The Lessons I've Learned as a Social Worker with an Occupational Therapist and Nurses

In my group, I was the only Social Work major along with an Occupational Therapy major and three Nursing majors. We all had very difficult schedules that seemed to clash together so it was hard for us to work together. The day of common hours we exchanged numbers, a google doc was made, and set a date to assign roles in this project. Going in to this I didn’t know how to feel about working with different majors on a group project, especially the nursing majors since I have heard how hectic their schedule is but it wasn’t that bad. I was blessed to have an amazing group that worked together well, it was hard to meet at a time to record the video but we ended up doing it at night. Through this process I realized that it is possible for us all to work together. I had a horrible impression of how nursing majors were based on glares and their passive aggressive ways towards anyone in Cohen who isn’t a nursing major. They aren’t all bad which I knew but it made it a reality when I worked with three of the nicest, sweetest, most caring nursing majors ever. I learned that all of us in some way, shape, or form must work together to get the patient the utmost care they need. From physicians directing the patient to a respiratory therapist and consulting with the RT about what the treatment should be given, to occupational therapist teaching them how to breath effectively and even nurses helping them with their ventilators we are all important in the process of taking care of the patient. No one major can do everything, they need help from other majors or else everything will fall apart, we are all parts to a puzzle.

I learned the most from the athletic trainers, pharmacies, mental health professionals, and health care administration. I learned how an athletic trainer can work with a school nurse for example by making sure the athlete gets the proper care needed to heal or how an AT can work with exercise science by coming up with a plan for their diet, exercise, determining their fitness levels, etc. I learned how an AT can work with developmental organizations that deal with athletic training and health administration can help with that process. I felt pharmacy was important because of it’s work with handling, separating and distributing the medicine to their patients. Pharmacists works athletic trainers and exercise scientists in helping with treatment, prevention, and rehabilitation with the clients. They also work with occupational therapists because they can provide prevention techniques that must do with socialization while nurses are heavy advocates for the patients to receive and be provided with the proper care. Mental Health Professionals I thought were important because I want to work with mentally ill and chemically dependent clients. MHP work with clients with emotional, mental, and cognitive issues. Physical health can be impacted by mental health which is why it is important to work with PT and OT to find a holistic treatment program that will affect the patient entire well-being positively. MHP and nurses both psychiatrists and/or physicians in the prescriptions and maintenance of medication for mental health conditions. Physical Therapy Assistants have a job like Athletic Trainers and work with some of the same professions. PTA communicate patients’ needs with nurses and health service administration, and collaborate with respiratory therapists, occupational therapists, and speech therapists.

I have learned that you must work with a lot more professions than I thought and although you do different things you all need each other to get things done. I never knew how much one field needed another and how much one field had to depend on another. You really should work with a ton of different occupations. Due to working with so many different people you really have to work on your communication skills along with team building. I now understand why we have group projects and we are put in tough situations sometimes with people that we feel aren’t working with us, it’s all a life lesson that we have to learn from to develop a way to deal with such problems in the real world.