Student Blog
Getting Involved

USC OT at AOTA! ⟩
May 5, 2015, by Claire

Community Getting Involved

American Occupational Therapy Association had its annual national conference in Nashville, TN last month, and it was a fantastic experience! Nashville is a very fun place — I also just happened to start listening to country the past year before this conference, so I was proud of knowing some songs that we heard from live musicians.

My classmates and I were able to present a Critically Appraised Topic (CAT) poster at the conference, and we have so many people to thank along the way! Dr. Myka Persson taught our Quantitative Research course and gave us a lot of guidance when we were preparing the content for our final presentation. Thanks to her push and also Dr. Natalie Leland and Dr. Ashley Halle’s help, we were able to submit an abstract and prepare a poster! It was a really wonderful opportunity for all of us to get involved in our professional network! If the opportunity comes up for you to go to the national conference (or even better, get a scholarship to cover for the trip), I would say TAKE IT! You get a great reward for a just some extra work in preparing for the conference. Getting involved in the professional affiliations early as a student is extremely valuable.

Also, if you might remember, a group of classmates and I spent our Leadership Externship trip in Korea. We got to meet our Korean OT friends and professors at AOTA! It was so nice to see them again! 😊 OTs may be spread out all over the world, but not even the Pacific Ocean can keep us apart for long! We are hoping to meet again at next year’s annual conference (in Chicago!).

There was a USC party too, and I got to meet alumni from years back! They were all super inspiring to talk to and to hear about their experiences! It was all a good time!

Here are some pictures!

⋯

35th Annual Swim with Mike! ⟩
April 28, 2015, by Jonathan

Getting Involved Videos

Hello everyone! Hope you’re all doing great! Over here at the division we are wrapping up OT month and it’s been an absolute blast so far! This blog post is actually dedicated to one of the events of OT month that my classmates and I had the privilege of participating in, the 35th annual Swim with Mike Swim-a-thon! As the Occupational Therapy and Science Council Philanthropy Chair, it was my second year coordinating a USC OT team to participate, and I have to give a shout out to my friend Ali Adams for helping me coordinate USC OT’s involvement over the last two years. For those of you that don’t know, Swim with Mike is an annual swim-a-thon that is held to raise money for the Physically Challenged Athletes Scholarship Fund. The fund was first started through the generosity of three time All-American Swimmer Mike Nyeholt. In January 1981, Mike was in a Motorcycle accident that resulted in paralysis from the chest down. As a gesture to show support for Mike, his family and friends started a swim-a-thon fundraiser to help Mike purchase a specially equipped van that he could utilize. On the day of the swim-a-thon, Mike surprised his supporters by joining them in the pool, straight from the hospital! More than $58,000 was raised that day, which far surpassed the donation needed for the van. As a result, Mike used the excess funds to start the Physically Challenged Athletes Scholarship Fund at the University of Southern California. The aim of the Physically Challenged Athletes Scholarship Fund is to raise money for student athletes who have sustained a life-altering injury. Through the generosity of the Swim with Mike supporters, the donations are utilized to help student athletes with disabilities pursue higher education.

35 years later, Swim with Mike has raised over 15 million dollars, has 61 current scholarship recipients, has granted 178 total scholarships, reaching students from over 85 different universities. Swim with Mike is a fun aquatic festival that brings people together to swim, dive, and most of all, have fun for a great cause. Last year, I had the privilege of participating in a 34 hour swim-a-thon with participation from 40 fellow OT students who made up our team! I covered the night shift from 2 am to 7 am with my good friend Anna Redfern, and best believe I got supah pruny. This year, Swim with Mike was different in that it conducted its first ever triathlon.  Inspired to answer the question “what is your 35,” participants donated 35 dollars to participate in a 35 minute bike, 35 minute swim, and 35 minute run to support the Physically Challenged Athletes Scholarship fund. We had 20 OT students represent our team this year, and we all had a really fun time supporting a great cause. If you’d like to support the Swim with Mike Scholarship fund please visit swimwithmike.org.

Here’s a picture of some of our team this year, but I am currently making a video that I will be posting shortly. Here’s a video of my awesome team and I enjoying our SWM experience. Enjoy!

Please stay tuned for my next blog, in which I’ll be writing about the AOTA conference. In the meantime, Leila has written a blog about the conference as well, check it out, it’s a good read! :coolsmile:

Until next time my friends,
— Jon

⋯

AOTA 2015! ⟩
April 22, 2015, by Leila

Getting Involved Videos

Hey ya’ll!

I just attended my first AOTA Annual Conference & Expo in Nashville, Tennessee and it was an amazing experience! For those of you that do not know, the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) is our national professional association that represents the interests and concerns of occupational therapy practitioners and students of occupational therapy and to improve the quality of occupational therapy services. A conference and expo is held at different locations around the US each year. This year it was held in Nashville, Tennessee and it was also the largest conference ever with over 9,000 attendees! I have to say, AOTA’s annual conference is the most exciting and dynamic gathering for occupational therapy professionals each year and it is so inspiring to be around so many occupational therapy practitioners, students and leaders! In addition, I was fortunate enough to be selected to present a poster with a couple of my colleagues on a project we worked on last fall semester!

AOTA’s itinerary is filled with an inspiring Presidential and keynote addresses, over 900 educational sessions and an Expo filled with the latest products and opportunities! For more information on our national association check out the AOTA website.

⋯

The Sky is the Limit! ⟩
April 17, 2015, by Kristy

Community Fieldwork Getting Involved What are OS/OT?

Recently, I had the opportunity to present at the Occupational Therapy Association of California Spring Symposium on time management strategies for adults with ADHD, specifically speaking to my development of an occupations-based group intervention. Not going to lie, I was a bit nervous speaking to a group of practicing occupational therapists about a program that I have worked so hard on for the last year. I was fearful for their opinion of it, their understanding of the material, and overall how the presentation would go. Even though I volunteered to present and share my work thus far, it is still a bit scary; but I’m here to tell you it went amazing! I couldn’t have asked for a better turn out or better experience for my first workshop! This really speaks to the Division’s capacity to prepare us not only as practitioners, but also has professional leaders and advocates for the field. In addition, attendees were so respectful and supportive of my ideas and my work. In which I could not have gotten to the point I am today without the support of the Division and the curriculum, and specifically Dr. Deborah Pitts who has served as my mentor for this project from the beginning. I’d like to share with you how this journey started and where we are headed in the future 😊

Last May, I was about to begin my first Level II Fieldwork with Pacific Clinics, a community-based mental health center. My site preceptor shared with me that several of their members had a hard time managing their time and getting to appointments, these folks specifically also had a diagnosis of ADHD. I willingly took on the opportunity to see what was out there for these individuals. I then brought this to the attention of my faculty preceptor, and we began a literature review. From our searches, it came to our attention that there was limited interventions out there, specifically anything occupations-based. Therefore, we began the development of what turned into a group intervention, based in occupational perspectives, that facilitated organization and time use strategies for those with ADHD. As my fieldwork was coming to an end, Dr. Pitts suggested I continue the development and research on this intervention in my course, Occupation-Based Programs for the Community. Seeing the members success who experienced the intervention with me during my fieldwork, and acknowledging how much it resonated with them, served as motivation for me to continue on with the development. It reassured me that there was a need for this, and I needed to continue my pursuit. I spent the next 3-4 months doing lots and lots of background research on what interventions were out there, different evaluation tools, symptoms and occupational impairment for individuals with ADHD, and what solutions or data was helpful in facilitating occupational participation. By the end of the semester, I had a completely revised manual for the intervention, and boy was I excited! Then the question came again, what next? I still felt that there could be more. I could do more, I could make it better. I could use more evidence to support the intervention and process. Therefore, I enrolled in an Independent Study with Dr. Pitts, and I continued the revision of the facilitator manual and the participant manual. After another 2-3 months of work, I have finally shared my ideas with others and sought their feedback, not only at the Spring Symposium I recently spoke at, but also seeking critique from experts in the field. I anxiously await their responses and suggestions for the future with the intervention. At this point in time, I am not sure what is the next path to take for development. I know I am not ready to be done with it, I am hoping to seek publication on some level to be able to share with others. But who knows what the future will hold!

So why do I share this with you? I really want to encourage others that the sky is the limit! You can do anything you set your mind to! A year ago, I would have never thought I would be in the position I am in now, nor would I have told you I have such a passion for working with adults with ADHD. The reason I am where I am today is because of the Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. The support of faculty, design of curriculum, and fieldwork experiences, have really impacted my future as a practitioner and as a leader in the field. They encourage you to push the envelope, don’t just settle for the minimum, go outside of the box and do something you didn’t think you could or even knew had it in you!  Without USC OSOT, I wouldn’t be where I am today, and for that I am eternally grateful.

So I welcome you to the Trojan Family! You picked a good one to be a part of! Fight on!

⋯

USC Student Run Clinic Experience! ⟩
January 28, 2015, by Claire

Community Getting Involved What are OS/OT?

Hello! I hope 2015 is off to a good start for all of you!

Today I want to share with you about my experience with the USC Student Run Clinic. The Student Run Clinic is a really unique organization that I would recommend students to get involved in! As an interdisciplinary care team, students from USC’s schools of medicine, pharmacy, occupational therapy, and physician assistant work together to provide comprehensive health care to the underserved in Los Angeles.

This past weekend was the first time that I volunteered with SRC. I loved meeting other students and learning about how each of our professions contribute to the patient’s care. It was a busy clinic weekend, so I was able to work with four patients. It was very interesting meeting a variety of patients of different ages and backgrounds! One challenge that I faced was the Spanish speaking language barrier; I learned that language is a crucial part of the communication with the patient. Because I am not the most fluent Spanish speaker (whoohoo high school Spanish), I felt like there were many things that I wanted to offer her as an occupational therapy student, but couldn’t convey it properly to her.

On the other hand, it was extremely meaningful to see how the role of the occupational therapist is so client centered and that we are able to meet the patient as an individual person. When working with the patient diagnosed with depression, the other members of the team did a really great job at gathering her medical history. In the team huddles, I was able to bring a holistic perspective to her life and tie in the medical considerations to her participation in activities. However, I had the opportunity to get to know her and provide a safe space for her to really share what she was struggling with in her life. I was struck by how important it is to build trust with the patient and I felt honored that let me hear the full story about her experience.

Together, we explored all the things that troubled her, including the environment in her neighborhood, her relationships with family members, and challenges in her daily routine. As occupational therapists, we are also concerned about the emotional, psychological, and spiritual health of our patients. It turned out that spirituality was something that mattered a lot to this patient. With my facilitation and encouragement, she personally set a goal to engage in more spiritual reading to help calm her thoughts throughout the day. She left our session feeling empowered and motivated.

It was such a meaningful experience!

⋯