Final Frustrations

Hi guys
just wanted to open the discussion for how everyone is coping in second semester. I've just returned from rural prac where I was treating every single patient without hesitance. I loved it and felt like I was finally ready to enter the workforce! But now I've come back to perth and started my latest prac and gone back to not being really able to treat the patients but just having to observe! I understand why things are this way but I'm finding it kind of frustrating becuase I feel like i've taken a backwards step!! Just wondering if anyone else is feeling the same now that we're coming to the end of the road!

communication issues

Hi all, id love your advice on some communication suggestions for a 73yo patient who has global aphasia following L ACA/MCA stroke 2 years ago. From doing a few tests i think he has a more significant impairment of expressive aphasia but not so much receptive, as often he appears to understand clearly what im asking him to do. He can use a picture book when prompted to assist with communication, and verbally can only say "right" and "ok" however these are inconsistent. He is a lovely man who at times gets so frustrated with people not understanding him. So far ive tried to restrict my questions to yes/no answers which seems to work, and give him alot of time to answer me. He requires prompting to use the communication book but it doesnt have alot of options for him. If anyone has other suggestions as to how i can approach a 'standard' subjective/objective assessment i would love to hear them! thanks, Em

Difficult Patients

Last week i had a pt who was deaf, semi blind and suffered from dementia. What i am asking of you is if you have had a difficult pt to communicate with, how have you got around this issue. What me and my supervisor tried was a lot of hands on techniques, all we need to do with the pt was to get him up and walking. The pt was very impulsive so we had to place a hand on his chest to notify him when we needed him to stay still and not move forwards. To stop him from standing up we had to place a hand on his shoulder. We stood right in front of the pt and used a lot of eye contact when we were explaining what we wanted the pt to do. Even with all this we still found it extremely difficult and more time consuming. We managed to get the pt to the shower and had to call it a day. So for next time i was hoping for some more ideas to try and make the session more effective and less time consuming.

Dickie