Paperwork vs. Programming

[MT-PRO Music Therapy List]

Dear List members,
 
I will be very interested to hear about how others divide their time at
work.  During my internship, I was amazed at how difficult it was to achieve
the required 50% clinical contact hours required (meaning, 50% of my time
ACTUALLY SPENT WITH CLIENTS, not including setting up for programs or
documenting programs).  Right now, on my busiest day that I spend in a
facility (7 working hours plus lunch), I am spending about 4 1/2- 5 hours
running formal programs (not including casual contact that I have with
clients throughout the day), and this DOES include set-up time and portering
(which I think SHOULD be included in your hands-on time).  I have to work
within the schedule of the facility (I do alot of programs in dining rooms
and therefore don't have access until they have been cleaned after meals,
and I have to be cleared out long before the next meal starts).  On other
days I run programs for only 3 hours of the day and spend more time on
documentation.
 
I think there are lots of factors to consider.  Decide how many programs you
can realistically do in a day in your facility (are you portering the
clients to and from the programs on your own, do you have to share space
with other departments, do you have regularly scheduled meetings or care
conferences that you have to attend - not to mention your own energy level
and endurance!).  What are you doing for documentation?  Is most of it to
satisfy your own professional standards or is it to satisfy requirements of
the facility, funding source or ministry/legislating source? Does it do both?
 
I think you should stand your ground and give yourselves plenty of time for
proper documentation (if they are giving you the option to set these
guidelines yourselves).  You could calculate how many clients you are seeing
now in a day/week/month and set this as your standard.  I'm not clear (and
maybe you're not either at this point) on the motivation of the
administration - are they wanting to see you spend less time on
documentation and more time hands-on, or are they just wanting you to lay
out guidelines for what you are actually doing?
 
As you can see, I'm very interested in this topic, and I hope to hear more
from those working in the field for longer than me (I have been working for
2 years).
 
Sincerely,
 
Linda Dessau, MTA
North York, ON CANADA
 
-- MT-PRO Music Therapy List, mtpro@multipro.com on 09/19/1999 at 3:11:52 PM


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