Learning Experience 3: Special Olympics

Over fall break, one of my professors took a group of students to Special Olympics Fall Classic to perform health screenings.  This event attracts over 1000 individuals with special needs from all over Texas who compete in golf, aquatics, bocce, and softball.  During this event, our group from TCU measured height and weight, took blood pressure, and did bone density scans on about 120 athletes.  While I have worked with people with special needs on many occasions, this event was different in that I was there to perform health evaluations rather than assist the athletes one on one or just have fun.  This gave me a new perspective on what life is like for these families on a daily basis and furthered my insight into the healthcare field.

            Normally when I am around people with special needs I am there purely to assist with fun events.  I help with programs including summer camps, parents night out, and sporting events, which are often the highlight of these people’s month or even year.  The participants come in high spirits and are excited about what the event will hold.  Contrastingly, at this Special Olympics event we were doing things that most people consider to be particularly un-enjoyable.  We were using tools like blood pressure cuffs and bone density scanners that may look scary and are usually associated with the doctor’s office.  Many of the participants were even afraid that we were going to do something painful like give them a shot.  As someone planning to work with individuals with special needs, I found it interesting that these people were so scared of medical tools despite the fact that most of them visit doctors far more often than the average person due to their complex medical conditions.

            This made me consider how I as a future healthcare professional can help to alter my patients preconceived notions about the medical field.  As I performed bone scans throughout the day, I found that the most effective way to help these patients was simply to spend extra time with them.  If I took the time to explain why were doing the bone scan and how it worked, the participants were usually more comfortable and less afraid even though they had never seen the machine we were using before. 

Spending this extra time with patients is unfortunately not always feasible for healthcare professionals who often have completely booked schedules with limited time allotted to see each patient.  However, if physicians, therapists, nurses, and other individuals in the medical field could take even five minutes out of each appointment to slow down and explain things especially for these individuals with special needs, it may have a large impact on their experiences in hospitals and doctors’ offices in the future.  I realized during my experience at Special Olympics that patience is imperative in turning an initially scary experience into one that is informative and even enjoyable for both the athletes and their families.