Rebecca Locey Summer Internship

Welcome peers, mentor, and instructor to my Summer Internship blog! My name is Rebecca Locey. I am currently a senior in the Therapeutic Recreation major at Longwood University with a minor in psychology. The most important experience I had to prepare me for this internship was when I volunteered at Centra Pace and I got to see first hand how often you may come across a resident who isn’t interested or is hesitant to join in and interact with others in different programs and activities. It was awesome to see how well the CTRS, and myself, after observing could easily spark up a conversation about the activity or something they enjoyed and be able to convince them to give the activity a try, because the involvement in the activity let a spark show through in the individual, which made my day. This skill also prepared me to be able to handle a situation that may arise like the one mentioned above at my internship and I would be knowledgeable enough to know how to go about it. The second most important experience I had that prepared me for this internship is when I was volunteering at McGuire Hospital in Richmond with Curtis. I was observing him and his intern he had at the time, which made the experience much more of a learning experience because I got to fully see what an intern would do there and how they go about doing them. This was also important because I got to observe but also help the intern write a progress note for a client after a session which really gave me a grasp of documentation and how it is written. One skill I hope to gain from this internship is a better routine or schedule for documentation and helpful tips on the best times to get it done so as a RT I won’t be behind in that category. The second skill I hope to gain from this internship is some tips on how to better implement an activity or some pointers on what I can do differently to make the implementation successful so the clients get the true meaning out of it. One area of interest I have in the field of TR is long term care with older adults and a second area of interest would be older adults in a community setting like where they come for just the day and return home in the evening. The reason I have a strong desire to work with older adults is because my great granny was in an assisted living facility for awhile before she passed and I know first hand she did not have a recreational therapist there to engage them in activities so with this job I would be able to advocate and present research as to why having this kind of program in these facilities is beneficial to older adults and their health as well.