my career as a writer

Did you know that an occupational therapist's job consists of soooo much typing?!  SO MUCH.  And as it happens I have a full caseload right now, which is about 12 patients worth of notes.  For each individual patient, my documentation includes one really long evaluation, then 3 to 5 "short" notes per patient each week detailing what they did that session, plus two "long" notes per patient each month to give an overview of each patient's progress since the last "long" note, and then a discharge summary.  On top of that, for each of those "long" notes we have to write a paragraph summary regarding their overall progress in terms of a percentage out of 100%.  It's absolutely ridiculous.

Paper-writing used to be my least favorite assignment in school.  I'd much rather do a group project, portfolio, or give presentations all day long than sit down and write a paper.  HA- Now my JOB is to write papers!  I wonder how long of a paper I would write if I copy and pasted everything I typed in a single day into a word document, then set it at 12 point Times New Roman... my guess is about 10 double spaced pages.  No lie!

Out of all of this writing, about 50% of it is typing on a tiny iPod touch device that we therapists use to recap each patient treatment.  It's like sending a bunch of really long iMessages, except on a smaller and much less sensitive touchscreen... and much more frustrating.  And no emojis.  Everything else I type (the "long" notes) is on the computer, but it is extremely daunting and non-user friendly.  We also have four therapists sharing two computers. We're expected to do as much documentation as we can with the patient present, so that we can educate them about their progress and collaborate with the patient when making their goals or deciding how much therapy they will need, etc.  But-- there is simply SO much typing to be done, that I just feel RUDE when I've run out of things to talk to the patient about, and then I realize in my head that I just can't focus on what I'm typing at the same time I'm talking to somebody... too much multitasking!  (Side note: I'm a FAST typer, so that's not even the issue!  Thank you AIM!)

At the end of the day... My fingers are just SO tired.  One day I will need occupational therapy to rehab my hands due to overuse injury.  And now that it's getting cooler outside (read: 60s), my internal body temperature just gets a little lower and my hands feel cold all the time.  My poor pre-arthritic fingers. :(