I've been a therapist for ten years. My first job was in a school system. I worked with disabled children scattered throughout ten different school buildings. (This is where I fell off the tricycle in case anyone was wondering.) I was the only therapist in each building and I pulled kids out of class for therapy. No co-worker interaction. When I left the school I started doing home health. All therapy is done in the patients home. No co-worker interaction. The first time in my career I ever had co-workers on hand was when I started at the hospital. Co-workers everywhere...everywhere. Smiling and helpful. It was a big adjustment. I felt like a monkey being rehabilitated into its natural environment.
Lunch was a hard transition, how sad is that? In the schools I ate alone at my desk so I could catch up on paperwork. Doing home health I ate in the car in between patients homes. But at the hospital everyone sits down and eats together. This was a foreign concept to me. I ate with them the first few days but felt like an intruder so I tried eating at my desk the next day. Brandon, the lead PT on the rehab floor, looked at me like I had three heads. "Are you really going to sit in here by yourself?" I sighed. "Is there a way for me to eat in here and NOT look like an antisocial bitch?" "Nope." I joined them. By the end of my three months there I looked forward to having lunch with them.
Having extra pairs of hands was the biggest and most exciting adjustment. I was walking a patient through the rehab department. She was unsteady on her feet so I had a death grip on her, she had an oxygen tank, an iv pole, and I needed to have the wheelchair right behind her just in case. That's a lot of equipment to manage! So there I was trying to arrange all this equipment into the safest configuration when I hear a voice. "D'ya maybe want some help?" Brandon was sitting on a mat bemusedly watching me struggle. Help? You mean I don't have to juggle all this stuff? Hot damn!
I think that's what prompted me to look for a new job after I got settled at home in Ohio. The home health company I'd been working for happily took me back but I'd gotten spoiled having people around all day...I even missed Skippy. (You'll have to go back and read about the hospital to fully appreciate the magnitude of my missing Skippy.) Guess Barbara Streisand was right about people needing people, huh?
