Ever feel like your treatment sessions are stuck in a rut? Sometimes we find a technique that we love and is appropriate for a wide variety of patients and then we use that intervention until we are blue in the face. So when it’s time for something new we often have to search outside our departments. Continuing education is the best choice, and a requirement for board certification, but how much to we really utilize it? As therapists, are we only doing the minimal amount required, or are we taking advantage of all opportunities to better our practice? How does cost factor in? Do departments provide a stipend for continuing education or is it an out-of-pocket expense? Does the location of your facility play a role; i.e. are you able to find seminars in your area that are applicable to the skilled nursing setting?
TheraChirps Blog
As soon as a patient walks through the door he is clamoring to be discharged back home. It’s not because he dislikes the facility or the staff; but when given the choice, who wouldn’t prefer to be in their own home? When a patient is cognitively intact and appears "good enough" to go home, it can be difficult to rationalize a longer period of on site therapy services.
This treatment technique for working with patients with recall and memory problems was developed by Megan Malone, M.A. CCC SLP and Dr. Cameron Camp, Ph.D. at Myers Research Institute Beachwood, OH www.myersresearch.org. This memory intervention provides an opportunity to practice recall of pieces of information while progressively increasingly the interval of time. As the interval of time increases the information then becomes part of procedural memory. The technique taps into the patient’s ability to read; use of declarative memory as well as procedural memory. I have found use of this technique particularly helpful for the patient to recall hip precautions, remember room numbers, remember use of adaptive devices, as well as safety precautions.
