Student Blog

The Magic Garden ⟩
October 26, 2015, by Jodie

Fieldwork What are OS/OT?

This semester I am in the mental health immersion and my level I fieldwork site, Century Villages at Cabrillo (CVC), is a nonprofit community development organization that delivers supportive services which aim to empower residents, restore health and inspire hope. CVC creates the physical and social conditions where collaborating programs can succeed to break the cycle of homelessness.

At CVC, I help facilitate three groups: walking group, cooking group and garden/arts and crafts group. My favorite thing about this fieldwork site is that I have the opportunity to interact with residents while at the same time, participate in some of my most meaningful occupations. (OT for everyone!) My favorite group that I participate in is the arts and crafts group that takes place in the “Magic Garden” on campus. Residents from all different programs come together to work on different art projects and I always enjoy having the opportunity to learn more about each resident while working on the craft activities in the serene garden.

Many residents on site are veterans and one in particular, who I have had the wonderful opportunity of getting to know more during the arts and crafts group, is a talented artist named Kevin. Kevin served in the military about 20 years ago however, has always had an interest in art, especially painting. While at CVC, Kevin continues to engage in his meaningful occupation and enjoys teaching fellow residents painting techniques, as well as showing off his artwork for everyone to admire. Kevin gave me permission to share some of his artwork with all of you in this blog so I hope you enjoy!

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Assessing Cognition While COOKING! ⟩
October 24, 2015, by Rashelle

Classes What are OS/OT?

This week, in the Primary Care Elective class, we learned how to assess somebody’s cognitive abilities, by analyzing their performance in the kitchen! To begin, we looked at the Kitchen Task Assessment, which requires a patient to prepare pudding by following the directions of a commercial package. I was able to role play as the patient in front of the class, as another student pretended to be my therapist. Due to my limited knowledge in cooking and safety awareness, I fulfilled the perfect role of a patient needing cognitive support during a functional task of daily living.

The picture below displays the score I got on the Kitchen Task Assessment.

As you can see, I required assistance from my therapist both in verbal cues and physical assistance. Jen, the practicing therapist, needed to give me verbal reminders of when to add in the pudding mix to the boiling water, how many cups were needed to pour the finished pudding into, and when the task had come to a complete end. I required slight physical assistance when Jen held one of the cups for me to pour the pudding into, and when I attempted to pour the boiling hot pudding mix into the cups on the counter, in an unsafe manner. PHEW. Was it a relief when I finished!

Every step of the pudding-making process we, as a class, discussed possible scenarios that we may encounter when working with a patient that may have an actual cognitive impairment (e.g., when diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or a traumatic brain injury). After role-playing this encounter, I can better empathize with my future patients, whom may face confusion, agitation, disappointment, apprehension or timidness while performing this task. I am excited to also be able to problem-solve with these patients on how they can change their approach to the task, to be able to cook as independently as possible, in a safe and effective manner.

Here, two other students, Kellyn Trummer and Renée Boivin, are demonstrating the Kettle Test — a cognitive functional screening test that requires a patient to prepare two cups of hot beverages. Similarly to the Kitchen Task Assessment, every component of the task is scored on the patient’s level of independence, which the therapist then will use to determine the amount of assistance the patient will need tp perform a functional task. For instance, the Kettle Test analyzes a person’s ability to prepare the hot water, assemble the kettle and add all of the ingredients together despite having visual distractions.

Overall, this lesson was a great opportunity to improve our clinical reasoning skills, and to practice assessments that an occupational therapist may use in the future!

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Fieldwork Week: Pediatrics! ⟩
October 17, 2015, by Joe

Fieldwork

For our Level 1 Fieldwork experience, we spend one day a week for 10 weeks at one clinical site to practice some of the skills we learn in class. In the middle of the semester, which is the point we’re in now, we also spend one full week at our fieldwork site to get a better sense of what it would be like to practice in this type of setting on a “full-time schedule.” As I mentioned last week, I am in the Pediatrics immersion this semester; my fieldwork site is a private outpatient clinic for children with autism.

During this clinical week, I was able to work with one of the boys, “Landon” (not his real name), to target fine motor development, and in order to get him interested in treatment, I had to find ways to make it fun and playful!

So here is my “super fancy, high-tech, top-of-the-line” fine motor tool:

Landon really loved playing with this little green dude. Using a simple toy like a tennis ball, we were able to work on:

We also worked on:

Landon really had a great time playing with Penn, one of the aides had to interrupt us to get him to the next session. One of the best parts of this fieldwork experience has been playing with the kids and finding fun new ways to provide treatment through games and toys. The children seem to love it, and it’s fun for us too!

Fieldwork week is over! Time to go back to class . . .

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The Fault in Our Stars Creates the Perfect Alignment of Health Care Collaboration ⟩
October 15, 2015, by Rashelle

Getting Involved What are OS/OT?

As mentioned in my post before, one of the most unique things about USC is the opportunity to learn from an interdisciplinary team. This week I went to a movie screening of The Fault in Our Stars at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. After the movie viewing there was an interdisciplinary panel led by the Norris Medical Library, consisting of a Medical Doctor (MD), Registered Nurse (RN), Physical Therapist (PT) and Occupational Therapist (OT), whom all have had experience working with adolescent and young adults (AYA) diagnosed with cancer.

These health professionals answered questions regarding the movie, shared myth busters, elaborated upon roles of the hospital staff in the movie, and described the lessons they’ve learned from their firsthand experiences working with this population. The USC faculty and staff also spoke about the differences in treatment approaches when working with AYA, in comparison to children or older adults. This section of the discussion hit home for me in particular, due to my passion for working with AYA in their difficult transitions acquiring new roles and forming individual identities. While the movie itself turned on a faucet of emotions and tears, the panel afterward taught me how to cope with the emotional hardships that may come with working so closely with AYA diagnosed with cancer. This heartwarming, encouraging and uplifting event demonstrated the capcity of each profession to distinctively contribute to the alignment of the stars, in order to facilitate the greatest recovery for all patients.

Here is a picture of a few occupational therapy students surrounding Dr. Caryn Roach, the occupational therapy representative in the panel. How occupational therapists contribute in particular to this health care team, is by ensuring that each patient is able to participate, to their fullest capacity, in activities that are meaningful to them — may it be reading a book, feeding themselves, showering independently, socializing with their friends or traveling to Amsterdam with a significant other to meet one’s favorite author, Van Houten — occupational therapists find the supports, educate patients on adaptive devices, implement energy conservation techniques, strengthen muscles and increase ranges of motion to provide a greater range of accessibiility and quality of life for the patient.

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There’s No Health Without Mental Health ⟩
October 9, 2015, by Jodie

Community Getting Involved

On Saturday, October 3rd, I participated in the 2015 NAMIWalks LA with a bunch of my classmates as “Team Occupational Therapy,” led by one of our clinical faculty members, Dr. Delgado! NAMI stands for the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the overall purpose of NAMI is to change how Americans view persons with metal illness. NAMI is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness.

All of the attendees met at Grand Park early in the morning for a pre-walk celebration and then we began our walk around Downtown Los Angeles to raise public awareness of mental illness and to display our support for people affected by mental illness. This was a very fun, 5k walk that took about 2 hours to complete. As I am currently in the Mental Health immersion in the program, this walk was very meaningful to me because I have the opportunity to work very closely with persons affected by mental illness at my Level I fieldwork site at Century Villages at Cabrillo. I am very committed to supporting NAMI in educating, advocating and increasing public awareness of how important mental health is. As a team, I am so happy to announce that we were able to raise over $2,000 in support of NAMI.

If you would like to learn more about NAMI, or to find out about more local NAMI events going on near you, check out their website at nami.org.

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