How to survive your first OT rotation

Congratulations on passing your degree. Props for acing the interview. Hurrah for landing the rotation of your dreams. Now … welcome to a brave new world full of opportunity and promise. Oh and by the way remember … you only really learn how to do the job after you leave university. WOAH! WOAH! WOAH! Wadayamean? You’ve just spent 3 to 4 years slogging your guts out, jumping through academic hoops and managing the expectations of the most demanding clinical educators. Now you’re telling me I have to start from scratch? Well yes and no!

I am pretty sure you will have heard this sort of thing bandied about on placement or from your more experienced colleagues. Basically the argument goes something like this … ‘You’ve passed your driving test. Now you learn to drive … SAFELY … in snow, in hail, in wind, in rain and at night. The next few months can be crucial to how well you settle in and enjoy your first rotation. So here are our top tips to survive your first OT rotation.

Set your targets to ensure you survive your first OT rotation

Things can feel overwhelming as you step into your new career. Try and break down your expectations of yourself into realistic chunks. Make them realistic, and agree them with your supervisor.

• First day : Get there on time, learn where the toilets are, remember your supervisors name and don’t get your lunch down your front.
• First week : Get to know your team, learn your key processes, catch up with your supervisor to plan your first month. Set up some practical time at home to read up / reflect on all the things you need to learn. Do it now and stick to it over your next six months
• First month : Set up your preceptorship, draw up key learning objectives and expectations and check your progress with your supervisor. Start doing more of the things that scare the willies out of you. Check your payslip and taxcode to make sure that you are not being taxed at emergency rates. If you can, use your first payslip to treat yourself to something that will stay with you for the rest of your life. Every time you see it in the future, you can see how far you have come.

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Question, question, question

• We like questions. Questions show us that you are interested and wanting to increase your knowledge about how we do things round here. But make sure that you listen to the answers to avoid asking the same thing over and over. Your colleagues will want to help you but they are busy too and they will notice pretty quickly if you ask the same question on repeat. Remember they talk to each other so be mindful about going round your team asking repeat questions.
• Keep a notebook or crib sheet for everything in your first week like door codes, key names, phone numbers, phsyio or nurse names, IT user names and the like. If one is available take a copy of  the new Band 5 information file (or failing that any student file) and add to it as you go. At the end of your rotation you may well want to update this will all the new information you have added to make it easier for whoever follows you.
• Be mindful about how you use your questions and use your questions for clarification of your own research rather than asking for a solution to be handed to you on a plate.
• When thinking about your questions spend some time thinking about whether your questions are about learning something new or just a means of protecting you from making your own decision. Sooner or later you will need to do this. If you think this might be you. Plan what your action would be and take this

Get yourself motivated here

Court your OT assistants

• If it is useful getting used to asking for help from your colleagues, it is doubly vital that you get comfortable using the knowledge skills and experience of your unregistered colleagues. If you are concerned about making your mark and presenting your professional confident self, don’t do this at the expense of discounting the experience of the technicians and assistants you work with. You can always chose to ignore what they tell you but if you fail to engage them early you will have an uphill battle later on.
• Make sure you spend time early on building your relationships with them they will ensure that you survive your first OT rotation.
• They often have more time that your registered colleagues and know the general workings of the department inside out so can give you pointers to where to find things, and support when things are tough.

Go find yourself

• Get a map. Spend some time before you start looking at the general layout of your patch. From very early on you are likely to be dealing with patients from a diverse geographical area. Be it variations between rural and urban locations or socio economic differences. Different areas will have their own challenges. You will learn these over the next few months but having a rough idea of where everything is relative to everything else will really help you out.
• Spend time in your first week learning where you are relative to the key areas are like entrances, wards, departments, cafeteria, stairwells, lifts and toilets. If you have a uniform or an ID badge you will be a magnet to anyone visiting. There is nothing more confidence sapping than constantly saying ‘I’m new sorry … I don’t know’ At the very least make sure you can direct to the central reception desk from wherever you are.

Be Open

• I can’t stress this enough. If something is not working out. If you feel that you are not competent to do something that you find yourself doing. If something goes wrong. Tell someone. No really TELL SOMEONE. Ideally your supervisor or service lead. They are the people who are able to generally do something to help.  Most of us will have seen or experienced the very same thing you are experiencing. Generally it is not as massive Often . Things get sticky when you try and sort things out or worse still cover it up. I know that sounds obvious but it feels very different when your mind is racing, full of all the potential professional consequences. Maybe if I am ever brave enough I will write a post of my own – lengthy list of FUBAR situations.

Seek first to understand

• Remember you are the new kid. You have some really great things to contribute. You may disagree with your colleagues or the MDT. I guarantee you will have much more influence if you ask curious questions about why they think differently to you. Ask them to explain to you their rationale rather than trying to explain your own.