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Days 1-30: Learn the System

Module 18: Your First 90 Days as a Rehabilitation Specialist · Lesson 1 of 3

12 min Back to module

Story opener

Thursday, 4:40 p.m. A participant is sitting across from you, your supervisor wants three notes before you leave, and the answer you need is not in any binder on the shelf. This lesson is the part of the job nobody handed you in orientation.

Learning objectives

  • Be able to read three excellent charts as a template
  • Be able to build tickler, documentation block, and competency log in week one

Lesson

Absorb before you optimize.

Read your program manual, the current provider manual, and three excellent charts. Shadow two experienced specialists and one group. Meet the billing and compliance staff by name; they will save you repeatedly.

Set up your systems now: tickler for authorizations and reviews, documentation block, car kit, and a competency log.

Maryland guidance & authority labels

Every statement below is labeled so you know what is binding regulation, what is only proposed, what is professional guidance, and what is our house standard.

  • Internal best practice

    Days 1–30 learn the systems, 31–60 own the caseload, 61–90 measure yourself. Put dates on it.

  • PRA guidance

    Start your CPRP competency hour log on day one; reconstructing it later is far harder than keeping it.

Common mistakes

  • Describing what you did without describing what the participant did.

    Do this instead — Record the intervention and the participant's observable response to it.

  • Treating regulation as a filing chore separate from practice.

    Do this instead — Let the required elements shape the session itself, so documentation writes itself.

Practical examples

Practical example

Instead of 'met with participant to discuss goals,' write: 'Reviewed the transportation objective; participant identified the #22 route unassisted and named one back-up plan. Verbal prompt needed once. Next session: practice the transfer at Mondawmin.'

Key takeaways

  • Read three excellent charts as a template
  • Build tickler, documentation block, and competency log in week one

Reflection prompts

  1. 1Which part of this lesson describes something you are already doing differently in practice?
  2. 2What would an auditor see in your last five notes that contradicts this standard?

Bring your answers to supervision — the case-study workspace in this module saves written notes to your account.

Knowledge check

4 questions drawn from a bank of 7 · 75% to pass · instant feedback on every answer

1. A colleague does this: Treating regulation as a filing chore separate from practice. What should they do instead?

2. A colleague does this: Describing what you did without describing what the participant did. What should they do instead?

3. The highest-value first-week activity is:

4. How should you treat this statement? "Days 1–30 learn the systems, 31–60 own the caseload, 61–90 measure yourself. Put dates on it."