Prior to beginning the masters of occupational therapy program it was as if I was an ancient wanderer in the dark ages, eager to learn new ideas and discover new places not sure what the world would throw at me next. Over the next eight years I found myself at a series of personal crossroads one encounters during life’s journey. Not the crossroad where one sells their soul to the devil for some magical power. It was more of one of those forks in the road, a kin to the Robert Frost Poem, where one path leads to life A and the other leads to life B. Crossroads that impacted my future, shaped who I am and my character, influenced life changes, which led to a transition that will influence me and my family for generations to come. I come from…
While observing Occupational Therapy Assistant Fatima deCouto-Garcia, (a BCC program OTA graduate), at The New Bedford Rehab Hospital, we were tasked with focusing on recognizing the performance skill deficits and contextual factors that brought a client to seek Occupational Therapy services. The facility we visited is considered an acute long term rehabilitation hospital and the patients we observed each had complex multi-facetted symptoms, diagnosis and treatment protocols. For the purpose of this reflection we will focus on one patient, a 45 year old woman, Jane Doe, who 6 weeks prior had her left leg amputated above the knee. Jane was described as a homeless, diabetic, suffering from depression. The high level of Jane’s daily methadone dosage was preventing her acceptance to a skilled nursing…
Last week I interview a women name, Kimberly Drape. Kimberly works with another Therapist at Health concepts in one of their companies I currently work day is Morgan Health Center. There’s much to be said. In my interview, I found that we share many interesting qualities skills abilities. We chose this career path because we want to make a difference in people’s lives and hopefully change the world.…
In this paper I will be talking about what I learned in my interview with Lauren Roberts an Occupational Therapist at The Kids SpOT. I will also talk about how I will use her advice and information she shared with me to take my next steps toward my career. Also, overall how I feel about Occupational Therapy. Research…
From midterm to current my CI allowed me to handle more of her caseload, observe online documentation, and weekly progress reports on her patients. She encouraged questions, and thoroughly explained why certain treatments and activities were better than others. She allowed for open communication of patient interventions, which made me feel comfortable enough to take on more of her case load and contributed to my visual, and hands on style of learning. From my initial visit to current my CI has ensured my environment promotes growth at my clinical site.…
Throughout my life the phrase, “You can’t quit now, you’ve already made it this far” has been thrown around by my coaches, teachers, family members and friends. It has been this constant reminder that I should always push onward through the challenges I face in life. The challenges that make it difficult to want to persevere and cause me to struggle to reach my goals. It was this constant reminder, that no matter the challenges that we face in our lives, the struggles that may set us back from our daily routines or the problems that may arise throughout our journey, we can overcome them, push them behind us, and advance onward with our life in happiness. I’ve come to discover that this simple phrase of not quitting because you’ve made it so…
As I continue my path on my college career and the transition of being a Occupational Therapist Assistant, to a Registered Occupational Therapist there are many professional goals consisting of working within an in-patient rehabilitation center with veterans. Teaching the daily living skills or helping a team to work on improving overall independence, to veterans with physical or mental disabilities. This has always been a dream, since I began my college career. This is a setting I feel that I could have an impact in, my personal skills being positive, cheerful, social, and a good listener could help connect with my patients, as well as work with a team to help establish goals and interventions that will get the patients functioning in the most appropriate amount…
I believe that the differences in our responses to the performance task of taking care of ourselves, result from the way that we each see the tasks that fall under this category. I see these tasks as an opportunity to have some time to relax, either before I start my day or at the end of it, my father does anything expect relax when doing these tasks. He sees these tasks as time slots. When he needs to do these tasks that he already believes are unimportant, that he could be and should be doing something else. While is washing his face, he thinks of all the things that he needs to do that morning or what he needs to do before he goes to bed and these tasks take up time he could be doing that.…
So far, my time here at the University of Puget Sound has opened me up to so many ideas and thoughts that had never crossed my mind before. I have enjoyed immersing myself in classroom and lunch table discussions that assist me in trying to understand as much of the world as possible. I am looking forward to the rest of my time here and I am a person who makes sure to get everything I can out of my education. As I consider my academic and career goals, I believe that studying abroad at the University of Nebrija in Madrid, Spain will provide me with a different perspective that will help me in my life, my education and my careers. I am majoring in Psychology and minoring in Spanish and Education.…
As an occupational therapy graduate student, I had already decided, working with seniors was not for me. I wanted to work with exciting clients, in an exhilarating envrioment; not in a nursing facility. However, as I had just learned, I would I would be stuck there for the next six weeks observing and assisting an occupational therapist. On my first day, I slowly pulled into the parking lot. “Well here I am,” I thought as I got out of the car, “it’s only six weeks, I can do this.”…
During the course of the year we were required to engage in Problem Based Learning (PBL) groups and attend fieldwork. These experiences enabled me to learn many important lessons regarding Occupational Therapy. PBL highlighted the importance…
In the last August I moved to Bay Path University to start my three weeks in the summer classes that we called brain boot camp, This is the first part of the program of Occupation Therapist. I had the three hard weeks in the last couple years. It was very intensive program with classes 5 days a week, 8 am until 5 pm, after that a lot homework to finish and a lot of projects to complete. In my last couple days just one of the professors do not post the grades, this made me very anxious because I knew this can decide my future in the program. After my last day I started my week vacation without the grades and the results about my future.…
On my second day at clinical I observed an interaction between a client and two Occupational Therapists (OT) that really emphasised the importance of ‘capacity building’ and how it facilitates ‘empowerment’. A community OT was assessing the client for a new assistive mobility device. During the assessment the community OT directed all his questions to the Gage OT and never specifically asked the client about what she needed or required from the new piece of equipment. The community OT acted like the client was not even in the room; his body language was inappropriate, he sat facing the Gage OT and did not even acknowledge the client the few times she spoke.…
Case Study #7 You are a fieldwork supervisor of an OT student in an acute care hospital. Your student asks you out for drinks after work. The type of problem would be an Ethical Distress since this “Occurs when situations challenge how a practitioner maintains his/her integrity or integrity of profession”( Behm D., Joanna, OT Ethical Standards). (Behm D., Joanna, OT Ethical Standards).…
Reflecting back on the course of Interventions II, the coursework and in-residence portion had given me a better insight in learning how to define my personal and professional identity. The implementation of a “mock” clinical therapy sessions during the in-residence portion had been a challenge in the beginning due to the lack of having any type of background in conducting a therapy session. These therapy sessions provided the needed feedback from the instructor and my peers to gain a better understanding my theoretical orientations and areas in which I can work on to become a more competent therapist. The coursework that was provided through this course also assisted in having a better knowledge base for my future practice based on empirically…