SLUMS simulation

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As part of the Neuro Aspects course I'm taking in OT school, I participated in a clinical simulation encounter today during which I administered a cognitive screening to a person with a recent history of  stroke. Cognition is being able to understand and process the knowledge that you gain throughout your life. OT's role in working with individuals with cognitive disorders can be to help with safety awareness, improving skills, making adjustments to the clients lifestyle to be more independent, and help maintain and improve occupational performance. 

My clients score on the SLUMS was a 21 out of 30. This score indicates that the client has mild cognitive impairment. Meaning, my client could have challenges with remembering important dates/appointments, coming up with the appropriate words to use when speaking to others, or losing items/not remembering where they put them. I feel like I adapted my elevator speech to my client in a way that he would understand what it is OT's do for them. I feel like my client had a basic understanding of what OT was after I gave my elevator speech. 

I felt very confident going into the encounter and felt like I was friendly and made my client feel comfortable. Something I would do differently if I could re-do the encounter I would refrain from saying "perfect". After rewatching the simulation I noticed that I said "perfect" a couple times after they answered one of the questions. I realize that could give my client the idea that they answered it correctly when they might not have. Now I have realized to use different words to not give false hope. My big takeaway from this was to make sure to review assessments you might be using before you use them the first time so you know the correct way to give the assignment. I also realized that every client encounter is going to be different and it is best not to stress yourself out and try not to be nervous about it because we are the professionals and are going to ultimately help our clients. I will use what I learned going forward to learn from the mistakes I made and continue to go forward and keep improving to become a great OT.

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