to make them work in every setting, which is effective communication.  
I think you are out of line to suggest  that she might expect a punch in the face.  Certainly, if  a professional was indeed "spoken down" to they should have a professional reaction, not resort to physical violence.  
None of us here know all your ssues.  Perhaps you would like to present us with the whole picture if you are really wanting our help.  What is your disability?  Why would you assume any of us know what it is?  
You initiiated a request for help with your current unhappy situation.  Help us help you.
Diane

Tre, I totally agree, we must travel with a toolbox, whether in travel or permanent job!  Most often a new job has many opportunites to share and teach as well as learn.  
I also agree that communicating needs wiith a sense of being part of the team, invested in the facility mission, is more effective than just going in to do our job, nothing more, nothing less.  
I find real job satisfaction in being able to say I did my best, even if it means I have to work harder and learn new skills.  
Good luck finding your replacement.  Sounds like a good job.
Diane

jcraig,

I wrote the post as a peer discussing options and providing a perspective from a different angle. I haven't walked in your shoes, and you have not walked in mine. Each of us on Healthcare Travelbook has great information to share and receive about different topics.

As OT's, we are educated to understand psychosocial processes active in each of our patients as well as within ourselves. It might benefit you to explore why you felt the need to respond with such anger. I'm not willing to accept that it is because you have a disability, jcraig. I have one, too, but it doesn't mean that I have to be angry.

Peace,
Tre

Honestly I think you need to get laid!! If you don't want this to continue dont respond. What frys my cupcakes is a professional that tries to brow beat you with thier so called intelligence. I would say that if you dont want aggravation don't throw insults. I am less likely to answer if you don't respond!!!!

Travelbookers, it seems like we have had quite a lively debate here.  Debate is a fantastic function of free speech.  However, the administrators of this community have learned about some objectionable content.  For this reason, I am copying parts of the Community Guidelines here in the forum.  Please follow the guidelines and keep the conversation appropriate.  Otherwise you could lose your priviledges in this community.

• Create content of a discriminatory or derogatory nature. Rich debate is wonderful, and you can do it without being offensive, humiliating or intimidating based on:

• Create content which would be reasonably classified as exclusively 'adult' and restricted accordingly (such as pornography or graphic violence).

• Use excessively coarse language. Humans swear. But go easy on the sailor speak or we will have to tone you down. Remember, even if it’s not offensive to you, it might be to other people.

Thanks, continue the conversation, and Travel On!!!

Tooo funny.......... I was once told if you don't want to get hit by a punch don't throw the first one!!!

Game, set, match!! Travel on!!!

Ditto!  Travel On!

Friends,

I am happy to report that the rehab company may have found a permanent OT/DOR who can fill this position. She is visiting next week! She sounds like a great clinical candidate to meet the needs of our residents. Thanks to all who left such positive input on this thread.

Tre

Wow!  I step away for a few days & it get hostile in here!  Sounds like someone has a self esteem problem.  Although, it may be more than that if you post comments about your work ethic (or lack of) on a social network that can be seen by prospective employers.  One thing I hated about working any other job besides therapy was "It's not my job!"  Therapy is the best thing that I ever applied myself too & making changes in peoples lives makes me enjoy this ever demanding field.  Seems like we should aspire to be better than the comments I have seen this week in this thread, as we are the teachers of our patients.
Good to see the administrators of this network got involved in this (Thanks Wes).
How can you ask your patients to go above & beyond if you purposefully fall short of doing your best.  Maybe it is time to find another job, where it is OK to do the minimum & talk like a sailor.  Good luck getting any referrals from this network.
Travel on!

Again, if your are insulted by my post, you have other issues, as my post was very professional.  Interesting that you quote the bible, yet be irrational in your responses to simple words.  And you consider me your "brother" yet you threaten me & try to bully me around.  Good luck with that one.
You're right about one thing, I do not know you or your background, but where I practice OT, that is part of the magic of healing -> getting to know where some one comes from by the way they talk & how they treat others.  Ironically, just from your post, I know that have you have issues with spelling -> is it a "computer" or do you just not care.
It has been my experience when dealing with all sorts of people that replies of violence don't just materialize out of thin air.
I bet you have some anger issues. 
It is also quite easy to "call someone out" in the virtual world.  I am guessing you were probably a bully or were bullied yourself.
Where are you located?  I would love a "face-to-face" with you.  I'd be happy to further your education.
Wes could block or delete this thread, but how does that solve anything?  You want to threaten me, tell me to shut up & sit down, & then have Wes close this discussion?  That's an easy way to get in the last word.  Maybe you have read about freedom of speech between bible study classes.  You certainly are enjoying your freedom of speech in this forum.  You tell a colleague she needs to get laid?  Wow, that's rich. 
I cannot wait to see how you respond next.
Travel on!!

Play a little box lacrosse with me and we can easily solve this problem

Latin4hawk.......
Why keep fanning the fire. Why make comment on crucial taunt if you don't know him or her? Not saying what CT has says is right, far from it. What I am saying is I can't guess what makes a person tick unless I walk in thier shoes. This whole thread ha sgotten to be counter productive. I will say that no two OT's are alike in how they aproach the job. CT may be a wonderful therapist with a different style. We are not here to judge. I am here to learn from others experiences.


I would ask Wes to close this thread. It has no purpose now. I would ask that everyone would allow this thread to die on its own. Thank you for listening!

Lynn