TME Tuesday: My Continuing Experiment

I have been through some interesting experiences over the past two weeks, but I am trying to see if what I am asking my interns to do is too much. I sat down and calculated the amount of time that my interns spend in direct leadership, in observation, and how much time I am expecting for them to use in session documentation. 

In their 42.5 hour work week, they are leading 9 hours of sessions. They are observing another 6 hours of sessions. I anticipate about 40 minutes per group for documentation so, the amount of time for documentation varies from day to day but should take no longer than 6 hours per week for documentation (that is lots of time for documentation, but it still adds up to just over half the time at the facility per week for direct clients services). That leaves 21.5 hours. We have one hour per week for consultation and about 2 hours per week for meetings - taking us down to 18.5 hours left for practicing and assignments. To me, that seems to be lots of time to get things done, but I guess it is not. When I multiply the number of weeks that interns are with me (24-25 weeks) by 18.5, I get 451 hours spent in office hours. 

I ask my interns to do five assignments during their internships. If I take the number of hours left over (451 hours) and divide that by the number of assignments, then we have about 90 hours per assignment, but I forget that interns also have to figure out what to do with clients and practice their repertoire. So, let's figure that half of that remaining time is spent in practice and repertoire building (which is part of one of the five assignments, by the way). That leaves 225.5 hours for projects which means that there are 45 hours to work on each of the five projects. The biggest project (the one that includes writing down plans for what to do with clients) will take more time, but the others should take less time. [Goblin!]

All of this discussion just to get you to my current experiment - writing therapeutic music experience (TME) plans at a rate of 5 per week. I am tracking how long it takes me to do the TMEs that I am adding to my database and seeing if I can achieve the goal. To be completely honest, in the past two weeks, I have been able to finish four each week - four are completely new and include original songs, and four use the music of someone else. I have one where the music is finished but not transcribed, so I consider that a half TME. It has taken me about an hour and a half per week to get these 8 TMEs finished.

Now, I am practiced at writing things my way, so I don't figure that interns will be able to do 4 TMEs in 90 minutes per week. I calculate that they would take a minimum of 4 hours per week to get their 5 TMEs finished. That assignment is finished after the fourth month, so they have 64 hours to complete 75 TMEs. That gives them 51 minutes per TME.

Okay, more about the assignment itself. They have to transfer 75 ideas from whatever format they have used in the past to my format - 25 have to be original melodies with simple accompaniment. The other 50 can come from any source (including my database, but no one ever asks). When they ask me for a TME, they have to change the source reference and the name at the top of the TME and that is all they have to do in order to put it in their own databases. That does not take 51 minutes to do, so that time can go towards some of the new ideas that come up. I have explicitly stated, several times, in the internship handbook that all they have to do is ask (except during the first weeks when I want them to demonstrate their ability to complete musical dictation) for the resources that are available to them. Again, no one EVER does! I have TONS of resources, but they don't even think that it is possible!

So, 64 hours to gather 50 ideas and create 25 original TMEs for use in sessions. I don't even require that the TMEs be applicable to our population - these ideas can be designed for any music therapy population at all! I just want them to have a compendium of TMEs that they can take with them when they move to their next music therapy experience.

I have decided to continue the assignments that I ask my interns to do. 85% of my interns have had little to no problem finishing the assignments on time. The remaining 15% have had difficulties with deadlines. I do not want to get rid of any of the assignments because I think they are all important. I will do some more explicit teaching about time management and how to use our time while at work. We will start this discussion from the very beginning of the intern's time at the facility, and we will revisit this conversation over and over again. This seems to be something that is no longer taught in university programs but needs to be taught if music therapists want to be employed!

Is this part of the high rate of music therapist attrition? Inability to complete job expectations on time and with good attention to detail? If so that is something that needs to be expressed better to students. (OPINION!)

That's all I have time for today.