Accomodations

[Colorwind]

Hello, I am an internal medicine resident with ADHD, and recently, as a pilot program my university started to offer ADHD accommodations. I applied, and now they want to provide me with ADHD accommodations as a "prototype".

Now that "the sky is the limit" (they even offered to send cleaners from the city municipality to put my house in order) I don't know what to ask for.

Seriously, is there any other medical doctors out there with ADHD who got accommodations?

All I want (personally) is to have a quiet place to do all the "secretarial work" that we are supposed to do, a special hour or 90 minutes after the rounds, that noone would disturb me so that I can finish my work.

Any other recommendations?

[ADDexecutive]

Not a physician, but I'm a senior healthcare executive with ADD and many physician family members, so here are some ideas:

1. Definitely ask for that quiet place where people know not to disturb you in general

2. Ask for or just buy earmuff-style, noise-canceling headphones (e.g. Bose Quiet Comfort) and make a playlist of fast-music with no words.
- Even without music, the headphones will provide quiet and keep people away by making you look anti-social in an appropriate fashion.

3. Consider asking them to have some low-level admin person check up on you every 20-30 minutes to make sure you are on track and not distracted during your "secretary work". If you appear distracted, they should interrupt.
- a low-level person is ideal because you don't want to feel embarrassed in front of someone important every time they "catch" you off-task.

4. Ask if they can help coordinate a "study buddy", someone else who will do their own paperwork at the same time as you. It will help you with the typical ADD issue of having trouble initiating a boring task and put peer pressure for you to stay on task

5. Ask if they will cover sessions with an ADD coach and/or an organizational coach

6. If you use an electronic medical record (EMR) system with one of the more onerous regulation-driven interfaces, you might find it difficult to split your attention properly between the system and your patient when taking a history or conducting an exam.
- If so, consider asking the university for a scribe.
- Alternatively, if the EMR form helps give you structure during a history and help you remember to be complete, ask the university to fund an iPad or tablet PC you could take into the room with you

7. Ask if they would cover a certain number of hours a week of a virtual personal assistant who could help keep you organized, manage a shared calendar and todo list with nag calls

8. Many ADDers are more effective at night. If that's you, ask them for more flexibility in the timing of your shifts to be when you are at your best.

9. Get a promise of sufficient predictability or advance notice of work schedule so you can properly time your meds and not end up with med-induced insomnia during the few hours they give you to sleep.

Good luck!