My service learning hours were done at Belterra Rehabilitation Center located in McKinney, Texas. During this time I was able to experience a Speech Language Pathologists daily schedule and also spend time with people with disabilities. The population of patients served at this facility were geriatrics who were previously in the hospital and were now medically stable but still in needed of rehabilitation services before going home. Belterra’s staff consists of has a rehabilitation doctor, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapist and speech language pathologist (SLP).
A normal day for me when observing would begin with the revision of any new patients that need to be added to the schedule and finding the patients that are already the gym doing exercise with other therapists. When a certain patient needs to be evaluated or seen and they were not in the gym, the SLP and I would go to their room and bring them to do begin their therapy session at a table in the gym. She would then choose different activities or certain games to target different issues in speech or memory that they needed to work on. Many days I would help the patient with hints to complete the activity or look over their responses to see if they were correct. I got the chance to play some games with the SLP and the patients which I enjoyed immensely. Everyday I was able to interact with a variety of patients that were stroke survivors, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or recovering from pneumonia, patients living with parkinson disease.
Before beginning my hours I always thought I would love to work with kids, now after 20 hours of service hours completed my experience at this rehab center gave me a different outlook on the profession and even is making me reconsider what direction I want to go in. This class gave me valuable insight that will be useful for my future. I also learned about many topics I’ve never been exposed to or ever had to think about. Rehabilitation was a great minor to choose for my career path and I am looking forward to the courses that follow. During my time observing at the Belterra Rehabilitation Center in McKinney, Texas I was able to not only spend time with people with disabilities but experience what a Speech Language Pathologist did on a day to day base.
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The population of patients seen at this facility were all elderly people who had previously been in the hospital and were now medically stable but still needed to receive rehabilitation services before going home. Belterra has a rehabilitation doctor, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapist and speech language pathologist (SLP) on staff each day. A normal day when I was observing would begin with reviewing the patient schedule for starting with who was already the gym doing therapy already. If a certain person needed to be evaluated or seen and they were not in the gym, the SLP and I would go to their room and bring them to do begin their therapy session at a table in the gym. She would choose different activities or games to do target different issues in speech or memory. Some days I would help the patient complete the activity or look over if the responses were correct, even played some games with the SLP and the patients.
I was able to interact with a variety of patients that were stroke survivors, were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or recovering from pneumonia, patients living with parkinson disease, or patients that needed to strengthen skills in memory, or language. Although I had originally envisioned myself working with kids, when I first began observing now after 20 hours completed my experience there made me appreciate the profession even more. I loved my experience at this facility and I look forward to working with setting similar to this again.
