4- FOXcast OT: Jennifer Revolinsky On Geriatric OT

Jimmy: This is FOXcast OT, a podcast for clinician’s made by clinician’s. It’s brought to you by FOX Rehabilitation. Find out more at foxrehab.org. Welcome to FOXcast. I’m physical therapist Jimmy McKay, and today, we are talking to one of our colleagues at FOX Rehabilitation Jen Revolinski. Jen, welcome to the program.

Jen: Thank you.

Jimmy: We are recording live in person. Sometimes we do this over the internet, but today, we’re at the leadership forum for FOX Rehabilitation which happens… what? Once a year? We all get together and pop – wow?

Jen: No, once every eight weeks we try to get together.

Jimmy: I just started, coming to the FOX leadership forum.

Jen: Buckle up.

Jimmy: Jen took no time getting real comfortable on FOXcast. So Jen, what do you what do you do at FOX? What’s your role?

Jen: So I started as an occupational therapist. I still am and still treat patients. I started with FOX about eight and a half years ago. Before coming to this practice, I was working in a hospital system. I did inpatient outpatient acute care, long-term care, kind of touched on all settings, adults and pediatrics. But, what really grabbed me was the older adult population, and I interviewed with FOX and it just made sense to me to be able to work in a functional environment.

Jimmy: The world: the most functional environment.

Jen: Exactly. And what’s better doing ADLs out in that world and what’s important to your client. So yeah, I came to FOX about eight and a half years ago. I’m now in a regional director position. I  oversee a team of clinicians in the state of New Jersey in two counties. And also now,  we’re doing territory development in the Midwest.

Jimmy: What’s that mean? What’s territory development?

Jen: So we are growing our practice and bringing it to other areas of the country. We are tasked to bring events into the Midwest to the state of Wisconsin. So we started a team out there of clinician’s right now we have eight clinicians in the Milwaukee area and we’re looking to also expand that in the next couple of months.

Jimmy: Beer and cheese, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Jen: And brats!

Jimmy: Sorry. Beer, cheese, and brats! So you do a lot of meeting people who are not yet with the practice.

Jen: Yes

Jimmy: You have to try to figure how. and we’ve had on of past episodes. this thing we like to call FOX seasoning which is our culture. Yeah. How do you go about trying to figure out if that person’s right fit? And if they’re going to work well and be able to kind of operate with the culture of FOX Rehabilitation?

Jen: You know it’s interesting. You know we look for our FOX fit. I do a lot of interviews especially with territory development meeting a lot of people and a lot of different places.

Jimmy: Now is this new grads, seasoned clinician’s both?

Jen: Everything between PT, OT and Speech. It can be new grads a couple years out of school. It can be very seasoned. We really meet with everybody you know people that have had experience in house calls or doing home health. And people that have never experienced it. So we do have a nice variety of people that we we touch on.

Jimmy: So where do you start? How did you figure this out? Because you know what a FOX clinician’s like you’ve been here for eight years. How do you start that conversation?

Jen: Well it’s actually really nice we have a very supportive system from our recruitment team. So they initiate the conversation for me, get the idea of the practice and what we do out there. And then after that I get to meet with them and truly talk about what we do.

Jimmy: How would you describe the idea of the practice as someone who’s never heard of FOX before ever?

Jen: We are outpatient on wheels. You know we are servicing that older adult out in the community but we are not home health, don’t require that people are homebound status so these are people that can sometimes still be working. We may have to see them before or after they go to their jobs. But truly treating them in their functional environment which is their home and that home may include a private home. It may include a senior living community an independent living community. And then we also touch on dementia specialty as well.

Jimmy: So then what’s the next step. Once they know what the culture and FOX is like and what it’s what it’s driving towards what comes next in your role?

Jen: After a long conversation about everything that we do and I ask a lot of questions about what they’ve done and their experiences. My biggest question to a clinician is why did they become a physical therapist? Why did they become an occupational therapist? I’d like to know why they chose this profession.

Jimmy: The biggest question of all, Why. What are some of the good reasons?

Jen: A lot of times it’s very personal. You know there’s a personal connection to it and to me that always goes a long way because that’s the compassion behind what we do. We all have a reason of why we want to help people. And when you want to help somebody that means a lot. And I think that’s what drives this practice is we all want to help somebody whether it’s an older adult or we want to manage other clinicians and help them be successful. So I think that’s important too.

Jimmy: What are some of the wrong reasons that you’ve seen and said you know what, not a fit for FOX?

Jen: If you’re here just to make money I think that’s probably we don’t get a lot of that at least not to my level. But you know there are some people out there that just don’t really care necessarily about helping people but more so their own self benefit. I think that would probably be the biggest thing.

Jimmy: I tell you that the cool thing that I’ve seen and I’ve been with FOX for about six months now is that they say no alot. A lot of practices PT, OT SLP are looking to hire as many connections as possible. FOX is looking to hire the right one. So they’re OK with saying thank you very much we appreciate what you do but we don’t think you’re fit for FOX. And then they move on. Are there are a couple of things off hand that you’re looking for that you want to see there? Maybe there’s a couple of things that you’re like. Nope I definitely don’t want to see that.

Jen: I would definitely say the first thing I’m looking for his passion not only to you have passion to treat clients but his passion in life in general that’s the biggest thing honestly. Being personable being able to have a conversation that you know everybody’s nervous at an interview. But if you can get them to open up a little bit.

Jimmy: Be human.

Jen: Exactly.

Jimmy: You have that conversation. I was taught early in my career that you can’t teach passion or personality. Can’t teach either of those things. The effort thing that’s either there or it isn’t in the personality thing that’s either there or it isn’t. Being comfortable doing those two things shine. Like you said being nervous and that’s understandable but you can usually see through. Is it nervous energy. What else are you looking for?

Jen: I think just be a good communicator. In this job as a clinician or any leadership position you really have to be able to communicate with a variety of people. You know we get a variety of clients a variety of family members that we have to deal with which is in any setting. So you really have to be able to kind of change who you are and what you’re talking about with them and you know kind of be moldable.

Jimmy: Radio segue. I wrote a great blog article on foxrehab.org. Just click on fresh FOX content. And the title was communication is currency. Since I have a communications background and then became a physical therapist. I hone in on those things where being able to communicate. Yeah we go to school for a long time to learn all these things and we’re lifelong learners. We get continuing education. If it’s in your head and doesn’t come out, it doesn’t do any good. And how do you get that out in a way that the person listening to you is going to be able to, I say digest it. Are they good people to understand it? Will they be able to use that information? What are some stories. What are some fun memories of patients. I always ask for call them FOX tales. What’s a memory with a client you remember fondly.

Jen: One of my favorites was a 96 year old Italian woman that loved to cook made her own homemade pasta sauces, gravy. And she was very depressed because she couldn’t do with any. She was living in her own home. But she did have an aide that came in to help her. She couldn’t go to the food store anymore, she couldn’t make her own meals she would have meals on wheels come in and bring her things or someone help her prepare. After working with her for a few months I said well there’s really no reason you can’t do this. So I said well maybe not making pasta we could sit and try and do it. So what we did was we worked with her daughter and the home health aides that she had. We had a late session and we prepped dinner and it was her daughter’s birthday. So we had her come and she surprised her with a homemade meal that she had made for her. So that probably one of my favorites.

Jimmy: If that doesn’t give you a little bit of the feels, right here. Deep down you shouldn’t be an OT. That doesn’t touch you right there. We use the word functional, I always use the word real, that was very real. Yes that meant something to it meant a lot to her. Take that thing that she couldn’t do anymore. Away from her. And that’s sad.

Jen: It’s a joy. It’s the whole mission of making people believe in doing what they thought impossible. And truly having them achieve that is what’s so amazing about working for this practice.

Jimmy: Yeah when you read that you know a lot of companies have mission statements and mantra’s and that’s that’s part of one of the one of the things that’s kind of woven into the fabric here at FOX is. Getting people to do what they once thought impossible. Especially if it’s one of those things that they used to do and they now said I guess I’m just never going to do that anymore and you give that back and it’s got to feel amazing.

Jen: And that was their passion. You know that was her passion. She was a stay at home mom. That was what she did. You know from when she was little that’s what her mother did in her mother. So that’s what all she knew. So to have that taken away was really you know sad for her and for her to be able to do it again was pretty amazing.

Jimmy: Yeah. Also sad is that everybody was OK with it. Right. Some of her other healthcare providers were well you’re old I guess she just can’t do that anymore.

Jen: No they wrote it off.

Jimmy: And that’s the thing that really drives FOX is, that’s not acceptable. Aging is great. Doesn’t mean you you should be able to do less. And we know this is science not just Jimmy thinks or Jen feels this is science knows that if we work you, you can get back to doing those things and that story is a great example. If I were to say sum FOX Rehabilitation up in one word, what would the word be proactive.

Jimmy: You’re about to say a second word. OK fine, two words go.

Jen: Proactive and passionate cause passionate can really touch on anything. Sure.

Jimmy: If someone were thinking about working for FOX Rehabilitation maybe you bumped into somebody and you found that they were Peetie or naughty or nice Selbie and they said you know I’ve heard of FOX I’ve seen the orange around a conference. What would you tell them about coming to work here?

Jen: Do you want to work in a great environment with great people and doing the things that you love and truly be able to treat the way that you want to?

Jimmy: Uhhh, Yeah.

Jen: What’s what we do.

Jimmy: Jen, appreciate your time coming on FOXcast. We appreciate it. Thank you.

Jimmy: Thanks for listening to FOXcast OT, a clinically excellent podcast. It’s brought to you by FOX Rehabilitation. Listen to other episodes or read articles and position papers at foxehab.org.