2022 is here.
Can you believe it?
Just today I had a colleague ask me, with a smile, “What is your resolution?”
I thought and tried to come up with something clever…
“Honestly, I have got nothing, haven’t even thought about it.”
“I got my kids back in school this week, does that count?”
“Clear out the 16,329 emails in my in box? I probably should!”
Thankfully she responded, “Just kidding, I am not doing resolutions year, I did however map out a monthly bucket list.”
I thought to myself, how BRILLIANT is that!
We have all heard the stats after all that around 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail by February!
Now consider, if you could create a rehab bucket list for the patient you serve daily, what would it include?
How could this approach change you practice?
Remember your skill, research your evidence base, consider how you can make bucket list wishes come true in 2022.
Also consider probing your current communities and patients. What would they like to see from the rehab team this year?
Perhaps some of the following would come to mind:
- The opportunity to communicate with loved ones effectively even when we can not see them in person.
- The joy of engaging in a prior occupational activity without limitations or with increased functional abilities via targeted increased strength, range of motion, or coordination.
- In the absence of traditional family holiday celebrations, having the ability to consume foods and nutrients which allow us to reminiscence in flavors and memories of time spent together.
- Come spring, having the ability to ambulate outside of the facility, perhaps take a stroll on uneven services and enjoy the fresh crisp air.
- Engaging patients in reminiscence as part of interventions as it not only helps us to better connect with and understand those we serve — those long-term memories are also known to be associated with procedural memory skills.
- Consider increased or renewed focus on car transfers to allow residents opportunities for community re-entry.
I know, I know, some wishful thinking included as we are all looking for an increased return to pre-COVID days. We are all hopeful for what this year will bring.
So, what will your rehab team’s bucket list include?
Allow those you serve to guide your goals this year! I look forward to hearing from you all on what you have been tasked to accomplish in 2022.
Will you have a New Year’s resolution or rehab bucket list?
What is your 2022 approach?
Renee Kinder, MS, CCC-SLP, RAC-CT, is Executive Vice President of Clinical Services for Broad River Rehab and a 2019 APEX Award of Excellence winner in the Writing–Regular Departments & Columns category. Additionally, she serves as Gerontology Professional Development Manager for the American Speech Language Hearing Association’s (ASHA) gerontology special interest group, is a member of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine community faculty and is an advisor to the American Medical Association’s Current Procedural Terminology CPT® Editorial Panel. She can be reached at [email protected]
The opinions expressed in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News guest submissions are the author’s and are not necessarily those of McKnight’s Long-Term Care News or its editors.
