Kelsi, I am so glad you had such a great experience! I have a level 2 fieldwork at a hand clinic so I would love to hear more about your experience to better prepare myself. It must have been really helpful to have had a splinting lab before seeing a bunch of splinting on your fieldwork. I feel like when hand therapy is discussed in class, professors often say that it can be easy to lose the occupation based/client centered aspect, so it is so great that your supervisors were able to make that part of their practice strong. Have a great summer break!!
Kelsi, I'm glad you had such a great experience. It is great that the practitioners you were with used occupation-based interventions and were evidence-based. I am sure you learned so much and got so much out of that experience. I am also looking forward to being at a facility for a longer period of time and getting able to treat clients and use everything we've learned!
For this neuro note I wanted to learn a little more about muscular dystrophy because I do not know much about this neuromuscular disease. In my observations prior to starting school I saw a client in the advanced stages of muscular dystrophy, and my heart was broken at the impact this condition can have on children and young adults. I watched a film called The Fundamentals of Caring which is about a teenage boy named Trevor who was diagnosed Duchenne muscular dystrophy when he was three years old. The movie tells the story of him and his caregiver, Ben, who are struggling with the circumstances life has given them both. Trevor lives his life in fear and constantly has panic attacks that something will go wrong with his health. He does not leave the house except to go to the park one day a week, and he spends his days watching television and eating waffles afraid to leave his house due to his disability. Trevor is 18 years old ...
I thoroughly enjoyed making glyphs and comparing the glyph I drew at the beginning of occupational therapy school with the one I drew towards the end of our didactic education. Overall many characteristics of what I think defines a leader have not changed. I still believe that leadership stems predominantly from nurture over nature. I believe people can be equipped and trained to be leaders, and they are not necessarily born leaders. I still believe that all OTs are leaders as well. Occupational therapists lead their clients, occupational therapy assistants and technicians, and can be managers and hold leadership positions within their practice settings. The only aspect of my glyph that has changed over the course of OT school is my most recent glyph has a hat indicating that my approach to leadership has changed since the start of OT school. While the foundational aspects of what I believe defines a leader have not ...
Observing other occupational therapists and being able to watch them treat clients in various settings was a major confirmation to me that I wanted to be an occupational therapist. I loved watching OTs practice and use occupation as a means and an end in their treatment and tailor their sessions to fit the occupational profile of their clients. Now that I am in OT school, I am able to reflect on many of the things I saw during my observations and am able to understand some of the theories and processes behind their treatments and interventions. I spent a significant time observing in an outpatient pediatric clinic and thoroughly enjoyed learning and being in this setting. As I have progressed through OT school so far I realize that there are some gray areas in what I saw. One of our main focuses in OT school so far has been focused on becoming evidence-based practitioners. We want all of our interventions to be based on research and the current best...
Kelsi,
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you had such a great experience! I have a level 2 fieldwork at a hand clinic so I would love to hear more about your experience to better prepare myself. It must have been really helpful to have had a splinting lab before seeing a bunch of splinting on your fieldwork. I feel like when hand therapy is discussed in class, professors often say that it can be easy to lose the occupation based/client centered aspect, so it is so great that your supervisors were able to make that part of their practice strong. Have a great summer break!!
Kelsi,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you had such a great experience. It is great that the practitioners you were with used occupation-based interventions and were evidence-based. I am sure you learned so much and got so much out of that experience. I am also looking forward to being at a facility for a longer period of time and getting able to treat clients and use everything we've learned!