Student Blog
Classes

A New Project! ⟩
September 20, 2015, by Heather

Classes What are OS/OT?

Hey friends! I want to share with you a really awesome project that I started working on this week.

As part of my coursework in Occupation-Centered Programs for the Community, my classmate and I decided to work on a project focused on upper extremity ergonomics and proper body mechanics as it relates to one’s occupation. Through our volunteer and fieldwork experience in hand therapy clinics, we noticed that there was a lack of education regarding the importance of injury prevention and treatment of repetitive motion upper-extremity injuries. Specifically, we want to focus on creating a program that explores the prevention of repetitive motion injuries in musicians, and further investigate psychosocial factors that may contribute to the development or exacerbation of musculoskeletal disorders in the musician population.

I originally became interested in working with musicians after having an internship at the Santa Barbara Music Academy of the West’s Wellness Program. Here, I had the opportunity to work one-on-one with young musicians on how to stretch certain areas of their body and proper body mechanics for when playing their instruments. Many of the musicians were only in their early twenties and already experiencing pain in their hands, wrists, and shoulders. With education and a focus on ergonomics, musicians might be able to decrease the chances of injuring themselves or exacerbating an already existing injury. By the end of my internship, many of the musicians were already experiencing pain relief during their musical performances.

I look forward to learning more about this as I navigate the phenomenological experiences of these musicians and the health providers that treat them. Additionally, I hope to explore the possibility of spearheading an educational campaign centered around providing education for injury prevention that is specifically tailored to various areas of employment.

⋯

FUN with Hand FUNction! ⟩
September 17, 2015, by Ariel

Classes What are OS/OT?

Hello all! We learned some really awesome stuff in class this week, so I thought it might be neat to give you guys a taste of the ways our professors make our lessons come to life!

To give you a little background, I am currently completing my Pediatric Immersion. This means that I have six hours of lecture per week in Peds, which is accompanied by three hours of lab. I know it sounds like a lot of hours for one subject, but our enthusiastic teachers keep things fresh and exciting by incorporating hands-on (and tasty!) activities into our lectures and labs.

This week, we learned all about hand function — grasp development, fine motor control, and the ways that children experiencing difficulties with the use of their hands might benefit from strengthening exercises, compensatory strategies, and/or adaptive equipment in order to thrive.

One of the coolest things about occupational therapy is that to an outside observer, the activities we do with our pediatric patients might look just like play. But in graduate school, we’ve learned how to break down these specific activities (such as games) into their smallest components — a process called activity analysis — in order to develop our clinical reasoning skills. Ultimately, this will help us in practice when the time comes to assess our patients’ abilities, plan meaningful interventions, and understand the fundamental demands (mental, physical, environmental, and otherwise) required for a person to successfully complete any given task.

Here are some fun pictures of my classmates learning all about functional hand grasps!

For this activity, our professor brought in all kinds of yummy snacks, and then demonstrated each type of hand grasp we were learning by talking us through each position as we manipulated our food. Above are two classmates demonstrating the pincer grasp. So . . . Why is pincer grasp important? Well I’m so glad you asked! Pincer grasp employs the thumb and index finger to pick up small objects. It is a key developmental milestone that allows children the ability to feed themselves early on. Later, it is incredibly important in completing childhood tasks such as holding pencils, using utensils, and fastening things like buttons on a shirt.

For this activity, our teacher brought in tons of child-friendly games. As a group, we analyzed each to determine their age appropriateness and created descriptions of accompanying skills the game develops (such as fine motor, visual motor, or cognitive). We then connected these skills with real-life activities in which a child might need to engage throughout his or her day (e.g., dressing, writing, feeding, bathing). In the above photo, you’ll notice my classmates are playing Mr. Mouth, a game that requires participants to employ skills such as pincer grasp, scanning, attention, impulse control, and force gradation. While this might sound like a lot of fancy-schmancy words, in reality, building these fundamental skills will later allow the child to fully engage in social play, develop their impulses, and get around in their community.

If you haven’t realized by now, the way an occupational therapist can use activity analysis to deduce the therapeutic benefits of specific activities is pretty incredible!

⋯

All good things come to an end . . . ⟩
May 19, 2015, by Leila

Beginnings and Endings Classes Fieldwork Getting Involved

I can’t believe the time has come to close one chapter of my life and begin another. My time as an occupational therapy master’s student has come to an end and it is bittersweet. Time really does fly by when you are having fun, and I have to say my time in the program has been a phenomenal one. From the amount of knowledge I have learned to the amazing individuals (students and faculty) I have met, I will forever cherish the past couple of years. If someone would have told me 2.5 years ago that I would be graduating from the top occupational therapy school I would not have believed it! I can honestly say that the endless hours of assignments, studying for tests, and long commutes was all worth it. Is it hard? Of course! But every sacrifice made was worth it and I cannot think of a greater moment in life than finding a profession that you are passionate about and achieving that dream. Fortunately, USC’s OT program, wonderful faculty, clinical instructors and peers have prepared me to continue on this journey in becoming an amazing occupational therapist.

I look forward to my upcoming Level II fieldwork experience where I will be working in the pediatric inpatient unit at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey, CA. Completing my final Level II fieldwork this summer will officially label me as a “Master” of Occupational Therapy, but not until I pass the NBCOT (National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy) exam will I be marked as a licensed occupational therapist! The last few weeks have gone by so fast and I am sad to say that this will be my last blog post as a student ambassador. I really have enjoyed my time working as an ambassador and will miss it greatly! It’s time your current student ambassadors pass the torch to the incoming student ambassadors who will be here to help you. On the plus side, you will get to hear from different students!

Nevertheless, USC’s occupational therapy program is fun (and hard work) and like I stated above, it is great finding a profession that you are passionate about. Discovering occupational therapy and deciding that you want to make a career out of it is one of the most important steps to achieving your dream! Keep your head up. It may seem like a long road ahead, but no one or nothing can stop you from reaching your goals. I wish you all the best of luck in your endeavors. Thank you for reading my blog as a student ambassador!

— Leila A.

⋯

Electing the Right Electives ⟩
February 21, 2015, by Leila

Classes School/Life Balance

When it comes to your second to last semester of OT school, choosing electives can be a lot of fun! However, it can also be tough if you have many interests. All of them had sparked a bit of my interest throughout my time in OT school at USC. I found selecting electives to be a challenging experience because I wanted to soak up information from many of them! In a previous blog post I mentioned the process of selecting electives, so in this post I wanted to share with you some vidoes/photos in action of my time in these courses.

OT 574 Enhancing Motor Control for Occupation
This course is AWESOME! Students taking this course have the opportunity to understand the principles and methods for remediation of movement impairments following upper motor neuron lesions (ex. Stroke). Our time is spent at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center composed of lectures, laboratory experiences, discussions, etc. This course has a lot of hands-on components, which is great for me as a kinesthetic learner.

Here is a brief video of me trying Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS), also known as neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) on myself. EMS can be used on some patients to elicit muscle contraction using electric impulses.

OT 578 Therapeutic Communication for the Healthcare Practitioner
For 2 units, this course has definitely taught me principles and practice of a variety of therapeutic communication skills, including motivational interviewing, mindfulness, and cognitive behavioral therapy. Much of health care today involves helping individuals manage conditions whose outcomes can be influenced by lifestyle change. After learning aspects of motivational interviewing (MI), I find myself putting MI into practice with individuals that I’m working with now! We just had our last class this past Tuesday ☹.

OT 583 Lifestyle Redesign
This was definitely on my list during the selection process due to the unique nature of this course. The practice of Lifestyle Redesign is an innovative treatment approach that was developed here at USC! Lifestyle Redesign is the process of acquiring healthier habits and routines in your everyday life. I really love learning how to collaborate with patients to address their needs, provide education and help them set and attain their goals! What is awesome about this approach is that it really allows the patient to be in the driver’s seat, and the occupational therapist as the passenger. ☺ As we learn the components of Lifestyle Redesign in this course, we also get to practice by working with one of our classmates to really implement lifestyle change in their own lives!

OT 500 Optimal Living with Multiple Sclerosis
I have nothing but great things to say about this course! As occupational therapy students we get to learn how to work with people who have Multiple Sclerosis (MS) using Lifestyle Redesign intervention. This course allows me to utilize the skills I have learned in both my OT 578 Therapeutic Communication for the Healthcare Practitioner course, as well as OT 538 Lifestyle Redesign. We also gain experience running a group module, along with working individually with one to two participants from the community (recruited by the National MS Society). We also get to work with 2nd year physical therapy students and co-treat twice during the semester! I have been working with two participants this semester and the process has been great! I really love the experience I am gaining through this course.

This is just a taste of some of the course the division has to offer to students, there are plenty of others you can choose from.

This semester has been quite busy for me, hence the lack of blogging. ☹ I know, shame on me! Regardless, I still try to make some time for me by engaging in some of the occupations I love: ☺

Fin.

⋯

Semester Electives ⟩
February 12, 2015, by Brenda

Classes

I’m a tad late, BUT I just wanted to give a shout-out to my favorite cohort of all time, COHORT C! I miss you guys. Even though last semester was the last semester we had class all together, I’m glad I still get too see many of you in various classes this semester.

This semester, as many other ambassadors have written about, is the semester in which we get to pick our own classes. While the program prepares you to become a general practitioner, this is the semester in which we get to explore the things we are most interested in. This is a great opportunity to learn more about a specific population or domain of occupational therapy practice. For many students, like myself, deciding these electives can be a daunting task. This is only because my interests are so vast. When asked what I’m interested in, I always say, “Everything under the sun. Except for pediatrics.” And while my answer is so definitive when it comes to pediatric practice, I still secretly think that there is a itty bitty chance I may change my mind about this down the road. In the end, I chose classes that were most interesting to me. These include Motor Control, Acute Care, Optimal Living with Multiple Sclerosis, and Therapeutic Communication. Although it took me some time to solidify my schedule this semester, these classes have been awesome. I have really been enjoying them equally. In Motor Control, we get to go to Rancho Los Amigos and learn all about proper mobilization techniques and in Optimal Living, we get to work alongside participants living with MS and work towards their goals using principles of Lifestyle Redesign. All my classes are somewhat different from each other, which keeps in line with where my interests lie, all over the place. Nevertheless, I am very grateful we get to have this unique opportunity at USC. If you are curious about what other classes are offered in this semester, you can find a list of them on our website.

⋯