How to succeed in your practice placement
Update: Please read this in relation to the comments attached!!
OK lets cut the crap, this article isn’t going to help you make you a better OT student, its not going to give you constructive advice on how to best use your limited practice time and its not going to be pretty. It is, however, going to give you the powers to bullshit your way to the best grade possible and have hypnotic control over your educator. After only a few weeks you will see results. By the end of your placement your practice educator will be waiting patiently by your desk, on all fours, drooling from the mouth and asking for ‘another MOHO biscuit’.
Always carry a black pen – When everything is going well and there are no significant flaws in your work practice educators tend to regress to Freud’s anal stage, in which the smallest details are highlighted to you, ostensibly returning the educator to the position of authority.
Go for a drink with them – As Oscar Wilde recognizes it is not what one does in work that makes one successful but what one does outside of work. Quite
Feign ignorance – Of course you know what a functional split is or errorless learning or CBT or solution focused therapy. You know because you are aware of current evidence base and NICE guidelines. Thing is your practice educator graduated from a Women’s Institute craft school in the 1930’s and have held on to the one or two stands of knowledge that dementia has not whittled away. Just say, “oh how interesting, I really did not know that…well done”.
Furnish their Ego’s – Don’t be fooled into thinking the Educator is an altruistic in nature. The educator resents being legally obliged to have a student and will moan about the inconvenience at every opportunity. Instead the educator wants to be both admired and loved. Love them and admire them.
Ask them to be an accomplice - At your midway interview say how you are aiming for the best possible grade and would like their assistance in pushing you that bit harder. Demand criticism! (Reverse psychology works every time)
The anti COPM – Don’t be fooled into thinking that it is a student-centred relationship - The educator is the main problem definer.
Flirt – If you fail to win them over with your clinical reasoning skills try blinding them with more primitive influences (please refer to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs). This will subvert the balance of power and make it more equal (only in a smutty way, not in a professional capacity).
Threaten – If your final review didn’t go quite as planned the ‘final solution’ is the good old-fashioned ultra violence. You can employ many techniques including verbal and non-verbal behaviour. Borrowing lines from famous films is recommended if your mind goes blank from the anticipated sadism that you are about to create – “I’m gonna make you an offer you can’t refuse” is a good one. Counting backwards with a threat at the end is always intimidating too. The last tip is to slowly walk over to the door and lock it, then walk behind the educators back laughing nervously, like a James Bond baddy.
Quote Kielhofner - If all else fails just spout some Kielhofner rubbish. Showing your practice educator MOHO is like showing a monkey an ipod: It doesn’t understand it yet it will look puzzlingly at it for hours on end.
Go forth and succeed!
(Image Courtesy of epc @ flickr - Licensed under Creative Commons)
very funny. thanks Nick
very funny. thanks Nick
Karen
I'm not sure which way to take this?????
Hmm.. I'm not sure whether this is a funny funny post, black humour, or if people take it seriously.... then a good reflection on our profession? I'm wondering what people who are thinking about enrolling in an occupational therapy programme would think after reading this posting? But hey I might be missing the point - so Will please feel free to delete my comment if I've misunderstood the point?
This article is so great I
This article is so great I want to post it all over the net and e-mail it to my managers. We could all use a laugh but some of it also has a truth to it that I hope clinical educators will reflect on, many a student will appreciate and new students would actually be wise to learn from.
I would love to see it printed as an editorial in BJOT. Pigs may fly, but Nick Allenby has just become one of my heroes ;0)
V
Venthan J. Mailoo BSc (Hons) MCSP CertMgmt
e-mail: servantofvishnu [at] gmail [dot] com
http://www.myspace.com/venthan_j_mailoo
Well I enjoyed it!!
Well I enjoyed it!! Catherine
Take with a pinch of salt
OK, I admit this is somewhat controversial and will probably raise a few eyebrows - it is (I believe - I am writing in defense to Nick here) meant to be a somewhat more light-hearted posting. So to those students who take every word as literal: don’t (e.g. I have never met a therapist who was taught in a “Women’s Institute craft school in the 1930’s”) - and to the therapist who may take offense to this: apologies. It does however raise some interesting points in a tongue-in-cheek way which I think are quite important. Placements are odd things. The educator is often on their best behaviour - aware that their every move is being watched and being noted, and of course they are being a role model for the student. Similarly, the student is more often than not equally on their best behaviour - bordering on scaredom. The problem with this is that neither person acts themselves - neither person relaxes. (Sidenote: Yes, you could now argue that both Student & Educator should always be on their “best behaviour” and always showing their best but that’s simply not the normal human way of acting in a new relationship)
Knowing Nick I believe this posting has come out from chats with other students post-placement who haven’t done so well and have asked for some peer support. The “personality factor” cannot be underestimated in a placement - if student & educator don’t get on it can sadly really affect how the placement continues (and I do mean sadly - the term I’m leaving out of this is “acting professionally” which means more than just presenting yourself well in front of a client). Now I have seen this first hand - how you deal with it really affects how things develop between the student & educator. Note, - this is Nick’s tips on how to get around these personality clashes - not anybody elses’ - we are all different and we all present ourselves differently. Let me explain the point through a comment made on the COT message board (login required)
Hopefully you wouldn’t really “flirt” with your educator to get round this problem as Nick suggests - it could end you up some pretty hot (& embarrassing) water. The point is you have to work hard not only acting professionally infront of the client but also the educator. Its a sad fact of life and (understandably?) often overlooked when student’s are given their prep talk prior to placement.
This is a message to educators as well however. From the same forum thread:
Being a therapist has a lot to do with the personality factor. It’s a great shame when a educator can’t take into account the fact that a student may not be quite their normal selves because of nervousness to “perform” for them. Giving them a cross by their name and saying your failing because of this doesn’t really help things. (I hope no student seriously takes on board the advice “Threaten” to sort this out - instead go and see your College supervisor!)
There is another sub-text in this posting which I thought is interesting - and its one we are all aware of. The current knowledge of clinicians is sometimes surprising (re: “Quote Kielhofner”, and the “Women’s Institute craft school in the 1930’s” point). Students will (hopefully) be trained up with the latest models, frameworks and terminology. The disparity as to what is known about in the real world is often disheartening for a student. The way you can deal with this is in two ways - be cocky with the knowledge and get a educators back up or take the more “professional” approach and reflect on how the clinician carries out their day to day work instead. It is this factor that you are really trying to learn about - not so much the theory. Even if you think the educator is not acting how you would - or been taught too - reflect on it - say to yourself “I don’t think I would work like that” - It may not be the best approach to confront them directly “I don’t like the way you do that” is not the best way of going about dealing with this. And remember, its a two way thing - the educator may well be looking forward to learning about the current models of practice and what’s going on in the world of occupational science. (It’s a shame when they don’t mind you)
I (as supposedly the editor of this site) don’t particularly mind if postings are a little debatable. Heck, we are trying to raise debate here. I admit - if you are a future student of OT and think “Eeek! This sounds hideous!” that is far from the point - and all I can say is “Don’t fret! 90% of educators are fantastic understanding folk!”. Think of it as humourous reflections on Nicks student career - not everybody’s!
Truth and its consequences...
Like all great comedy there is a fine line between truth and fiction. OK its not great comedy...and its not that truthful. But as Will points out there is a sincere subtext to the article based on genuine observations I made from practice placements. Don't get me wrong I only had positive experiences on placements and always got on well with my practice eductaors. However as Will points out, again, there is undoubtedly an underlying tension between educator and student, both of whom desire and need to be equally respected in their different roles. Also as many students will agree the educators perception of the student is so subjective and arbitary that it gives the student a feeling of 'where do I stand?' and in some cases a feeling of insecurity. In many ways this can only be made clear through having a good personal relationship/rapport with your educator.
I guess the most important thing is to be Zen about your placements, try and enjoy it and not be too self-conscious. If you are at ease with your work and your educator this will come across and you will no doubt do well. If all else fails try the ultra violence!
Nick
I'm not an O.T. so I shouldn't really comment but......
Socratic method and socratic irony should surely be tools in any good therapists utility belt. If your educators are not wise to them, then I am sure they would benefit from being on the receiving end of them.
I doubt anyone is truly puritanical in social interaction (techniques and guises abound). Whether we can admit this and make good of it depends upon our level of introspection in the first place. Was there ever any advice better given than 'Know Thyself'?