Student Blog
Clarissa

Leadership Externship in Ghana ⟩
March 24, 2014, by Clarissa

Externships International

In the Spring semester of your second year, we take a Leadership Capstone class, where we learn how to be leaders and advocates for our beloved profession. This class includes a 2 week leadership externship where go to different sites to learn the necessary skills that aligns with their goals. Thus, it’s a very personalized experience. It’s also different from fieldwork in that we’re not trying to learn clinical skills — we are building that extra set of skills to help our own careers as well as OT flourish.

As you can imagine, the externships can look very different — I know people who have gone to the American Occupational Therapy Association’s headquarters in Washington DC to learn about legislation and another who went to New York to learn the administrative side of running a private practice. Some stayed local in Los Angeles while some went abroad.

I chose to go to Ghana! International advocacy and improving my cultural competency has always been an interest of mine. Ghana is a great program and is organized by a USC OT professor, Dr. Bonnie Nakasuji. There were 32 students that attended and 11 practicing therapists. We stayed at a boarding school for children with disabilities and we came up with vocational activities for them to determine which vocation in Ghana is best matched with their strengths — we focused on sewing, woodworking, and leatherworking. This was so valuable because I learned how to gear activities to a low-resource population — we used rocks and sticks that we found at the school for some of these activities. Here’s a picture of me and one of my assigned kids Francis doing some woodworking!

Another role that the students had in Ghana was to pair with Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) workers. These were students at the local university whose job is to go into the community, identify those with disabilities that need intervention, ensure they access resources, and also encourage them to follow through with therapist recommendations at home after discharge from therapy. We educated them about the scope of OT and taught them basics in assessment and treatment. It was great just making new friends too! I did some student ambassador work off the job and gave them some OT buttons so they can spread the word about OT!

The externship occurs right before our spring break so I had some time to travel with 5 of my close friends. We flew to Northern Ghana and spent time in a national park, where we saw wild savannah elephants up close. Disclaimer: these elephants are not mating — that is a baby elephant playing with its friend!

I learned so much about myself on this trip. I’m still missing the kids in Ghana and am hoping that I’ll get to see them again.

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Snow Before Sun ⟩
March 2, 2014, by Clarissa

Externships International School/Life Balance

I’m about to embark on my leadership externship in Ghana where it’ll be over 90 degrees every day. I’m going from one extreme to the other because right before the trip, the socials chairs, which includes myself and a first year, of the Occupational Therapy and Science Council planned a cabin trip up in Big Bear for the OT program!

Getting there was quite the ordeal — it’s usually a 1.5 hour drive but it took my car 8 whole hours to get there. We got caught in a snow storm! So the traveling was stressful but it was worth it because, when we woke up the next morning, there was fresh, powdery snow everywhere for us to play in.

It was so fun building forts and having snowball fights with one another! We also cooked, watched movies, took walks to Big Bear Lake, and just talked in our down time. Being in a house together for 2 whole days was optimal for bonding time, which I LOVE.

It was a great trip and I’m looking forward to the next big one coming one — Ghana! In the meantime, I’m going to stress out because I haven’t packed at all.

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USC OTs in Vegas! ⟩
February 14, 2014, by Clarissa

Community Living in LA School/Life Balance

As promised, I’m updating about USC OT’s annual Vegas trip!  As the second year social chair of the Occupational Therapy and Science Council (OTSC), I planned our trip with my first year co-chair Kristin. The planning process started 2 months before our trip and, let me tell you, coordinating for 30 people isn’t easy but it was all so worth it!

We got rooms all on the same floor, which was great for meeting up before heading out to the clubs. With the excellent girl to guy ratio in our classes, we had no trouble getting into the nightclubs XS and Light for free on both Friday and Saturday nights. During our down time, some of our classmates went hiking (much admiration to them), ate delicious food at the Wynn buffet, and just slept in preparation for the coming night’s festivities.

It was such a fun trip, filled with late night bonding time, pillow fights, 5-hour meals at buffets, a legendary story with a wheelchair and transfer involved, and dancing!

My favorite part of being social chair is having events like this to get to know my classmates outside of class and also to build a relationship with the first years! Making these memories with my peers makes me love my time in the program that much more. OTs are such a fun crowd!

Here’s a picture of a group of us the second night!

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Aloha (Unmet) Goals! ⟩
February 13, 2014, by Clarissa

School/Life Balance

We talk a lot in OT about the importance of maintaining a balance between work, rest, and play. All y’all know from my blogs that I’m very busy — I’m a student ambassador, the social chair of the Occupational Therapy and Science Council, and I’m on the Student Run Clinic board. I love all my activities and wouldn’t take back my involvement with them for anything. I do tend to neglect restorative occupations, though. Sensing this imbalance, I wrote a paper for my Health Promotion and Wellness class where I set goals to incorporate more restorative occupations in my life.

I think it’s safe to say that I did NOT meet my goals over winter break! It’s so true what my professors say — habit change is difficult and takes time. It sounds like common sense but I didn’t realize exactly how hard it is until I tried it myself =(. This gives me perspective on how my future clients will experience habit change.

I went to Hawaii over winter break, which was supposed to include a lot of laying around on the beach but, according to my friends, I am “incapable of chill time.” It is so true. I really did try to relax but there were just too many cool things to do! I went scuba diving for a whole day, I did a lot of snorkeling, went cage diving with sharks, and did 3 hikes — Diamond Head, Kokohead, and the Haiku Stairs. I actually had to wake up at 2:30AM to hike the Haiku Stairs! Yup, there definitely weren’t any restorative occupations going on there.

So I didn’t exactly relax in Hawaii but it was still awesome =). Here’s a picture taken when descending the Haiku Stairs. Speaking of non-restorative activities, I also went on an OT trip to Vegas (I have a problem — I really just can’t stop being active). Cliff hanger for a future blog post soon!

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I Love the Student Run Clinic! ⟩
February 6, 2014, by Clarissa

Getting Involved What are OS/OT?

The Student Run Clinic (SRC) is run by students in the Pharmacy, Physician Assistant, Medical, and OT programs at USC. I think the interdisciplinary aspect is so cool and the fact that students run the entire organization amazes me. The clinic operates on Saturdays in the Eisner Family Medicine Center in downtown Los Angeles, which is a primary care clinic. Currently, OTs do not have a strong presence in primary care, which is so unfortunate because OTs have a lot of potential to impact patients’ lives upon their first encounter with health care. We’re working on bringing OT into this new field though! Being part of this emerging practice area is really exciting!

My position on the SRC board is Care Team Coordinator (CTC), which means that I act as the team leader. Each team consists of representatives from the occupational therapy, pharmacy, physician’s assistant, and medical schools. Each individual discipline goes in to see the patient before we all huddle together for a treatment plan. Our preceptors are also there to assist with the learning process. My job as the CTC is to guide the team through the protocol with the patient and facilitate discussion between the team members. On certain clinic dates, I also have the opportunity to volunteer as the OT instead of the CTC. Acting in both roles has been great because I’ve been able to work on different skill sets with each.

I’ve learned a lot since my initial involvement with the Student Run Clinic! When I’m the OT volunteer, I practice treatment planning with the interdisciplinary team, collaborating with the patient about their goals, proper documentation, and how to educate other professions as well as the patient about OT. When I’m the CTC, I learn how to put together various pieces of the puzzle. Multi-tasking is a key aspect of being a CTC — I need to ensure the team has a good learning experience, the patient receives the care they need, and that the team moves efficiently. I definitely am learning how to be assertive! It’s been a challenge and I’ve had my share of uncomfortable “I don’t know what to do” moments but who doesn’t while learning?

To sum it all up — Student Run Clinic rocks!

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