Monday, August 4, 2008

Unproffessional and unsupportive supervisors suck! >:-(

I just finished a tutorial for my class 'Collaboration and Consultation', where we talk about ethical or just simply any issue that caused a bit of internal struggle.

Two of the stories caught my attention. Both students were talking about a time when either their professional or personal personality did not mesh with another person. The first student talked about her last OT supervisor whom she pointed out to us immediately, to the fact that this supervisor wasnt being professional AT ALL.

I dont know how much I want to mention except to say that these 'professional' OT's attitudes were shocking. One was said to be obviously burnt out from working in mental health for 40 years who saw no problem with man handling patients, bluntly said that they hated the last student because they asked "too many questions" (!) denying group resources to patients. They also never negotiated with the student about supervision, never offered feedback and gave the student a full caseload with no assistance much to the annoyance of the student. There was loads more but I cant remember. them all
OMG....
This kind of thing really pisses me off. We pay over 5000 dollars a year to study and do placements. Registered OTs get some kind of point system from the NZOT Board (part of competencies too I think) every time they have a student - no matter how the placement went. This is not the first supervisor issue I've heard of. I think as a student- we have the right to demand a PROFESSIONAL supervisor. Whos also supportive and patient and have standards so we as the student can admire and look up to and raise our standards of care to the utmost highest. A good working relationship is essential and I always feel disappointed for my peers who dont achieve that. (Can be the student as well).

I feel very blessed to have had placements where I ended up with placements I never even put in my list but ended up making the most of my time and having an awesome placement and a wonderful supervisor and meeting lots of great people. They were all different of course with different styles etc and what ever issues we had we sorted them out maturely and appropriately.

One thing I will say is (be warned though), why are all the nasty stories I hear of, are those concerning much older (and I mean really old) OT's. Is our training and societal ways and health standards evolving so much that they cant keep up with all the change and just remain in their own ways in order to avoid a long headache?
Hey - dont shoot the messenger. I'm not at al going to judge very OT over the age of 50 to be unprofessional (dont be stupid). But if any OT (from all ages) is uncompromising, dictator like and unsupportive and unwilling to negotiate about stuff then I will really have a problem with them and even more pissed off with school supervisors who also do not offer support and just tell us to get over it and to just treat it as "an excellent learning experience!"

5+ weeks of that?
Get a grip...

Saturday, August 2, 2008

I love FOOD and Jamie Oliver

Now people I promise I study after this post as I've been procrastinating all day!

Right so onto todays topic.
I came across Jame Olivers website today (www.jamieoliver.com) - brilliant!

Heres a link to the recipe Im gonna have a hand at: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/desserts/rhubarb_and_custard_kinda_souffle

"I became a subscriber pretty quickly and asked the forum this question:
Hi everyone!
I'm a uni student from NZ and I live in a flat with four other lovely girls. Seeing as I'm way to poor to even start a kitchen item collection yet, I was wondering if its possible to use ceramic plain cups instead of ramekins? Or other types of cups for that matter. I really want to try out jamies rhubarb and custard souffle recipe. Looks good!
Advice anyone?"

Again, I would so appreciate advice from anyone out there who knows about this aye.

Ok thats me for today. I know it doesnt have much to do with OT but to me cooking is OT to
me!!

Cya!