fUTure OT2B

Before coming to OT school I shadowed multiple OTs at Vanderbilt's Stallworth hospital for around 130 hours. I know now that this is a subacute care setting where clients come after being in acute care. It is an inpatient rehab hospital and they have just about any kind of client that you can see. One intervention that I frequently saw with clients who had suffered a stroke was word recognition therapy. The OT would write out each letter of the alphabet, sometimes in order and sometimes out of order depending on the severity of the client's stroke. The OT would then ask the client to come up with one word for each letter that is listed out. Sometimes they had them come up with words in different types of categories, such as items found around the house or colors. I know that this intervention is designed to help clients with recall, spelling, and handwriting, but I am curious about what else this intervention is designed to do. A lot of times this intervention was used in tande...

I really enjoyed this 'choose your own adventure' session. I have always been interested in adaptive sports. Learning about the difference between high tech, medium tech, and low tech assistive technology materials intrigued me because I always assumed high tech would be giant machines that helped people to walk instead of things like iPads. I was curious about this years Paralympic games after I read about this. Reading about the normalcy of the event and how some athletes were even suspended for doping hit home to me and made the article even more real. It goes to show that with a little adaptive help, any activity can be modified for any person regardless of diagnosis. The first podcast that I chose to listen to is the Psychosocial Impact of Childhood Obesity. This topic has always interested me as well and I wanted to dive deeper into the science behind it. Brittany Saviers is very knowledgeable about this subject and started out by letting listeners know that 17% of childr...

The OTPF is the occupational therapy practice framework which guides our profession. It includes domains, or areas of occupation such as ADLS, iADLS, rest and sleep, education, work, play, leisure, and social participation. It also includes client factors such as values, beliefs, spirituality, body functions, or body structures. It supports a top down approach, which basically means that the WHOLE client is looked at and they are not just a hip replacement or knee surgery patient. In the OTPF, occupations can be almost anything that the client finds meaningful and are shaped by client factors, performance skills,  and performance patterns. It is very client centered and takes into consideration the things that the client finds meaningful and important in their life. It defines the overall focus of OT as "achieving health, well-being, and participation in life through engagement in occupation". Engagement supports  health and well being in every aspect of life and helps client...

Learning about occupational therapy in each decade was a unique experience that gave me a different outlook on our profession. There was one common theme throughout all of these decades and that was service. Occupational therapists have always strived to help others and are focused on servant leadership, an aspect that is unique in our profession. One aspect I thought was interesting was that after the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers, OTs helped people impacted get back to work. I have always known that OT had strong ties to mental health but it is interesting that after a national crisis we served such an important role. I also liked that in the 1980s presentation, it was demonstrated that OTs can use just about anything for therapy..including a Mr. Potato Head. I love that the profession focuses so much on client's abilities and interests instead of what they cannot do. Each era was different but the presentations demonstrated that occupational therapists have always strived to h...

Since being about 15 years old, I have always wanted to work with children. I spent all of my extra time babysitting, continuing this through college to make extra money. When I got to college I decided to major in therapeutic recreation in hopes of eventually becoming an OT. As I was doing my TR internships I always gravitated towards pediatrics. I was lucky enough to be able to shadow an occupational therapist who worked in a pediatric setting for 120 hours and absolutely fell in love, and fell even deeper after attending camps for children with disabilities.  This being said, I would absolutely love to get board certified in pediatrics. After looking farther into this, I see that the prerequisites are five years of experience as an OT, 5,000 hours in certification area within the past five years, 500 hours of delivering OT services within the past 5 years, verification of employment, and an application process including a portfolio. I like that this process equips practitio...

http://www.thelandmark.com/articles/rescue-dog-helps-others/ When I stumbled across this article about an occupational therapist who adopted Trot, a homeless dog, I was immediately drawn in. Jessica O'Connor is an OT who works with at-risk children and the owner of Trot who had him registered as an emotional support dog at 2 years old. O'Connor talks about her experience having a group of adolescent girls and how Trot motivates them to talk more in their therapy setting. The article goes on to talk about how Trot developed cancer in his jaw and now his tongue permanently hangs out of his mouth. O'Connor explains that Trot's unusual traits make clients very empathetic towards him and are inspired by how he rose out of being homeless and having cancer to being the service dog that he is today. I am inspired by this depiction of OT in the media because it shows how important service animals can be and the kinds of services that occupational therapists can offer (group th...