[humanser] Questions about practicum and documentation

Wed May 14 16:55:46 UTC 2014

Hi all,

Here is a little more information.

The disabilities office has generally not been very helpful.  I had an
issue with another music class last semester, and  they kind of threw
their hands in the air because they knew nothing about music.  The
music department has even contracted out to do my acccomodations (all
my braille music is even handled through them).  I think I've finally
started to get them to come around and realize that their job is to
advocate for a student whether or not they are familiar with what they
are studying, but it's been a long few months to get to that point,
and two major issues in classes I need for my major have happened.
Meanwhile, as I said before, all the professors I'll only have once
for gen eds have been fine.

I have a really good relationship with this music therapist.  I
volunteered/job shadowed her for four years in high school, and helped
out in some of the group sessions she led.  I made some really good
observances of things she does to accommodate herself, E.G, whenever
someone comes in and doesn't remember to say who they are, she asks.
She also has a closet for all her instruments and stuff that is
impeccably organized (and possibly also braille labeled if I can
remember correctly), and those are things I definitely would do.

In practicum, my major issues were seeing movement, and also knowing
who was there.  WE had a very large group of 15 to 20 residents to
work with.  Some were regulars who came every time, and I formed good
therapeutic relationships with them.  I also learned these people's
voices because generally, they were the more verbal members of the
group.  On the last session I used a hello song and went around the
circle.  I had every person say their name for the group, and I tried
to remember at least the general directions of where everyone was
sitting.  That was a little challenging though with such a large
group, at least for the majority of the people there who were not
voluntarily shouting out answers to questions about the music or were
contributing to conversation.  The hello song method also has its
limitations, because with a group that large it can take a while to
get through everyone, and a hello song ideally should not take a ton
of time because it takes away from the other experiences.  Anyway, I
did contact the music therapist to ask her how she handles
documentation, and to see if she has any ideas for knowing who is in
the room and where they are sitting if having them come through the
door and announce themselves isn't an option (We have to drive to the
practicum site off-campus, and the group is set up when we get there
so we can make the full use of our half hour).  She told me that the
type of documentation I was doing was significantly more specific than
anything she'd ever had to fill out, and that is likely due to changes
in the policies for students made in the past 20 or so years.  We
agreed that the issue seemed to be that the professors needed to know
how to have realistic expectations for accommodated documentation, and
it would be great to have them talk with her to brainstorm, which of
course was the plan from the beginning anyway, but now we knew it
needed to happen.

J.D makes a good suggestion which I would love to use, however the set
up of the group would not lend itself to that.  WWe had the residents
positioned in a semicircle, with our chair for leading the session in
the middle so all could see.  Sometimes we'll go kneel down in front
of a resident, but sitting next to them usually isn't available to us.
 It all really depends on how they're set up, and moving them would be
time consuming since we would need to call in staff to do it.  I could
try talking to the music therapist who works there to see if seating
might be able to be modified, E.G, leave an empty chair between groups
of 2 or 3 people, but I don't know if she could even guarantee that to
happen every session.

My mom actually thought of an accommodation I am going to try.  I told
her about the movement issue, and she said that the easiest thing to
do would be to ditch the chairs they have us using for a doctor's
stool.  This way I could swivel and wheel myself around the group to
get close enough to see movements, but I can be on their eye level and
still encorperate foot movement.  Granted, my mom is a pretty creative
person and has experience with modifying things because she's a
pre-school teacher, but I'm surprised that she thought of such a
simple accommodation that professionals who are trained to adapt
sessions to individual client needs did not.  There is bound to be a
doctor's stool in the nursing home I could possibly borrow, and if not
then I'll gladly buy my own.  It was just shocking to her that no one
was really working with me on this, because they do it for their
clients all the time.

I am not going to sue the school, because I think that is the last
thing that I should do to get my professors to help me, but I am
really irritated by the fact that I'm trying to have my needs met so I
can demonstrate proper documentation, and they throw it in my face
that I didn't advocate well, and they don't know how to teach me
professional standards in a way that is accessible.  To me, that seems
like a crutch to try to avoid taking ownership for their failure to
follow up where they said they would.  I am also irritated that I will
need to stay in school for a fifth year, but that is a side effect of
all of this, and it could get even worse if something isn't done to
help it.

On 5/14/14, Serena Cucco via humanser <humanser at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Failing you for the semester is a bit harsh, even though the
> university felt your performance was worse than the other students.
> At Rutgers, where I got my MSW, practicum is pass/fail and there
> something called a marginal pass for practicum only.  A margianal pass
> means that the student's performance was below that of the other
> students, but the internship instructor and, more important, the
> university, realized the student still tried his/her best.  This would
> allow you to still pass the course, while letting the university
> believe your performance was below other students'.  I would hate for
> you to have to retake the practicum!  Also, this would give the
> university an out, making it not as necessary for you to feel like you
> want to sue them!(maybe slightly exaggerating your feelings, but I'm
> sure you see my point.)  Of course, the university didn't do right by
> you by not talking to the blind music therapist and not giving you the
> confidentiality form until it was too late.  J.D. makes a good point
> about talking to the disability services office about the situation.
>
> Serena
>
> On 5/14/14, JD Townsend <43210 at bellsouth.net> wrote:
>>
>> Sandy makes an excellent suggestion.  In family therapy I often change
>> chairs to sit next to one family member or another to lend support or
>> relate
>>
>> especially to one or another.  Of course I do need to know well the chair
>> arrangement and where each is sitting!
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Sandy
>> Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2014 11:08 PM
>> To: Human Services Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [humanser] Questions about practicum and documentation
>>
>> Kaiti,
>>
>> Sorry you have had a hard practicum.  This reminds me of way back when I
>> was
>> studying elementary education, and my advisor (also head of the
>> department)
>> kept sending me to yet another practicum, stating I needed to do more
>> than
>> my peers, especially since I was working toward elementary education
>> (able
>> to teach k-6th grade).  He didn't want to know of any other blind
>> teachers
>> cause they either lost sight later in life, had more sight than me,
>> didn't
>> know Braille, whatever.  Please don't let your situation get to this
>> point!
>> I think you would do well to speak to the blind music therapist for
>> specific
>> techniques, and do this whether the college person decides to speak to
>> her
>> or not.  Also, could you take turns during a session sitting by each
>> resident to better monitor movement?
>>
>>
>> Best and keep at it,
>>
>>
>> Sandy
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------
>> From: "JD Townsend" <43210 at Bellsouth.net>
>> Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2014 10:35 PM
>> To: "Human Services Mailing List" <humanser at nfbnet.org>
>> Subject: Re: [humanser] Questions about practicum and documentation
>>
>>>
>>> Hello Kaiti,
>>>
>>> Do not let this experience faze you.  I would suggest that you consult
>>> with the Dean of the program - it is under her direction that the
>>> professers work.  At your university there is, most usually, an office
>>> of
>>>
>>> disability services, perhaps someone from that office might help in this
>>> regard.  Some folks have invited a representative from the NFB to such a
>>> meeting as well. The more folks you can pull into the discussion,
>>> including the Dean of Students, the better.
>>>
>>> This is not about your skills and abilities, but about how best to
>>> identify the participation of your clients during sessions.  I know of
>>> one
>>>
>>> blind music therapist who handed out different types of bells as wrist
>>> or
>>>
>>> ancle bracelets so each client made a different sound.  It will be your
>>> challenge to determine what answers your unique needs, try out a few
>>> solutions with friends or family, determine what works for you and next
>>> semester you will fly through the internship.
>>>
>>> JD
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Kaiti Shelton
>>> Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2014 12:57 PM
>>> To: humanser at nfbnet.org
>>> Subject: [humanser] Questions about practicum and documentation
>>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> I saw Renee's thread, which coincidentally raised some similar
>>> questions to those I have been forgetting to ask on this list.
>>>
>>> I am a music therapy student who has just completed my sophomore year,
>>> however this year I have ran into some pretty major issues with my
>>> degree program professors.  Most of the issues seem to be related to
>>> my blindness.
>>>
>>> First, let me preface this by saying I have excellent self-advocacy
>>> skills, and have never really had a problem with professors until now.
>>> All my gen eds thus far have worked out well, and even the more
>>> strict or less open-minded of those professors I have for only a
>>> semester have come around and been willing to cooperate with me to
>>> make things work.  However, I have taken most of those classes before,
>>> or classes very similar to them, so it is easy for me to say, "I'll
>>> need all printed materials converted into an electronic format or
>>> braille," because I know that is the drill and what works.  I have
>>> never taken anything with experiential learning like a practicum
>>> before, so this is new territory for me.  I feel like I don't really
>>> know what I don't know in terms of accommodating in this type of
>>> situation, and my professors have obviously never had to work with a
>>> blind student either.
>>>
>>> I was hoping that my professors and I would be able to work as a team,
>>> and collaborate to find reasonable acomodations for course
>>> requirements.  Additionally, I know a blind music therapist from my
>>> hometown, and she agreed to consult with my professors by telephone so
>>> that we might be able to have the best of all three worlds working for
>>> a solution---the student who knows their personal vision issues, the
>>> professors who know which standards need to be met and where I'm
>>> lacking, and a blind professional who has been successfully practicing
>>> for years.  At first, my supervising professor seemed very eager to
>>> call the music therapist to seek her advice, and she even said she
>>> knew of another MT-BC who was blind as well who could be of
>>> assistance.  I went into the semester and the first weeks of my
>>> practicum thinking everything would be great, and as I started to get
>>> more confident in sessions I thought I was doing a really good job.
>>> The feedback about my interaction with the nursing home residents in
>>> our session s was getting better, and I was getting stronger musically
>>> as well.
>>>
>>> However, an area where I had issues was in the documentation.  I was
>>> really unsure of how to do it, because a lot of our residents did not
>>> really talk or make much noise.  Obviously I thought to use auditory
>>> cues for evidence, but there were still some issues in specificity.  I
>>> might say, "The residents participated in the receptive experience,"
>>> and struggle to say much more because I didn't know what they were
>>> doing visually.  My observations were significantly limited during
>>> this particular experience, because they were just moving to
>>> pre-recorded music, and the movement is what is important to document
>>> in order to judge whether or not range of motion has improved.
>>>
>>> What was frustrating was that I had to walk a fine line between
>>> advocating for my needs and being annoying to my professors.  I backed
>>> off in my advocacy efforts because they seemed annoyed that I was
>>> pestering them to call the music therapist I knew to get her input so
>>> much.  I trusted that if they were that annoyed with my reminders that
>>> they would do it.  I was wrong, and only received the family education
>>> rights and privacy act (FERPA) form to sign on the last day of the
>>> semester.  By that point, there was nothing that could really be done.
>>> I The forms which would have allowed me to give my professors
>>> permission to speak to this other woman were not served to me until it
>>> was too late, and I still wonder why they were given to me at all
>>> since the professors could have talked to her in general terms without
>>> breaking confidentiality laws.  I would have much rather have had that
>>> happen and been a little fuzzy on what was said, and had professors
>>> that had an idea of what to do or some way to help me, than to not
>>> have anything happen at all.  The worst was that as a result, I was
>>> given a failing grade on the practicum for the issues I had in my
>>> documentation, and I was told "The difficulty for us lies in
>>> reconciling your accomodations with professional standards," by one of
>>> my professors.
>>>
>>> I really am unsure of what to do next.  Having to take practicum again
>>> will keep me in school for an additional year, which I have no clue
>>> how I am going to pay for, and I am now scared that the same thing
>>> might happen again.  They don't want me to remind them, yet they don't
>>> follow through with their end of helping to come up with
>>> accomodations.  When I do come up with my own accomodations, there is
>>> always something clinically wrong with them.  For example, to allow me
>>> to see what the residents were doing one day late in the semester, I
>>> decided to lead movement while walking around the group.  My
>>> documentation was a lot better that week, however I was told that by
>>> standing up I was no longer on eye level with the residents, and I
>>> failed to encorperate foot movement, because I needed to use my feet
>>> to stand and walk around.  I don't want to annoy my professors,
>>> because I need them to be in my corner and willing to help, but I
>>> obviously can't leave them to their own devices and expect they'll do
>>> as they say they will as evidenced by this past semester.
>>> Furthermore, I feel like I'm being held back because my musical skills
>>> and interpersonal skills have grown significantly, and I think in
>>> those areas I am more than ready to go on to subsequent practicum
>>> courses.
>>>
>>> Has anyone had experience in practicums?  How did you accommodate for
>>> visual information in documentation, and what accomodations were
>>> helpful for you and your supervisor to use?  Any suggestions at all
>>> would be appreciated.
>>> --
>>> Kaiti
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
>>> JD Townsend LCSW
>>> Helping the light dependent to see.
>>> Daytona Beach, Earth, Sol System
>>>
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>>>
>>
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>>
>> JD Townsend LCSW
>> Helping the light dependent to see.
>> Daytona Beach, Earth, Sol System
>>
>>
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>>
>
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-- 
Kaiti