THE NURTURE PROJECT 3: HANGING ON ‘TILL THE END
Another shifting has gone by and it has been harder and stressful than ever. The workload was heavier than the last shift, which left all of us drained to the core. Even though we saw it coming we were still overwhelmed during the course of this shift. This led to further ignorance towards my plant, I was not able to visit it as much as the first shifting, whenever class was dismissed I would just go straight home and prepare for another night of studying and work, not even thinking of visiting my plant. This resulted to the worsening of the condition of my plant Senju. Even more of its leaves were withered and lost its green color, though Senju still shows some signs of life, I can already classify it as a critical condition. Senju is hanging on but if nothing is done, it could be the end of the line for my plant.
This made me feel really terrible, I was once very ambitious towards this project, now I hardly visited and took care of Senju and because of this my plant is in critical condition and is barely hanging on. I was also very frustrated that I was not able to manage my time well and ignored my responsibility as a caregiver to my plant. It really felt bad because (a) my mother will be furious at me because I did not take care of her plant, (b) I aspire to be a health provider yet I could not take care of a mere plant, in fact one of the main objectives of , and (c) I felt like I let myself down with this failure, I was stumped to see my plant in bad shape last shifting and I was so determined to
This project was designed to ready us students for the future when we do our practice, it teaches us how we will treat our future clients. This got me thinking about the future of my career, would I be able to get good feedback from a real person if I administered him/her care the way I did with my plant? Would I become a “Mabuting OT” if I continued to act like this? More importantly, if I continued being ignorant and irresponsible, would I be able to graduate and finish this course?
Even though I did not have a good outcome, it was still a learning experience for me, granted that this is a sad way to learn from my mistakes, it would still help me grow into a better person nonetheless. I realized that my work ethic has to be changed drastically and also realized the magnitude of being careless and irresponsible, if I do not manage my time well it will only leave me more stressed, interrupting my daily activities that need to be done, hindering occupational performance and not fulfilling my occupational role as well. I have to take concrete steps to improve time management in order for me to become a responsible student now and a responsible professional as well. Perhaps organizing all my thoughts and plans would be a good start.
As mentioned above, this project is designed to help us in the future towards our clients, one thing I learned is that like the different species of plants who have different needs and capacities, different types of clients also have different needs and capacities, they have their own factors, skills, strengths and weaknesses. It is an occupational therapists job to analyze what they need with the use of clinical reasoning to address the demands of his or her occupation.[1]
Recently, we learned about how technology and occupation have a relationship to one another, how technology is inherent to practice, and how it must be considered as an essential building block of occupation. Technology has been a component of therapy and has a huge impact on quality of life across society.[2] I realized that I could have utilized my access to technology to assist me in my occupation, which is taking care of my plant. Features such as the “reminder app” would notify me of the things I need to do, through it I can easily manage my time and become more responsible in my duties. What the journal said was true, and I think that as future occupational therapist whose profession is occupation-based, we need to adapt with the times and keep up with current technology, that way we can integrate it in practice and come up with helpful interventions for future clients.
To cap off the semester, the batch of 1OT had a friendly competition by decorating our respective gardens to really make the plants stand out and the winning class would be awarded extra points in our reflections for the shift. This was a task that needed collaboration within the workplace, using the learnings we got from the panel discussion and the first visit we were able to come up with an idea for our decoration for the garden. Having to learn about, from and with each other enabled effective collaboration and certainly improved the outcome.[3] Through the power of team work, we were able to finish the decorations and fortunately we won the competition, however the learning does not stop just because we won, there is always room for improvement. In the succeeding years of college and the near future when we become professionals, we would still be encountering collaborative work. Through improving communication strategies and use of immerging technology we can come up with great outcomes in school, and maximize health care in the future.[4]
It is amazing that a plant, a small plant that does not even speak or move, has taught me a lot of things that will surely help me in the future and somehow I was able to recap all my learnings from my understanding occupations class, though it did not tackle everything, I still got substantial learnings from the very first lesson of the first shifting up until now, which are critical and important in my journey in becoming an occupational therapist. I am very thankful that I was able to have this encounter, I plan to use the different learnings to help me grow as a better person, may it be a life lesson/skill or some fundamentals for practicing occupational therapy. Though this is goodbye, I am forever grateful for all the realizations and skills that were developed because of my plant. Our Nurture Project Journey has come to an end and I am sure that all of us has a story to tell. This project is more than just taking care of a plant, it is my framework and my journal of learnings which I will carry on for the rest of my life.
[1] American Occupational Therapy Association. (2014). Occupational therapy practice framework: domain & process (3rd ed.). The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 68(1) 10-11 doi:10.5014/ajot.2014.682006
[2] Smith, R. O. (2017). Technology and occupation: Past, present, and the next 100 years of theory and practice (Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lecture). American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 71, 7106150010. https://doi.org/10.5014/ ajot.2017.716003
[3] World Health Organization: Framework for Action on Interprofessional
Education and Collaborative Practice. Geneva, WHO, 2010. Retrieved from: http://www.who.int/hrh/resources/framework_action/en/.
[4] Penelope A. Moyers, Christina A. Metzler; Interprofessional Collaborative Practice in Care Coordination. Am J Occup Ther 2014;68(5):500–505. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2014.685002
