Janice Hulme<\/a>, clinical professor of physical therapy and an event organizer. In recent years, it has expanded to include other disciplines, giving the students a chance to work closely with peers in other health fields.<\/p>\nThe team aims to conduct an overall health check \u2014 physical and mental \u2014 on each client. Nutrition students consult with clients on the healthiest diets for them; communicative disorders students work on any communication issues, if any; and psychology and human development and family studies students check in on their mental health and family life, among other check-ups.<\/p>\n
Pharmacy student Alicia Ademi went over the medications Daureen takes to manage her diabetes and the pain of arthritis. She asked the client about her adherence to the medication schedule and any side effects she had experienced. She explained alternatives to medication, including therapeutic supplements like CBD cream for her arthritis, but given Daureen\u2019s satisfaction with her medication schedule, they agreed to should stay with her current plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor physical therapy, we\u2019re looking to see where they are with their fall risk, look at their medical history \u2013 maybe there\u2019s some medication they are on that puts them at risk of a fall,\u201d Ahern said, noting the group scheduled a follow-up program with URI\u2019s Physical Therapy Clinic for Daureen. \u201cWhat are their activities and exercises? Are they generally an active, healthy person? Are they hearing right? Are they able to see properly? Are there any interventions that we could recommend or education we can provide them to help them if they are at risk? We\u2019re learning how to express questions to them and how to get a good history and ask the right questions for their evaluation.\u201d<\/p>\n
That education for students is as much a part of the program as is the wellness check for the senior volunteers. The students learn from their clients and from each other while providing a benefit to the clients.<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned a lot about what the other majors did. For instance, the HDF student asked a lot of personal questions about depression and social aspects of life,\u201d Ahern said. \u201cI feel like sometimes as a PT student, I know we should ask those questions, but that topic can be more uncomfortable to discuss. So it was really nice to see how well and how fluent she was with asking those personal questions, so it gave me good insight for the future. This is something I\u2019m happy I had the opportunity to do; it\u2019s so unique to be able to work with the different health practitioners. It\u2019s good practice for our future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Handling the complications imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic adds another layer of education for the students and clients, who have all gotten a lesson in telehealth and Zoom appointments.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been really challenging with COVID just doing this all remotely, so I\u2019ve really enhanced my communication skills being able to work as a team when we can\u2019t physically see each other,\u201d Ahern said. \u201cAnd we need to work with a patient when we\u2019re not physically there to pick up on some cues or be there to support them. So that added another whole layer that made it kind of challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n
The students have been able to power through the challenges, Hulme said, and continue to provide important advice to their senior clients. The challenges have actually presented opportunities to learn, both for the students and the clients.<\/p>\n
\u201cDelivering the program virtually actually improved the team aspect and prepared students for the challenges of telehealth,\u201d Hulme said. \u201cThe program was very successful, and there was one unanticipated benefit that came with the changes. Because of the additional number of visits, seniors learning Zoom, and doing the ‘visits’ while the seniors were at home, many groups formed bonds in ways we did not expect.\u201d <\/p>\n
The students have formed bonds with each other and their clients.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy senior has given me so much great information from her own life, like telling me she walks backwards down stairs because it puts less pressure on her knees,\u201d Ahern said. \u201cJust by having a conversation with her I\u2019m getting ideas of things I can suggest to patients in the future. The seniors realize it\u2019s for our educational purposes and our practice, and I think they enjoy being able to be teachers with us and communicate with us. It\u2019s a really unique opportunity to be able to talk to someone different.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Annual Senior Day moves online due to ongoing pandemic An older adult named Daureen told of the difficulties she has with otherwise simple tasks like cooking because of the arthritis in her hands. She detailed the medicines she takes, expressed concerns about falling, scheduled follow-up physical therapy appointments, and even got a quick mental health […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1710,"featured_media":44783,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1710"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44786,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44780\/revisions\/44786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}