Work Issues

WARNING, RANT AHEAD. 

It's related to OT and most people won't find this interesting at all so feel free to skip.

I'm writing this at 5:17 am (ignore the time stamp at the bottom of the page because it's still set at Idaho time) and I've been up since 4. This usually never happens to me, I'm one of those people who can put their head on the pillow and be literally asleep 25 seconds later. The only time I have insomnia it seems is when something is really bothering me, and that is the case tonight.

Yesterday at work I found out I had to assess like 20 people for bathing equipment because some of the old equipment was taken away by the higher-up people without anyone being notified. This left those 20 people who used that equipment stranded with nothing to use for bathing so they had to have sponge baths.

I went to the group homes where these people live and looked at what they currently have, what we have on the campus to work with, and what stuff I might need to order. One group home was great and was open to any suggestions I had, we collaborated on what will work with the more medically/physically fragile people, each person giving feedback and respecting the feedback of the other person.

On the OTHER group home, the person in charge at the time saw what options for current equipment I had brought from campus  and started becoming irate, stating "Oh hell no" shouting at me for even bringing the equipment to the bathroom to try out. Before I had a chance to even explain myself she was throwing out the f bomb saying "If I use that and someone falls then I'm F****ed!" She was so close minded and not interested in hearing what I had to say, it was the most frustrating thing ever. Then I found out what they're currently doing would work ok for 90% of the people who were using the old equipment EXCEPT they were using equipment that wasn't made for being submerged in water (waterproof wedges - despite being waterproof they still could not be put underwater, there is a difference) so the wedges were cracked allowing water to seep inside and who knows what was growing inside there. Big infection control issue. So I tried to compromise suggesting that we get new wedges and use them with only people who couldn't use the equipment I brought over that she were so upset about. That would allow the "waterproof non submergable" wedges to last longer. For the 10% that couldn't do what they suggest, I tried to explain why using the equipment I brought over would be more beneficial to them. The person in charge flat out refused to use it, stating instead she would have her staff physically lift people into the tub and back out again.

Think about your tub. It's deep. Trying to lift someone out of there who is 100-120 pounds even with 2 people would be pretty much impossible to do it safely for staff, let alone the individual who has severe spasticity and can become stiff as a board at any time. Being wet and cold increases the spasticity. I tried to explain this. She said "Oh, well we'll make sure he's dry." Yeah, you're going to dry under him while he's laying in a tub How? You're going to dry and dress him IN THE TUB before pulling him out and putting him back in his wheelchair. Ok fine, lets say that actually works (it won't). Then we come back to the issue of lifting 100-120 pounds out of a deep tub. How is that going to feel on the backs of the people doing the lifting? I tried to explain body mechanics to her, how you can't reach and lift with your back bent, even a light load, much less A PERSON. Her reply, "They already hurt their backs with the lifting they do everyday." This is apparently an excuse why its ok but it actually is more detrimental to her argument. SIGH. At this point I'm just like "Ok well we'll take it back and think about it some more." As soon as we leave my co-worker is like "Wow..." and I still hold it together until we get back up to our office and the person who got us the equipment asks why it's back. My eyes instantly start watering out of frustration and I can't control it. So I cried at work. Awesome. Everyone understood why but it was still embarrassing. The guy who got me the equipment said, "You're the therapist if you want them to do something they have to do it, they can't argue." While that should make it easier, that just puts more pressure on me. What if I insist on something, they do it wrong or carelessly, someone gets hurt and then it's all back on me for insisting on doing that in the first place? I would like to at least try it with the individual who they want to lift out of the tub to see if it's even a possibility, but they were so close minded they weren't even open to that.

Long story short, I feel defeated. I feel like my expertise in this area as an occupational therapist doesn't matter. I feel like maybe I don't know what I'm talking about and some uneducated home manager knows more than me (which is absurd) when it comes to this issue. I've gone over and over in my head the steps for putting that person on the lift I brought over to bathe them and if they do it correctly I don't see it being a problem. I start to second guess myself but as soon as I let those thoughts form in my head or here as I type I realize they are ridiculous and I need to trust my instincts, my education, and my skills. 

Today I have a meeting with my boss regarding the whole bathing assessment issue. I'm going to bring this up to her and hopefully she will have my back and allow me to override the home staff into at least trying out this equipment. If she doesn't, well then I guess I did all I can. I hope that by putting my thoughts on paper/blog I can explain the situation to her without getting emotional like I did the day before when speaking to my other co-workers. We shall see.

If you got to the bottom of this, good job!