Personal Narrative: My Fieldwork Experience

I have had to opportunity to engage in several group and individual sessions with Residents over the last several weeks. The individual sessions that I have had with my resident has thus far relied heavily on visiting, getting to know one another, and building trust; however, we have done a variety of activities along side that as well. The first session was simply an introductory session where I shared about myself, and sought to find out about her. The next session, we interacted with cards for a few minutes, looked through sale ads, read the newspaper, shared memories of farm life, and visited. The following session my resident and I put together a puzzle, shared memories, and visited. The most recent session, my resident and I played Go
Visiting nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and hospitals has always been a part of my life, so I wasn’t nervous or uncomfortable or with this aspect of the experience more so than others, but instead I was nervous about my ability to adapt to my new responsibilities, roles and expectations as a student in this setting; however, while it most certainly been a huge growing time for me so far in terms of gaining skills in motivating residents and collaborating with other staff, I have enjoyed every minute of it. When we were given our individual Residents, I was given the impression that my resident was untrusting, cantankerous, and irritable, and had an abusive son that I should avoid at all cost. I was worried that I would not be able to build a relationship with her, and the first day I visited her, I very quickly found out that I had reason to fear. Moments after walking through her door, my resident told me that she didn’t want a student and that she was too old to deal with me. But I stuck it out, and I convinced her to just let me stay for a little while, and after a while, she let her smile slip out and the conversation wasn’t so one-sided anymore. I love facing the challenge of helping my resident learn to trust me and to discover value in engaging in occupations and the value in herself. My resident lights up when she sees me on the elevator, and just this past week, my resident