Internship at Brigham Health and Rehabilitation
Brigham Health and Rehab is a skilled nursing facility located in Newburyport, MA. The facility provides long and short term care, hospice, respite, and palliative care. The facility also provides skilled therapy through a company called Tender Touch Rehab Services.
​
At Brigham Health and Rehabilitation I am the Rehabilitation Aide. My primary focus is to assist the therapists throughout the workday. For myself, this means I will assist therapist during treatment sessions, transfer patients to and from their rooms to the gym, and help to organize equipment and paperwork.
If you are interested in learning more about my responsibilities at Brigham Health and Rehab, click on the button bellow to see my learning contract.
Throughout this page you will find the outcomes of the learning contract which include functional assessments, treatment encounter notes, medical abbreviations, billing codes, patient interactions, and feeding techniques.
Internship Project
As part of my internship I was tasked with completing a project. My supervisor thought it would be beneficial for me to create an exercise routine for geriatric adults. This exercise routine is geared towards the elderly populations to maintain general strength and flexibility. It includes both upper and lower extremity exercises with stretching portions. The exercise program also includes an added section for oral motor strengthening. As a whole this packet includes exercises that each therapist would used. Being in a skilled nursing facility I thought it would be important to include all aspects of therapy we provide, such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy.
​
Not only was this beneficial to my understanding of working with geriatric patients, it was also beneficial to the facility. To promote Brigham Health and Rehab, the exercise routine was used as advertisement in order to promote the therapy included in the patients stay at Brigham Health and Rehab.
​
To view the exercise routine I created, click below.
​
Reflections
During my time at Brigham Health and Rehab, I took the time to write reflections about my experience. To see them, click right.
Functional Assessments
Brigham Health and Rehab heavily relies on functional assessments to monitor a patients improvement. Below I have provided two assessments that I often would see at the rehab facility. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment is used by speech therapists to measure cognitive ability. The Tinetti Balance and Gait Assessment is used by physical therapist to assess a patients functional ability to walk and balance.
The Positive Outcome of Patient Interactions + Feeding Techniques
As stated in my reflections, I helped out the speech therapist by assisting patients at lunch time. Many of the patients I sit with have cognitive impairments which causes them to struggle with the recognition of the task of eating. One form of patient interaction that is used towards feeding is sitting patients next to each other at lunch time. When this is done, patients often recognize that others are eating. When other patients are eating this helps to remind the patient to eat as well. This social interaction can have a positive impact on a patient’s health. It can help to increase nutritional intake and decrease amount of weight lost.
When a patient is not suitable to sit with other patients when eating there are other techniques that can be used. Using simple, one step instructions can help a patient begin the task of feeding. For example, a patient at this facility has a hard time eating when the food is simply placed in front of them. When the patient is given a simple command to start feeding such as, “pick up your spoon,” the patient tends to continue the process of self-feeding without further cueing. With dementia patients one step commands are key in initiating activities of daily living.
Example of Treatment Encounter Notes
