Holly the OT
A judgement free podcast supporting student, new grads and early year occupational therapists!
Holly the OT
54: Embracing the Oopsies - It's ok to make mistakes!
Ever made a a mistake as an OT and thought it was the end of the world?
Do you strive for perfectionism on the daily, and become completely unraveled when you make a minor slip up?
Welllllll that is absolutely what I am NOT about.
This ep is a light hearted look at all the mistakes I have made, as well as the mistakes we have ALL made (thanks to everyone for sending your stories in!).
Mistakes don't have to be a bad thing.
They are learning opportunities and give us something great to have a giggle at.
OT's are humans.
We will make mistakes.
Be kinder to yourself.
Happy listening <3
Good day, guys, and welcome to Holly the OT Podcast. My name is Holly, and I'm an occupational therapist. Looking to create a judgment free zone for all OT students, new grads, and early you therapists. Join me as I give my honest opinions on the highs and the low lows and the ins and the outs of being an OT. Before I start today's episode, I'd like to acknowledge the Woodjoc Nongal people who are the traditional custodians of the land this episode was recorded. Good day, guys, and welcome back to another episode of Holly the OT Podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in. I've been sitting at my desk for about ten minutes waiting to record this, but I've had a violent case of the hiccups. And I'm trying not to breathe while I'm talking because there is just a hiccup on the end of my tongue. And then my tongue took my tongue. Is that where hiccup can be? I never know, but I'm getting so annoyed. Anyway, I'll come back to the pod. It's been a hot little minute since I recorded an app. Feel like I say that at the start of every app because I'm just so inconsistent, but this has actually been a little while. I have yet been away. I've been overseas. I've been visiting home. I've been launching a new business with my partner. I've been expanding my clinical business. It's all just been happening, and I just keep adding more and more things to my to do list. But I am, yeah, knuckling down and getting quite a few pods episodes out for you guys in the next couple of weeks. So getting back into the swing of things before I get in today's episode, Oh, god. It's been so long before I get into today's episode. Does anyone ever just talk so quickly that you skip words? Is that just amazing? Is this something I do regularly? Like, you guys listen to me, like, maybe this is something I always do, but I've just noticed I skipped about eight words in that little sentence. What was I saying? Oh, yeah. Today's episode is mistakes that we've made as therapists. I'm gonna tell you my mistakes. And I'm also going to tell you the mistakes of everyone that wrote into me over on the gram, and there were some good ones. And I bet you're wondering, Why are we talking about mistakes? Because everyone is so scared to make mistakes, and then when we do make mistakes, we think it's the worst thing in a world. And I'm just not about that because it's part of human life, it's part of being a therapist, no one is perfect. So we're gonna normalize it. But before we do that, highs and lows for the last little while, I guess, I'll still stick to this week. My high for this week. I went to the Ross green PD training on Monday and Tuesday of the week that I'm recording this, and it was incredible. I have, like, been considering it for a while. And he was in Perth, which is just epic because I feel like nothing good comes to Perth. I've been learnt the last ten months. Yeah. He was in Perth. It was so incredible. It was just like I don't know. I don't really know what I was expecting. It wasn't what I was expecting, but I don't know what I was expecting. But it was just this incredible framework and approach to behavior, and it just gave me so much confidence in what I was already doing. And then gave me all these ideas on how I can enhance what I'm already doing. So it was incredible. I did a little rundown on my stories of it, but if anyone has any specific questions, it can be hard committing to PD because they are so expensive. And often, it's just good to know what are you actually going to get out of it. So if you have any questions about that, send me a message, but I would definitely recommend if you work in pediatrics to do the raw screen training. It was wonderful. My low for this week is I worked a five day work week, and I'm just not about that. I had the training Monday, Tuesday, and then outreach Wednesday, Thursday, and then a full chalky bodgey day of admin Friday. And it's a Saturday when I'm recording this. Again, days. It's so hard to talk days when you're doing a podcast. Yeah. I was just exhausted. So bloody tired. I don't know how I ever did a five day workweek. I don't know how that was ever something that was normal for me, but Anyway, yeah, that was my love. Also in very exciting news, my partner and I studying in clothing label, and it has been so much fun. And I don't know what else to say about it because it feels so surreal that that's something that we're actually doing. But if you wanna check it out, we haven't launched yet, but We've launched like our Facebook or our social media. It's called collective k double o l y collective over on the gram. Yeah. Obviously, not relevant to OT at all, but just another really cool fun thing that we are doing that sounded so wanky. Just another really cool thing I'm doing. That's not what I'm in, but I just it's fun. It's cool. I don't do many other fun or cool things, but this is. Yeah. Go and check us out. I can share more. Well, I probably will share more as the days go on, but Yeah. We'd love some support over there. That would be incredible. Anyway, let's get into this episode.mistakes.mistakes.mistakes. Who has made a mistake. Right? And you've just been so, like, embarrassed by it. Often, it's like those small mistakes. Like, the ones that it is so, like, oh my god, I can't believe I actually made that mistake. And just being like, I'm not gonna tell anyone, like, this is so embarrassing. Like, I'm shutting down. Like, how can I someone with a university degree? And I say that in inverted commas, you know, make a mistake that's so silly like an admin mistake or, you know, it's just this built up anxiety in our head of making mistakes. And OT's in general. This is a general statement, but I'm pretty confident with it. People pleases. Prudent with anxiety, not offense guys, but we aren't anxious people. And we just have this high standard of ourselves. Now I don't know if that is a generalist theme or if it just mean my OT friends, but this high level that we set for ourselves Obviously, we wanna do the best for people. We're in this job because we care and we wanna do the best of our ability. But it creates this unnecessary and unneeded sense of perfectionism that doesn't need to be there. We are humans. We are humans, and we make mistakes. And no, we're not gonna start being Slack. And no, we're not gonna drop the ball. But even, I tell you, even the most organized Taipei intelligent people will make mistakes in their career. So we're gonna talk about them. I'm gonna share some of my mistakes And then I'm gonna read out some of the ones that got sent through to me, and then I'm gonna read out we'll tell you a bit more about some of the ones that I've made. But I remember And this is actually a funny one to start on because it came through the most, and it's probably the mistake that mortified me the most as well. I remember after I made this mistake, and then I was seeing the client that this related to within I think it was, like, three or four days after I realized I'd done it. I had crippling anxiety. Like, I I did not want to go to work because I built this mistake up so much in my head. And this one came through, I think, like, ten times I counted on maintenance a grim story when I posted this, but submitting a report with the wrong name. Now, we know if you're doing big long reports, we are only human. There will be sections of those reports that you copy and paste from other reports. In this instance, it was the I think it was the violent of the sensory profile section where it's like, this assessment, you know, had the table, and it was like, this is a representative of blah blah scores. And I had recently changed my formatting, so I went back to the most recent report that I've done because me lazy didn't actually update the template I was using, just updated it as I was writing your report. And this is a side note. If you were making the same changes every time you write a report from your template, go and update the template. This is an order from me. Anyway, I copied and pasted the assessment template section and didn't change the name. So none of the report had been copied and pasted. It was all new information, but I copied and pasted the the template. And you'd have the wrong name in it. And I submitted this report, and I think I was so annoyed because I actually spent so much time on that report, like, more than I do most. And I think it was or I don't even know what part of it. It was in my my new grade Yep. And I remember thinking, like, this family is going to think that I've just made up that whole report that none of this report is genuine. None of this report is personalized to them because of this name. And I knew I had to address it because I knew the parents were gonna read the whole report. Because side note, Often, parents don't read reports. I have come to learn that as well, particularly the long ones. But yeah, I knew that we're going to read it and I knew I had to address it. Anyway, built this situation up in my head like, oh, physically was making me feel ill because I was so mortified. And when I had the chat, And I was like, look, I just want to address, like, she was like, oh, they're wrong name in their report. And I was like, oh my god. Swallowed me up and ate me alive. And she was like, yeah, I'm a school teacher. I used to put the wrong names in kids reports all the time. And I was like, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So that was the first time I've done it. Touch what I haven't done it since that I know of. Obviously, you never know. And I'm so pedantic now like control f, I will search every possible name of every possible kid, ones that wouldn't even have anything to do with the template that I'm using. And I am really, really thorough with it now that I don't think it will happen again, but if it does, not the end of the world. Obviously, we know why that looks unprofessional. We know why have we when I have that. But if it happens, it happens. It's okay. This family did not fire me as I thought. This family did not report me to the India ask NDIS Commission as I thought. It was all okay. So that's your mind. First and foremost, check your voice before you send them, but also if you have a mistake, don't worry. I have another mistake for you. Recently, I launched my daily itineraries, which have been so popular. There's a few left if you would like to go and get some. And when you start, like, selling things, you have to like, when you set up your website. You've got to, like, set up your payment option. So I had PayPal was my one of my main ones and then, like, Shopify or Shop Pay, sorry, Apple Pay, blah blah, all those ones. Anyway, so I got about four hundred and fifty dollars, I think it was of orders through paper. And I was like, great stoked. Like, motioning came to Apple Pay, but that was the amounting PayPal. Anyway, I didn't realize that you needed to verify that your PayPal account was obviously a PayPal for years that it really needs to verify your ID with your, like, PayPal account. So then we went away, and I wasn't working for, like, four weeks. And it I got an email. And it was, like, your money has been refunded. You didn't verify your out in time and you won't get this money. I was like, what do you mean? I won't get my money. And four hundred and dollars of orders of daily itineraries got refunded back to the people who had all of them. And first of all, I was like, shit. Yeah. I would be so stoked if I was those people that pulled the itineraries because you just got a little refund. Check your little reef. But I was like, oh, I sort of wanted my four hundred and fifty dollars. But there you go, if you are going to start selling a product and you are wanting people to pay you for said product, please verify your PayPal business account. And it's a hot little tip from me. I have another mistake I made when I was an AHA. The company I was working for. I forget what system they were using, but you couldn't access your calendar like on your mobile. It was only on the computer. Anyway, my day was set out. I had a few I'd mainly did school visits and I had like a school session And then I had well, I thought I had a case conference meeting with a like, I think it was a deputy and a parent and a speech. She And I don't really know why I was going as the AHA. As I've touched on, a lot of things I did as an AHA probably shouldn't have been doing so independently, but That's okay. Yeah. I was at this meeting. Oh, no. That is a lot. I wasn't at this meeting. I was on my school visits for the day. And I get a phone call about halfway through a school visit from an unknown number, and I didn't answer it. And then it came through again. And I was like, oh, hold on, buddy. Let's stop playing poker player, I've got to answer this phone call. Quickly answered, it was a school that I was having the case conference at after this session. And now, like, hey, Holly, just like wondering, like, how much longer you might be, like, where are you waiting? Anyway, I had gotten the appointments mixed around away. So I thought the Case Conference was after the school session, but it was actually before and I was at a different school. Like I they were only, like, five minutes away, but, like, I was at a different school. And I was, like, why can the teacher tell me, like, hey, you're an hour early. Wasn't her fault. She was just like, oh yeah, get this kid out of my glass, which is no great. We didn't encourage that, but that was how it was. And, yeah, missed the whole case conference, and they sat around waiting for me for half an hour, which is even worse. But I had to say, sorry, like, I'm in a session. I'm not gonna make it. Please continue without me. So now I'm so pedantic at checking my calendar and making sure I know exactly where I meant to be at Otter. Ones. Another mistake I remember really, really vividly making was working with a client who was an early intervention client. I believe she might have been like three or four. She presented very very autistic, I'm going to say. Apologies for my language. It's not great there, but she had very, very strong autistic traits. So in the moment, I met her she yeah. It was to someone who works commonly with autistic children, to me it was clear as day. And I had a lot of kids around that age and around that time that were autistic. And I knew that this family were on their journey of getting a diagnosis and obviously everyone processes that differently. And I remember being in a session, and we were talking about something to do with sensory processing. And I said, yeah. You know, La la la la la whatever her name is. That's worth fake name ever. Yeah. She's probably doing this. Like, it's really common with autistic girls. And then the mom just, like, looked at me, and then I looked at the mom. And we hadn't really had a proper conversation about it yet. Like, we'd sort of downloaded it, and I was sort of taking baby steps. They know that over hesitant, but they were on the journey. And, like, obviously, diagnosis isn't the OT's role. Like, obviously, that is not my role, and I'm not gonna say to a parent, yeah, I think she's autistic. There's ways that you go about it. There's ways that you word it. And in this moment, I just blatantly said, yeah. That's because she's autistic. And then the mom looked at me and and, like, we had that little moment, and she was like, so you think she's autistic. And I was like, oh, I put my foot in it now. And I said, oh, look, I'm so sorry. I like, I just get confused sometimes, like, obviously, every kid presents differently. And I I I talked my way out of it. And the mom was like, oh, that's fine. Like, no worries. Like, uh-huh. Anyway, three months later, she got diagnosed with autism. And yeah, I guess my things were right, but that is just a friendly reminder to not assume diagnosis and not be outward with them if they do not have the diagnosis. Anyway, yeah. Alright. I'm gonna get in and read some of the ones that you guys submitted to me if you just heard that scratchy noise. It was my sticky phone case. Getting ripped off the desk. It's my new favorite thing to do. But, yeah, I am gonna read out some of the ones that you guys sent through. Now if I laugh, I laugh with you, not at you because sometimes if you don't laugh, you cry. But yeah, thank you everyone for sending them in. I think it takes great vulnerability. Obviously, I'm keeping all of these anonymous. Yeah. Let's get into it. So I had a few come through of calling a client by the wrong name. I that just reminded me. I This was only, like, three weeks ago to God, I couldn't. So I'm thinking about it. I was doing a home visit and the client's dog was being so annoying like I love dogs, but the dog was, like, jumping and barking and, like, really annoying everyone. Anyway, I was trying to get the client to come and do something, and I caught the client the dog's name. I caught my client by her dog's name. That was bad. Lucky, parents, super chill, we all laughed about it, but, oh, god. I felt mortified. So, yeah, calling client by the wrong name came in a few times. Not putting enough boundaries in place with parents actually came through. And I love that one. And sometimes that's not a mistake you realize until after the fact, until after boundaries have been crushed, but Just a side note, if you work for a company and you don't have a company phone, a really strong boundary I want you all to put in place is don't use your your personal phone number. Even for the parents that you think are chill, please don't use your personal phone number if you need to. Like, if you need to make a call or something. Put your phone on private. That's just a a barrier that you're going to have to have if you don't have a company phone because I promise you you will regret giving out your personal number. So that's that's a boundary that everyone should put in place. This was a good one believing that every theory session needed to look a certain way. And I guess that's another one of those long term mistakes. And again, not a mistake that I think you know until you have that hindsight, but I love that one because we know that therapy sessions look different for everyone. And, yeah, that's a really good reflection point to have. Like I said, quite a few came through for leaving the wrong name in your report. Not checking funding and realizing less sessions are available than I thought and had planned for and then running out of funding with two months to go. I think everyone's been there at some point, and I think that's, I guess, determined determined determined determined. God, I'm so glad my words these days, determined by, like, the process within your workplace on how you track funding, but it can so easily happen, especially if you like, if if you're the OT and maybe you've got Fizio at your workplace and then there's a speechy, like, at another company. Like, you almost just have to take each other's words like no one's gonna like, over commit or overspend or and obviously, we'd never do that intentionally, but there's been a few times where I've been in in some sticky funding situations because someone has spent more money than they said they were going to. But that's okay. It happens. It happens. It happens. It happens. Alright. What have we got? Using the blurry short form for an eleven year old. So obviously, that is not the age range for the blurry short form. I've done that once as well with another assessment. Luckily, the kid was it, like, fell out of the range anyway, so that was fine. But Another one for calling people the wrong names happens way too much. I did a cognitive screen on the wrong patient. Both were named John. Realized after and freaked out, told the senior OT, luckily turns out he needed one, two, always double check name and date of birth. I'm imagining that is in like a hospital setting potentially with two johns. And I guess with common names, you've always got to be careful. And that actually has reminded me, I had to support coordinator ones, and we had two clients with the same name. We had a whole conversation once about the same like, named client, and we both were talking about the different ones. So, like, John a and John b, like, she was talking about John a and I was talking about John b. Both laughed about it at the end. And we're like, that could have been bad. Alright. And mentioning Santa and Easter bunny birthdays in sessions with a Jehovah's Witness client. With one of his old sad faces. Oh, you must have felt so, like, terrible. I can imagine you would have just been like, oh, shit. And I hate that like the hate that this is the first comment that comes to mind, but I I would imagine that in some capacity, they would be somewhat used to that. And I hate I hate that that's what my answer is, but please don't feel too bad that because I guarantee you that a lot of other o t's probably have done the same thing without even thinking about it and without even reflecting on it. So don't be too hard on yourself. This is a good one. I'm gonna read this one out to you. It's a bit of a long story. I had an adult I was working with on his ability to socialize. He had a complex genetic condition and nobody seemed to understand him. He burped a lot. Occasionally when he burped, he thought occasionally when he burped, sorry, he would use a sign afterwards. I thought he must be signing, excuse me. So every time he did it, I'd model the same sign and test the other staff to do this too. This went on for about a week and I felt so proud that he consistently sign mind after every birth. Then I was telling the manager about this, and she asked if I knew what the particular sign meant. I said I'd I'd assumed it was, excuse me, but turned out it was pig. I've been telling everyone and himself to call himself a pig after every berm. That is a very very a unique situation, but that is equally as hilarious. Thank you for sending that one through. Next one I've got is not taking enough photos or measurements during a home visit for a rehab patient and then not being able to go back and do the measurements again and having to guess them more groggy. As someone who does not do a home model measurements, I imagine that would have been very, very frustrating. As a team leader, I've had an OT who forgot to measure the elevator to get a high low bed and mattress mattress up to an apartment. And it didn't fit and they had to get something else. As a team leader, I've had an OT get a petite recliner for a six foot plus man, I did that on one of my hospital placements. I ordered it was a bariatric client, and I just got a standard recliner. Not a recliner. Shout here, and he couldn't get in it. And I felt horrible. In AVEVA, I was so gone home after a question on OPMA that I missed The next question on using MOHA, not OPMA, and just kept answering the whole question about the OPMA. I reckon I would have so many mistakes like that that I probably didn't even realize that I did, which is hilarious. That are all, that are god. Stop it. I can't talk. That is all the mistakes I have. This is a short, little, sweet bundle of an episode today. But, yeah, thanks everyone for sending all of those through. I just really wanna highlight, like, obviously, everyone is going to respond to mistakes differently. And I think it all depends on our central nervous system and our regulation and how, you know, that one mistake could be the tip of the iceberg and it could be the last thing that sort of set you into that spiral. But I promise you there is not a single mistake that can't be undone. And, you know, some might take more effort than others depending on what they are, but I promise you that Everyone makes mistakes and it's going to be an indicator of how supportive your team is on how they respond to you making a mistake because it is inevitable I guarantee they've made mistakes as well and how they sort of counteract that is gonna be super, super important on how supported you are in that team. If I was in a team where I was made to feel really bad about making mistakes, I'm going to get somewhere that I would want to work. Obviously, we always wanna be doing our best and trying our best. And I'm not saying drop the ball, but just be a little bit easier on yourself if you do make a mistake because our jobs are hard. We are often tired. We are often overworked, and it is human nature. That is all I have time for today. Thank you so very much for tuning in. I'm so excited to release some really cool episodes. I'm popping out a few records today, so there will be many coming in your ears, but thank you so much for tuning in head to w w w dot hollyy o t dot com if you would like to buy daily itinerary. But, yeah, thanks for your support. I appreciate you guys. Goodbye.