Student Blog
What are OS/OT?

Gardening as an occupation ⟩
November 3, 2014, by Claire

What are OS/OT?

One of the goodies that I picked up from OTAC a couple weeks ago was a little plant set with forget-me-not seeds! While taking a break from studying, I decided to plant it and see what happens! Given my lack of experience with gardening, I consider this pretty adventurous of myself! I called my grandpa who lives back at home to tell him that I planted some seeds, because his favorite occupation is gardening. It was super fun to bond with my grandpa and share in this occupation which is so meaningful to him. He has been gardening for over twenty years now and he often complains about the squirrels and birds eating the fruit from his trees.

He told me to be patient with plants (I was saying that I wanted the seeds to sprout already), and that you plant the seeds with hope and feel a lot of joy when you see them grow. A couple days later, some sprouts came out, and I was surprised by how happy I felt seeing them!

Caring for a small plant can be a really good activity. I interned at the occupational therapy department of a Taiwanese mental health hospital a couple years ago, and planting seeds was an activity that we did with the patients in the acute ward. It was so inspiring to see the patients reflect on times when they had gardened in the past or relate to times when they had to patiently wait for something; every member planted some seeds and they all left the session with their individual potted plant. I thought it was a great way to engage these patients in a healthy occupation and give them a sense of responsibility and control over something.

Have any of you tried out any new occupations recently? Or, what are some occupations that your loved ones like to do, and have you ever had a chance to share in that experience?

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#otacconf2014 ⟩
October 26, 2014, by Kristy

Community Getting Involved What are OS/OT?

Last weekend I was lucky enough to attend The Occupational Therapy Association of California (OTAC) Annual Conference. It was my first OT Conference and I had a blast! I participated in the student track, which I really enjoyed because we had a variety of sessions throughout the days, some focusing on stress management, traumatic brain injury, autism spectrum disorder, and fine motor tools.

Since I want to go into school-based pediatrics, there were several sessions that I thoroughly enjoyed! The presenters had a lot of great ideas for tools and activities to do with children. One of the sessions was about putting the “Fun” in “Functional,” insert Therapy Fun Zone!!! They showed us many different activities we could work on to target sensory systems, hand strength, grasp, and visual skills. Another interactive session that focused on fun tools for kids was by Mama OT. What was great about this session, is she provided us with a lot of home items into creative items. The creator of Mama OT was an USC Occupational Therapy Graduate who saw the overlap of being a new mom and a new occupational therapist and wanted to share with others! One thing I love about the field of occupational therapy is that people are always willing to help others do better in their career. It’s great to follow blogs, facebook, or Pinterest boards to see what other occupational therapist are up to. Can you guess what we did with the items below?

Other great aspects of the OTAC conference included the social and mingling aspects. There were evening gatherings as well as exhibit halls that allowed us to interact with other occupational therapists and occupational therapy students. I personally enjoyed chatting with other OT students and comparing/contrasting what we were currently learning in class. And did I mention all the free stuff we got??? Pens, reusable bags, pencil grips, tools, etc., which all can be used to promote occupational therapy! Lastly, I can’t believe I almost forgot — to check out all the awesome pictures from the weekend, search #otacconf2014 on instagram. OTs use a lot of social media, and they had a competition using the hashtag. Overall, I really enjoyed the conference and see the benefit not only educationally, but personally as well. It excites me even more about becoming an occupational therapist and being out in the field soon!

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Building Rapport ⟩
September 3, 2014, by Leila

Fieldwork What are OS/OT?

My first Level II fieldwork was an amazing journey. I interned at the VA in Long Beach within the Community Living Center MWFs and the mTBI clinic TTHs. That means I had two amazing CIs and I learned from two different settings. The VA Long Beach Healthcare System is one of the most diversified health care systems. They are active in both research and education, partnering with universities and education centers across Southern California to train a new generation of health care leaders. Fortunately, I was part of the new generation of health care leaders they trained!

Upon starting my first week of fieldwork I was a nervous wreck. I thought to myself . . . I’m not ready. Will I remember everything from my adult rehabilitation course? How will I be as an OT? Will my CI like me? Will the patients like me? Those were just a few of the questions that ran through my head. That Monday morning came by quick after a week of finishing up spring semester. I got up at 4:30am, performed my ADLs 😉, and headed out to Long Beach. I live in Chino, which is a 42-mile commute to Long Beach one-way. I didn’t want to be late on my first day so I made sure I left my house no later than 5:45am. Of course I arrived 1 hr early! Better safe than sorry. First week was filled with introductions, orientations, getting familiar with the setting and observations. I observed my first evaluation within the first week, and by the following 2 weeks I was already attempting my evaluation skills! One thing I realized the first day at the VA was how welcoming everyone was. That put me at ease and really set the tone for how my experience was going to be like for the weeks to come. Fortunately, I have nothing but great things to share about my experience at the VA in Long Beach. Of course I can share about how much I learned, the overall OT practice there, the assessments they used, documentation skills I acquired, etc. But . . . I would have to say the most important skill set I had the opportunity to demonstrate was building rapport. 

I had such an amazing time working with my patients, but there were times where I thought I had no idea what I was doing.
Times that were challenging.
Times that were mentally/physically exhausting.
Times that were rewarding.

Upon my last week, one veteran wrote this to me:

“You are one of the few people who have made a big improvement in my life in a short period of time since I have returned home from overseas. You are going to make a great OT and I believe you are going to be a blessing to many people in the future.
. . . Who you are, and your heart, is going to be your strength and best tool in your chosen occupation. ‘People won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.’”

This is building rapport. :’)

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Riding the Wave ⟩
September 1, 2014, by Jonathan

Getting Involved Living in LA What are OS/OT?

Greetings and aloha everyone!

Welcome to my very first blog post! I Being that this is my first blog post, I figured I’d start with the story behind why I’m here today.

As an undergraduate, I attended Cal-State Fullerton, where I majored in Kinesiology. During my time at CSUF, I developed passion and love for surfing. In fact, surfing became such an important occupation in my life (defined as meaningful activity) so much so that I decided to take the surfing class offered at CSUF four times! During each semester taking the class, I was assigned to do a project that would increase my awareness and education regarding surf culture. For one of my projects, I decided to write a paper about surfing and explain a therapeutic purpose as to why I engage in it. In my research I came across the Jimmy Miller Memorial Foundation, an organization that utilizes ocean and surf therapy to facilitate meaningful activity and foster therapeutic relationships for children with special needs and Veterans who are living with PTSD. After doing more digging, I found out that the program was started by an occupational therapist who was a product of USC’s OT Doctorate program (USC’s very own alumni, Dr. Carly Rogers!) To realize that you can utilize something that you love to do and use it as a means to help people pretty much solidified my career aspirations of becoming an OT. Coming full circle, I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Rogers when she spoke to our class during my first summer session within the program! Here’s a snap of Dr. Rogers and I, the OT that ignited my journey. Thank you, Dr. Carly Rogers!

As I continue on my journey as an OT student, I can definitely say that it’s been a fun, enlightening, and rewarding ride thus far, and I’m stoked that I’ll be able to share with you my experiences. As I continue to enjoy this ride, stay tuned for more of my adventures as I continue to grow within our program and profession.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, I greatly appreciate it.

Take care and aloha for now!

— Jonathan

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Classes Back in Session! ⟩
August 28, 2014, by Kristy

Fieldwork What are OS/OT?

Hello all!

Classes just started back up this week and it is a very interesting transition from being at our fieldwork sites full-time to now being back in the classroom ready to learn about another field area of occupational therapy. It was exciting to come back to school and hear about everyone’s experience over the summer, no two sites are identical therefore everyone had exciting stories to share! It’s been fun to hear about the different types of treatment everyone provided, what types of things they created, and how they handled some of their most challenging moments. For some, fieldwork was a time to learn even more about an area of OT they are passionate in, or for others it was about exploring an area that they didn’t know much about. That’s the great thing about Level II Fieldwork; we are required to do them in two different practice areas, which really expands our knowledge and interests within Occupational Therapy. I had the opportunity to be in a community mental health setting at a wellness center. My background is in community health education, so I was very excited to pursue occupational therapy in a wellness setting. It was a great learning experience and allowed me to expand my view of occupational therapy and really think outside the box. I had some challenges along the way, but was provided with great learning opportunities. It’s amazing to me the change you experience over your 12 weeks of fieldwork. You begin not entirely sure of what you will do, and by the end I felt confident in my skills as an occupational therapist. Which makes it interesting to head back to class and learn even more about occupational therapy! I look forward to another great year and can’t wait to keep you all updated on what goes on as I enter into my second year as an occupational therapy student here at USC.

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