Groundhog day always makes me remember the Bill Murray movie of the same name. It was an extremely funny time loop movie. As he continues to re-live the same Groundhog day over and over again.
At times it feels that way in a SNF
Sometimes while working in rehabilitation in a SNF you get that feeling every once in a while. It can be felt in many different aspects of rehab life.
Dealing with dementia
Sometimes it is a frequent feeling when we are working with someone with dementia. It could be the same story every single day on repeat. It could be trying to explain that they are capable of doing something every time you try. It could even be trying to redirect on task every five mins. It can be the combination of joy and also frustration when dealing with dementia. But when there is a positive function change, it is so worth it.
Sometimes it is just that last functional task that won’t get better
Sometimes you feel like you are in Groundhog day when you have been consistently working on a functional task like a sit to stand transfer that continues to be troublesome. You have done everything with them to get the range of motion and the strength but the transfer from the chair just will not get any better. It gets so frustrating and you begin to just focus on that one thing, over and over again.
Unrealistic family members
Sometimes some families will make you feel like you are in the movie. You feel like you need to explain over and over again that Mom or Dad is not going to get any better than what you see at this time. We have tried everything and a physical plateau has happened or the cognition will not allow us to progress any more. It can be even worse when someone thinks that their loved one can suddenly achieve what they have not done for a decade! Sometimes it can be so frustrating to have the same conversation over and over again that we have tried everything and we need to stop therapy for now. Sometimes they just don’t want to face the reality.
How to break the cycle
The cycle breaks when we are able to move on and accept reality. We discharge from therapy, or we change to different therapists, or we just change our focus to something more attainable. Sometimes we feel this in our own lives also. We need to step back and re-evaluate what we are doing and see what we can change to change our outcome. Do we need to learn something new, do we need to change the way we think of things, do we need to change our approach. It is all up to us.
