Basic Grades and Senior IIs

Rotation announcement day has come and gone. It was a very interesting Basic Grades meeting. It was our second one in a year to take place at Wheelchair Services, with the focus this time on specialist seating for postural control. Sally, the very enthusiastic and knowledgeable physio who gave the talk, tends to work mostly with kids or adults who have very unique long-term disabilities. I wanted to know more about the integration of switches (i.e. foot or head switches, sip and blow, etc) for kids and adults who don't have upper limb function, and how that fits into the creation of customised wheelchairs. When I completed my degree at Tufts, there was a fairly decent emphasis on assistive technology, plus I learned even more about it during my rotation at Franciscan Hospital for Children in Boston. I assumed that as part of OT training in the UK, others would have had similar exposure. So it took about 10 minutes into this conversation I had started before Sally and I realized the others weren't following along and had to backtrack into what switches are for, what they look like, what are the pros and cons, etc. Without getting into all of that, for any of you I may have already lost, there are options available for someone who does not have the use of their hands, and therefore cannot control a powered wheelchair with a simple joystick-- for example a button they can press with their head. It's fascinating stuff, really!

But anyway, back to rotation announcements. Not everyone was happy, by far, not everyone. The Head OT has a full Basic Grade rotation plus one, so she said before giving us our assignments that several people had ended up with their third choice, and one person had not gotten any of her first three choices at all. Two of the "older" Basic Grades, those who were on their first rotation when I started, were allowed to stay in the rotations they currently have due to difficult personal problems. At least one of those two rotations was in high demand, since it's a rehab position, and without the personal issues she needs to sort out, this OT would never have been allowed to repeat the rotation. But not everyone knows what's going on with her, and I think there was a lot of resentment. For myself, I scanned through the entire grid, and couldn't find my name anywhere. My confusion must have showed after a minute or so, because the Head OT eventually called out to me that I was at the very bottom, in a sentence underneath the grid at the bottom of the page. I have indeed been slotted into Orthopaedics, and since another OT was also slotted into that post, everyone immediately knew something was up. Plus, the Head OT announced that the finance dept had approved her application to hire new Senior IIs, and now she is just waiting to hear from the Turnaround Committee before she can advertise internally. Not that it was any big secret to begin with, but once the Head OT had left the room, I did admit to the other Basic Grades that I will be applying for a Senior II position, and assuming I'm successful, would be taking over the Senior II slot in Orthopaedics until the Senior II rotation changes in June...and that's why I was listed at the moment as the second Basic Grade assigned to Ortho. Things are looking good for me to move on up, I just hope the Turnaround Committee comes back with a decision in the next week or so, and then interviews can take place by end of March. That would be nice.

Tomorrow is my third and final Bobath module. I'm pretty sad that we're finishing up actually, I feel like I've been learning a lot on this course, so I will definitely have to apply for the more advanced and intensive 3-week course. Our tutor is definitely an expert in her field, and although it seems out of my reach, I'd love to have her skills one day.