Student Blog
Experiencing a new area of practice ⟩
January 30, 2011, by Austen
There are several OT practice areas I still have yet to experience. These include school-based pediatrics, mental health, and geriatrics. One great thing about the USC OT program is there is an option to do an independent study course in the second year as an elective. You can design your own objectives and choose a setting of interest. Since I have always wondered about school-based pediatrics, I chose to do an independent study in a school setting to get an idea of what occupational therapy looks like there. I created the objectives I wanted to complete and found a school-based occupational therapist to observe for 4 hours a week.
Now, every Thursday morning I head down to Grand View Elementary in Manhattan Beach. The first day I set foot on the beautiful school campus I fell in love with it! It is a large elementary school, with lots of buildings, gardens, walkways, playgrounds, and grassy areas. There are 3 small rooms set aside for speech therapy, physical therapy, and occupational therapy. The OT room has a mat, swing, squeeze machine, games, arts and crafts materials, toys, a computer, and table and chairs. It has the full setup with plenty of resources. I was really impressed!
The occupational therapist I am observing is also amazing. She has so much energy, treats the students as equals, radiates a positive attitude, and is a great teacher. She strives to make OT fun for the kids, occupation based, and relevant to their participation in school activities. I really like the interventions used in school based therapy, including activities that help improve fine motor skills, bilateral coordination, attention, etc.
The other thing I found I really like about school based OT is the environment is really fun. The kids are social and happy, they are around their peers, and there are a lot of other professionals (teachers, administrators, instructors, etc) to consult with. It is a very supportive environment for both the children and the school staff, making it an enjoyable place to be in. I can definitely see myself working in school based OT. I am aware of the downsides, such as large case loads, limited therapy time, and traveling between schools. But I find the job’s perks to outweigh the disadvantages. Maybe I have found a new aspiration?
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Working My Way to a Healthier Routine ⟩
January 30, 2011, by Carissa
Life Hacks School/Life Balance
Recently, I have been reflecting on how I can create a healthier lifestyle for myself. I realized that in order to create an exercise routine, I must take my aversion to the gym into consideration. I have tried to deal with it by going with a friend or bringing fun, energizing music. However, I always end up finding excuses not to go. It is a 20 minute walk from my apartment, and by the time I get there, my energy is already depleted, and I’m already thinking about going home. So this past week, rather than push the gym on myself any more, I bought myself exercise DVDs. With them, I don’t have to go anywhere to exercise. I have the privacy of my apartment. No energy is expended on picking out clothes to wear. I can jump in the shower as soon as I’m done. It is pretty amazing, as I was able to wake up early Saturday morning, complete the video, and have the time and energy to run errands and be productive the rest of the day. I feel like I can be much more successful with this routine than trying to include the gym in my day. Week 1 towards increased health. 😊 Also, regarding the creation of a healthier routine, I realized that I finished some homework early (accidentally). It feels good to not procrastinate, even though it was not really intentional. I need to try that more often.
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Just a minute to listen . . . ⟩
January 25, 2011, by Yao
Sometimes the best therapy is to have someone listen to you.
I’ve always appreciated when friends took the time to listen to me but I was lucky enough this past Friday to really observe this in practice during my OT 500 University Hospital observation elective. It’s hard sometimes to remember that although our goal as occupational therapists in the hospital is to return the patients to functional ability in ADLs and make sure that they are equipped with the best tools to help them engage fully in their life after hospitalization, that sometimes in order to best serve our patients we need to listen to them first.
It was my second day of rotations and the plan was to see about 4-5 patients within the 4 hours that I was observing. I realized how hard it was to balance what the patient needed physically and what the patient might need mentally as well as the need to be flexible. The latter is a definite requirement in Occupational Therapy and even more pertinent when working in a hospital setting. The first two patients had gone according to schedule and the OT I was shadowing was able to balance rapport building and physical engagement in the session. Then it was time for our third patient. It was the first time this particular patient was in a hospital that had health professionals talk to him as a peer. Rather than a “I’m the Medical Professional and you’re the patient and you will listen and do everything that I say without a question” interaction. We started with our typical introductions and a brief summary of our jobs as Occupational Therapists and what role we would play in his recovery. At the beginning of the session he had mentioned that he was suffering from an immense amount of pain and he wasn’t sure what he was able to do and would possibly prefer to engage in bedside exercises. Then, it seemed out of the blue he brought up information that he had heard about upcoming Occupational Therapy research and how he was fascinated by the strides we were making in areas such as Autism. This began a deep conversation about not only Occupational Therapy but every now and again we were able to get a little bit about his background, The background information helped us piece together his occupational history as well as fun interesting facts that we may be able to later incorporate into his therapy sessions.
Then without skipping a beat the therapist I was observing mentioned the possibility of taking a few laps around the floor because it seemed as if he was ready and able to. Without hesitation the patient started getting up out of his bed and continued to conversation. As we were walking and talking about various subjects in the medical field one lap became two and two became three and finally we had to migrate back to his room in order for him to get to his lunch tray in time. While we were wrapping up the patient said “Thanks, I needed that.”
The time spent with him allowed us to help put him at ease with his hospital visits by reminding him of his knowledge of current medical research but also taught us a lot about him and how he was perceiving this hospitalization. It especially gave us insight on how to best tailor his occupational therapy sessions so that he would get the most out of them with his particular goals in mind. I know it seems simple but sometimes I feel that people get so caught up that the importance of just listening is no longer a priority due to the increasing demands of time and billing placed on all medical professionals.
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Undecided and Excited! ⟩
January 23, 2011, by Austen
Beginnings and Endings What are OS/OT?
Here we are entering the third week of our last semester, and let me tell you, time has flown by! The end is in sight and the real world is fast approaching. That means the search for jobs is about to start. Everyday I ask myself what am I going to do? Where do I want to work? Where do I want to live? Usually, I would have answers to these questions, a plan for the next step. However, in this situation I do not.
All throughout college the unknown was scary to me. I needed a goal to work towards, a direction. I always had something to work towards, a major, a career in mind, etc. That is part of why I chose to pursue an occupational therapy degree. It was an end goal, a direct path, and a specific degree for a wonderful career I knew I would enjoy. I also thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do within OT: I wanted to work with kids. However, over these past 2 years, I have realized I am not so sure about that anymore. I am not sure what I want to do or what is coming next. That would typically make me very uneasy, being a Type A personality. Much to my surprise, I am not worried at all.
Perhaps part of my comfort with the unknown is knowing that occupational therapy provides lots of opportunities. Anywhere I move, there will be jobs. Any area I choose to pursue, there will be jobs. That is part of the beauty of OT! Also, if I take a job in an area I end up not enjoying, I can always switch to a new practice area and try something new. The challenge is going to be choosing where to start, what to try first. But the thought of not knowing where that is going to be is exciting to me. I get to enter a new adventure of my life, one that is finally unplanned. All of my life I have planned the future, the next step, and I am ready to be spontaneous for once and see where I end up. Luckily I know that wherever I end up in OT, I will be happy!
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Second Week of the Spring Semester ⟩
January 18, 2011, by Carissa
Back to the second week of school for the last semester of the Master’s program! This semester I am taking 2 research courses, courses on Lifestyle Redesign, ergonomics, and motivational interviewing. This should be a good combination of skills that I really hope to put to good use in my future work. So far so good. I am pretty excited for the Lifestyle Redesign course, as we’ll get to help each other to form more healthy habits and routines. Last week, we were paired up in class, and we performed initial interviews on each other. In this class we’ll be able to help each other reach our goals we have made for our lives over the course of the semester. How fun is that? It will definitely be interesting! I have decided that I really need to work on organizing my time so I do not always end up procrastinating. I have a poor habit of worrying about a deadline coming up, not being able to fully enjoy everything else I’m doing because the deadline is in the back of my mind, but still waiting until almost the last minute to get things done. I am generally efficient during those last few hours before it is due, but I am sure there is a better way to go about doing things. I definitely could use a bit more balance in my life. Luckily, we are told that it is never too late to change those bad habits. We’ll see how it goes!
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