Ordinary Miracles is
one of our textbooks. It is a compilation of short stories from OTs and OTAs.
They are uplifting and remind you of the importance of occupational therapy. It
is not very technical and has stories from a variety of practice areas. I would
recommend it to anyone who wanted to get a better idea of the different things
OTs do. It is not going to tell you all the things OTs do like write notes, and
plan sessions, but it will show you some of what they can do.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Review of Classes
It is hard to
believe I have been in OT school for
almost two months. I have learned a lot in these two months and met some great
people. I remember a few months ago wondering what my classes would be about.
Well now I think I can give you a good picture.
Models of Reasoning
We started off
learning AOTA's Practice Framework. We discussed the process OTs use to help
clients and what they should consider. Lately, we have been discussing
different assessments we can use to evaluate clients and how to interrupt the
results. This class started off very abstract, but not it seems very
applicable. Our fieldwork is also integrated with this course.
Evidence Based Practice
This is the class
that the majority of the class is struggling with. It is our research course. I
enjoy the material, but our teachers don’t have the best execution in teaching
the course. This semester we are focusing on how to locate information and evaluate
it.
Wellness and Illness
This class is hard
because it is our only class on Friday and it is three hours long. The
information is very practical though. We first focused on what healthy is
because to define dysfunction you have to know what functioning is. We talk
about specific diseases and what interventions are used to treat them.
Foundations
I thought this class
would be application based, but it is more theoretical. We talked about AOTA's
practice framework for a while in this class. Lately, we have been discussing
the different theories and frames of reference one can use. We have also done
presentations on OT internationally and some of the different specific fields.
Lifespan
This class is about
occupations throughout the lifespan. We perform evaluations on different
lifespan groups. I like this class because we have mini-fieldwork. We currently
at the child stage. It is much like my college lifespan course with OT
evaluations sprinkled in. The rest of my classes have been very different than
undergrad.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Note Writing
Lately, we have
started writing notes for class. It is hard to write notes because right now we
are evaluating typical people. You have to know what is typical before you can
detect what is atypical. Setting goals and creating interventions for typical people
is challenging. I like it though because it makes you think outside of the box.
It also challenges my theory that everybody could benefit from having an OT.
The other hard part is the notes we are writing are much longer than they will
ever be in the clinic. This is because the professors what to know our entire
thought process and observations, and they can only know that if we put it in
the note. It's hard for me because I am more of a big-picture girl than a
detail girl.
Tomorrow, I am going
to a childcare center to evaluate a child using the Peabody. We have learned
several assessments over the past couple of weeks. It makes this OT thing seem
real. In the past, there have been a few kids get a real evaluation because of
our results. I hope my kid is ready to be tested and do what I want. We are
doing in pairs, so we have a little help in implementing.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Interviewing
The two big ways
that occupational therapists gain information about their clients is through
observation and interviews. Our professors have us interviewing so many
different people this semester. It is really awkward. Part of the reason is
normally we already know the people we are interviewing, even if just a tiny
bit. That makes the introduction weird. It also makes it hard to ask the
difficult questions, such as what was the hardest time in your life. I feel
like that section would be difficult either way though. Most of these
interviews are somewhat conversational, but not so much so that I can have a
conversation like I normally would with the people I am interviewing. I am glad
that our professors force us go out and perform interviews, even if it is on
people we know. It is so much harder than it seems. It is also super rewarding
because I am learning things about these people that I would not have
otherwise. It is also surprising to learn how many different kinds of interview
there are. Who would have imagined?
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