I recently completed my paediatrics placement at the centre for cerebral palsy. Overall I found it to be a very good placement and thoroughly enjoyed my time there. However there was a period of time where I found myself overworked and stressing out.
On this placement my patient load was relatively low, as we were required to make home visits which often added half an hour of travel time each way. On an average day I would see about three patients, and usually never more than four patients a day. As a result of this low case load my supervisor deemed it necessary to give me additional work to keep me busy which was reasonable as initially there were often periods during the day where I had little work to do. However I think my supervisor misjudged the amount of spare time that I had, as she gave me so much additional work that each night I had to stay behind until the cleaners kicked me out at 730, to get the work finished. As a result my working days saw me leave home at 7 in the morning and returning after 8 o’clock at night. On top of this I also additional uni work to do and also worked part time on the weekend.
At the same time that I was at the centre there were several other OT ad physio students there from Curtin and Notre Dame, however none of them had the same supervisor as me and none of them seemed to have as much work to do as myself. When I talked to the other students about how much work I had they were shocked and told me I should just tell my supervisor that I was overloaded. This was something that I didn’t want to do as I wanted to maintain a good relationship with my supervisor, however it eventually reached a point where I had to speak to her as I was just too loaded down with work. To my surprise my supervisor was completely understanding of my situation. Apologising for overloading me, she said that she had only given me so much work because she thought that I might have been getting frustrated by the small patient load that I had.From this experience I have learnt the importance of communication with your seniors even when you feel that you might be saying something that they don’t want to hear. Although I still believe that it is a good idea to keep a good relationship with your seniors I think you have to be able to represent yourself to them without being too confrontational.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I think that supervisors appreciate good communication more than anything. THey love it when students ask questions (sensible ones of course) and they also appreciate feedback as much as we do. I think it is always a good idea to be open with your supervisor about how you are coping with your workload and not to allow yourself to get too stressed!!
Post a Comment