Help!!! ADA Reasonable Accommodations?!

[Ranas82]

So 2 years ago, at the age of 31, I had a pretty bad cerebellular stroke. I recovered really well physically and don't think I had much mental deficit - never had any sort of cognitive therapy afterwards or anything. I returned to the medical field last September. Recently I have been struggling with a lot of mental things - recall, memory in general, mental fatigue, focus and concentration, multitasking, etc. I started a new position with an Internal Med office in May of this year where I am rooming for a doctor, and at my 90 days had the worst review of my life! They are telling me that I am not keeping up with my work, not returning calls from patients in a timely manner-putting their health at risk, and on and on it goes. Despite the fact that I have been working 2-3 hours overtime everyday, with no lunch breaks or bathroom breaks or anything, they are telling me that I need to give more, work harder. I am giving it my all. I am now doing Occupational and Speech (cognitive) therapy per my PCP, and they also want me to do some more physical therapy.

So while I am working on that I am applying for accommodations. They rejected my first application because it was "too vague" - said that I needed help with calling patients back and more time to complete tasks. Does anyone else out there get accommodations at work??? What can I ask for that is considered reasonable (other than more breaks during the day)? It is incredibly helpful when I have another person helping me and takes off some of the stress because I don't have to worry so much about the multitasking. But is that reasonable? I would say not. How else can you ask for that, without asking for that?! I really need some ideas!!!!!

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Sorry you haven't received responses yet. I'm no expert, but have worked with employees returning from FMLA & requesting accommodations. We had to describe the accommodations in a way that was specific enough for the employer to determine how it was supposed to be met. For instance, a nurse who was unable to stand for more than 20 minutes at a time requested that all of his work areas had a rolling chair readily available whenever he was there & that he would not be required to transport patients to outpatient departments (because that would take >20 minutes of walking).

If you are requesting an "assistant", it means that you are acknowledging that you are unable to do your job by yourself. This would probably be classified as unreasonable.