Recreation Therapy Experience

The coursework at the University of Iowa prepared me sufficiently for my internship as well as entering into my future occupation. All of the coursework has been relevant to my experience in my internship thus far. I have utilized assessment skills that I was taught and have put those in to practice. In the recreation leadership class, we learned how to properly conduct an interview. This has been helpful in administering assessments. In the hospital, we use the APIE process almost every day. When planning activities, the flow theory is always something that I keep in mind and have found helpful. I want the activities that I plan to be enjoyable for the patients, not too hard, and not too easy. While working with the geriatric psych population,

My therapeutic recreation courses, experience hours, and internship all have molded my approach to therapy and treatment of individuals with disabilities or other challenges. I am still learning and facing challenges within this profession, as I will continue to do. The biggest challenge for me in my internship would be learning how to work with a population that I have never worked with, which is geriatric psychiatry. Not getting the immediate feedback that I would from younger populations can be a challenge. The goal in geriatric is often to maintain a baseline or standard of behavior and cognition instead of making improvements. It can be hard to not necessarily see a big improvement and then not hear feedback either. Even though I have faced challenges, I have also achieved goals. I have independently completed an assessment with a patient. I have been independently planning and implementing interventions and activities. I have made improvements in documentation like I had wanted to. On my first evaluation of my progress, my supervisor gave me a 3 out of 4 for documentation and on the second one I received a 4 out of 4. I asked a lot of questions, paid close attention to other’s documentation, and practiced which is what helped to improve that. I am way ahead of schedule on my job search; I have already had two interviews. This goal has changed because I realized that I set the date too late and I need to seize opportunities now instead of later. My internship has set me up well to do this and achieve my other goals too. My overall internship experience has been great. I would like to spend some time getting prepared for my future occupation with doing things such as gathering more ideas and making copies while I have such great resources in the recreation therapy staff at the hospital. I