Recently, I asked my readers if they ever felt like the procedures, rules, and other “administrative red tape” at their facilities got in the way of providing quality services.
A lot of people felt like people without expertise in communication had more influence than they should…
Or that the SLPs didn’t have enough say in how caseloads should be assigned or how many clients were on your caseload, or how you billed for services…
Others were frustrated with all the silly administrative work that took time away from serving clients and added unnecessary work to your plate.
A lot of things people shared reminded me of something my first supervisor told me in one of my first placements:
“This job is about 50% providing therapy and the rest is about doing paperwork.”
I won’t lie; I struggled when I first started.
Since I wasn’t 100% comfortable with the rules and regulations myself, I was afraid to challenge anything my higher-ups told me regarding what procedures and paperwork I “had” to do to stay compliant.
That’s why the first few years I was practicing, I decided to educate myself and learn EXACTLY what the laws said, so I knew when I could stand my ground and challenge how procedures were done in my facility.
The more knowledge I had, the more comfortable I became.
And the more I spoke up when I knew a better, more efficient way of handling routine admin like reports, IEP meetings, and documentation…
Which meant that over time, people started to see me as a “go-to” resource for IEP preparation (and at the same time, I was able to drastically cut back on routine paperwork time).
But none of that would have been possible if I hadn’t decided to challenge the status quo on more than one occasion.
In the video below I did, I shared the details of one scenario where I “broke the rules” my administrator gave me about scheduling IEP meetings and completing paperwork…
I share how challenging this procedure actually improved communication with parents prior to IEP meetings (so everyone was on the same page BEFORE the meeting even started)…
I also talked about how it cut back on the time it took the entire IEP team to prepare for meetings (including the administrator who made the rules in the first place).
In this video, I share:
..How I developed the confidence to be able to stand up for myself (and my clients).
…Why advocating for my clients and their parents resulted in LESS work for everyone involved.
…How streamlining our scheduling process actually made our IEP meetings go more smoothly.
…Questions you can ask yourself to help you determine if you should challenge what your supervisor is telling you to do.
You can listen to the entire video here to learn more:
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