One of the very first lessons I learned when I went from Outpatient to Skilled Nursing was, age is completely irrelevant. I was amazed at how different people can be in this setting depending on their life leading up to the moment you meet them. I was amazed at how you can start working with someone that was barely 65 years old and be completely helpless and then go to your next resident and she could walk circles around you and be 102 years old!
At the Beginning
My first few weeks working in a skilled nursing facility was feeling like I did not belong. I was having some poor enthusiasm and not feeling like a was really using my skills as a therapist to actually help someone. It seemed like it was going to be very boring and doing the same thing every day. Well…. I can tell you that that quickly changed.
I looked at my schedule and saw that I had a woman that was 102 years old that had just come in for short term rehab from the hospital. Not only did she blow my mind with the how mentally sharp she was, but she quickly walked me around the facility with me barely having to help! She was the most functional resident I had worked with all day long.
What She taught me!
She lived by the premise of nothing gets done if you don’t try. Well after spending days working with her and listening to the stories of her life as we worked together, she made a lasting impression on me. I try to not only instill her outlook in my own life. I have since tried to instill this idea into every resident I work with. It is a basic fact of life. If you don’t at least try, it will never happen. That is completely true for Physical Therapy. Effort made usually equals results achieved, She will forever live on in the method that I have used to help every person I work with to this day.
