30 Nov 2007

Treatment Projects for Pediatrics Lab in OT school!



This short video shows OTS Julie explaining her treatment project..with bloopers.

We all had treatment projects to due based on fake case studies. I’m a little paranoid right now about copyright issues, so I don’t want to go into detail as to how the process went, in terms of first getting our case study to eventually making a treatment project…suffice to say it was a long process with multiple steps. Anyway, we had to do homemade projects. We all brought them in and presented them to each other (also via video to Chattanooga and vice versa) during a two hour session. There were a lot of really creative ideas.

I did a sensory/praxis board game for a child with dyspraxia…pictures and video soon…I’m proud of it. (See the red board game above)

Keep watching for more pictures and videos. In fact, don’t even go to bed tonight. Just refresh this page continuously for the next 12 hours and see if any pictures show up. Because Blogger is TOTALLY not cooperating but I hope to beat it into submission soon.

All videos shown with permission by the OTS stars.

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none

30 Nov 2007

A bad day became a good day…

Update: this got ridiculously long. I had more to share then I thought…I shoulda said this post would be like long underwear instead of briefs.

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Let's talk about today. Or let's start with last night. I'll try to be brief like underwear. Especially since I have learned helplessness and it has taken me an hour of hypothermia to turn on my heat so I can barely feel my fingers. Who needs phalanges anyways. Not me. Phalanges are for wimps!

Yesterday
blah blah blah, see previous entry….I forgot to mention I had a wonderful dinner at a local Mediterrean dive called Sean's, which incidentally also sells discount cigarettes, vitamins, and smoothies. Believe it or not, it's good. I was there with my “little sib”, aka an incoming freshman to our OT program, Talli. We chatted about OT-related things and I REALLY am happy with our match! We are like oil and oil! She will do great in OT school!

Then…I didn't exactly plan my calories so great…. I went to IHOP at 9pm to meet Virginia and Allison (the entire class was invited though!), and we studied for our neuro final for about an hour with pancakes and decaf coffee. It was fun!!!!!!! The other night OTS Allison was online at the same time I was and so we were quizzing each other on cranial nerve functions. Pretty sad.

Me: exotropia and diplopia
Allison: Abducens!

Today:
9am: Nathan from New Zealand, an honors OT student, asks if he can use my blog in his dissertation which talks about Web 2.0. I agree happily and print out the -mail for my PDEs.
9am: See very kind e-mail from little sib Talli thanking me for last night. Print it out for PDEs.
10am – Neurological Aspects of Occupational Performance final. I did good! Our professor in that class is Superman when it comes to putting up grades, so I know I got an A in the class. 🙂
11am to 2pm – worked on professional development evaluations, played on myspace, chatted with classmates…
2pm to 2:20pm – I presented on the Centennial Vision and how Conclave went. We talked about ways we could be all Centennie. Hey….Tennessee…Centennial….CenTENNial…oh my goodness I've missed my calling. I'm switching from OT school to advertising….ok anyway – I was proud because I was interactive with my classmates and encouraging their ideas, although apparently I never smile while I give a presentation. 🙁 I thought I did a good job though overall. We talked about tapping into various magazines, newspapers, high school fairs, getting leadership hours by making videos and pictures and other fun stuff to put online, etc.
220 to 3pm – Our department chair closed up our final class of the semester
3pm: went home and the electricity was out and basically had a panic attack…not because of the electricity, just because I was anxious and freaked out to have my routine completely changed…I have soooooo much to catch up on from 4 months of neglect to catch up on, and I'm still not done with professional development evaluations, and I just felt bad. I am a creature of habit….I like my performance patterns to stay the SAME and even though I'm happy we're done with classes, it always takes me a while to transition to a new routine.
4pmish: drove across town to Houston's restaurant to have dinner with a friend's parents. Was 15 minutes early. Drove up and saw OTS Kerri getting into her car from Office Depot!! Pulled up next to her and she got into my car for a minute. She was stressing out too…overwhelmed with our professional development evals, and just feeling yucky in general. I told her I felt the same way and how anxious I was. We pow-wowed, in true OT fashion, on ways to reduce our anxiety and help each other. I don't know if she felt better but I did. 🙂
5pmish: Yes, you heard me…my friend's parents. My friend Doug is in London, England getting a master's in history. Yet I met with his parents. I'm kinda groovy that way in having a diverse set of friends…. This is when the day started getting better. Had a yummy dinner. Got a starbucks gift certificate and burt's bees stuff as a late bday gift from them. 🙂 Followed Doug's mom to grocery store Wild Oats and she bought me two yogurts so I wouldn't starve tomorrow morning. Enjoyed it. 
7pm: Got into my own car and called OTS Allison back. She said she practically cried with happiness on her way home to Jackson, TN, because she was so glad to have some stress off her shoulders!
7:10pm Doug called from England and we talked for an hour.
740ish:Got home. Street was still pitch black. Walked in and tripped over things and found a flashlight and candles.
830ish:Sat in winter coat and called OTS Virginia back. Informed her my electricity was out. She immediately offered to let me spend the night….for the third time in six months since there has also been two times my a/c died this summer. I refused, with high hopes electricity would come! Think about doing something productive like putting videos on my laptop from my camera and Flip recorder. Decide not to secondary to depressive feelings.
9pm. Electricity comes on. Wireless comes on and the angels sang hallelulljah (sp). Have an e-mail from a high-ranking person (I don't know if I can share his name) at AOTA that my blog is making the rounds in the national office and he agrees my blog is the epitome of the centennial vision as I so articulately explained recently. Cried (ok smiled) with joy..
903pm. Power goes out. Filled with elation from AOTA email. Run to camera and start putting on videos so I can update and knock people's socks off.
910pm: Wish I knew better ways to edit videos
9:15pm: Power comes back on. Finish writing this post (I have set it up so I write this in an e-mail in Gmail and then send it to a special address and it posts for me, cool huh)
916pm: Decide this day ended a lot better than I expected
9:16.2seconds pm: Decide this post is way too long.
916.3 seconds pm: Decide don't care and posting it anyway then cleverly immediately posting again with a shorter and more exciting post to hide the unprofessionalism of this post.
916.5 seconds pm: Move on to figuring out how to post a movie directly through Blogger instead of using Youtube or Google Video.

PS: Does anyone know how to say brown in medical terminology or latin? I looked it up in my med. book and didn't find it…I decided to make a medical term for brown-nosing and I came up with congenital brownonasalia until I get a better word for brown and then I'll rethink this serious matter.
PS2: In case you scoff at our short day in OT school, it was OUR LAST DAY of CLASSES! SO WE DESERVED AN EASY DAY AFTER SIX HARD MONTHS (our semester started in early July)! Now we just have PDE's left!

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none

29 Nov 2007

neurological aspects of occupational performance final tomorrow!

Tomorrow we have our neuro final, and then in the afternoon I present material from the OT student conclave I went to, & about the Centennial Vision!

In an hour I am headed to IHOP to do some neuro studying with a friend or two and to just have coffee or something. I am still working on my professional development evaluations!

I took a few videos of treatment projects and a few pictures of them as well. The people in my class are really creative!  I'll show them off soon.

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: 1

28 Nov 2007

Today….oh today….occupational therapy labs galore…

not really, but it sounds dramatic right?

We actually all share our homemade treatment projects for our fake cases from 10am to noon, then 1 to 3pm we have a lab on three different assessments we learned about recently…including the KELS and I'm totally blanking on the rest. My brain is freezing up as the end of this semester approaches.

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none

27 Nov 2007

My OT blog blitz is complete

I just wrote like five thousand blog posts tonight…it took me about 45 minutes instead of 20…but…I did it. So…you may be bewildered and I don’t blame you, but just check it out. I promise it will enrich your occupational therapy driven life more so than white bread.

And now it’s 11:55pm and I’m going to bed NOW!

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none

27 Nov 2007

Advance for OT Practitioners: Check it out

Advance for OT Practitioners is a website that can be really helpful to current OT practitioners and students alike. It has a lot of resources, info on continuing education, patient handouts, state directories, salary surveys/counters, OT blogs, OT-relevant articles, etc. It also has a student center with similar items.

Basically…it’s a good website to add to your OT arsenal. Keep it in mind. And I totally wasn’t paid to write about it. 🙂

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none

27 Nov 2007

Rehab consumer vs Occupational Therapist: Show-down

Just kidding.
I posted recently about my friend’s experience at a rehab hospital, dealing with his mother who fell and fractured her hip. He pointed out some observations/issues he encountered with Rehab services

A recent male graduate who is now working as an OT (Natan) wrote a great response, and then my friend wrote back again…and Natan wrote again…it was all very civil but also fascinating to see both sides of the story! So go check it out.

http://otstudents.blogspot.com/2007/11/rehab-hospital-from-consumer.html

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none

27 Nov 2007

OT Identity: Ramblings

So as I was completing the ADL (activity of daily life) of grooming tonight, ie showering, I started randomly thinking about OT identity.

I was never a popular child…never a popular middle schooler…high schooler…college-er…you get the point. And I’m not going to be so presumptuous to say I am popular now…but I’m a lot more popular than I used to be! And I’m the happiest, socially, that I have ever been. I have several really really good friends in my class of 27, and lots of acquaintances, and I like every person in my class….although as Joe would say, “I like some friends more than others”.

The point is…you may feel like you never really understood your peers…or never really had a place…but if you truly have an OT personality…you will find your social nirvana in OT school. You will typically be in small classes, with like-minded people….compassionate, sweet, kind, funny, SMART, creative, people! You will spend so much time together and have so many happy (and not so happy) moments together…you will be making friends that last the rest of your life. It’s pretty awesome!

Anyway, I was also thinking about how I’ve never been a part of a sorority, or a clique, or big clubs…like I never did the whole matching outfits thing…but it is FUN to do it! I feel really proud when I see all us OT students in our matching OT shirts and jeans…or in our OT jackets…the other day my friend and I were at Taco bell with our matching OT jackets that have our names on them and the cashier called us by name! I guess we looked pretty silly considering we were also in pajamas.

Ahem, moving on…I’m not doing a good job of tying this together…but what I am trying to say is…it is wonderful to be part of a group…a group that truly “gets” you because everyone is so similar in a fundamental way…because you can’t be successful in OT school if you don’t have a compassionate core!

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: 1

27 Nov 2007

Tips from NBCOT/AOTA Conclave for OT students Part 1

Hodge podge of random tips or info or observations from sessions or speeches at Conclave…no easy way to make it all flow together. I won’t even try. Sorry. Part 1.

NBCOT has announced they are changing the template of the licensing exam for those students graduating in May 2009..like, for example, my class. They will be putting out information for the new test in Fall of 2008. They have a website…but last I checked, no news on this exam change!

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Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none

27 Nov 2007

Tips from NBCOT/AOTA Conclave for OT students

Hodge podge of random tips or info or observations from sessions or speeches at Conclave…no easy way to make it all flow together. I won’t even try. Sorry.

“When it’s dark enough you can see the stars…” – a good quote to keep in mind for people undergoing the darkest periods of their life with you by their side.
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Be proactive, be confident, show respect…all your basic professional and altruistic behaviors.
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“Excellent substance, not enough marketing” in OT – a comment made by one of the lecturers. I agree. OT has so much to offer EVERYONE, yet nobody knows what an OT Fdoes. We all know speech therapists, recreational therapists, physical therapists…rocket scientists…why not OT? We need to be creative about our marketing!
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Fieldwork: Stay a student, don’t just accept a job on fieldwork, even if it seems amazing. You will end up transitioning from student to entry-level practitioner WHILE on fieldwork since you are going to be an employee there, and you lose out on the student experience!
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OTPF in a few sentences…
Performance skills: based on client factors, and typically involve “…ing” words.

Areas of Occupation: What people do in daily life…like work, school, etc

Performance Patterns: How people put areas of occupation together to make their routines and habits…

Context: Envelops all these things

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How to stay occupation-based:
Language is critical – use words, in insurance and in talking to others, that focuses on occupation, purposeful activity, etc. Use the term occupational profile! If you mention preparatory methods like ROM, make it end up with a functional statement, ie “done to prevent contractures in his shoulder so he can raise his arms to do __________ (purposeful activity like grooming).

MAKE THE LINK for people..of how things tie back into occupation…don’t just assume the family gets what you are doing and why. Especially when you ARE doing activities like arm bike. “This arm bike helps with strength and endurance, which are really important for the client to be able to do _________”
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Be creative in being occupation-based, like in a rehab hospital where it is hard. Have the client clean real windows or mirrors in the bathroom or rehab gym…water plants in their own room…organize stuff in client’s drawer with them…have client hang his/herget well cards on a bulletin board…do crossword puzzles….put clothes away..make the hospital bed…read the TV guide and plan out shows…write up a meal card…lots of options that are occupation-based even with the rigid confines of a rehab hospital.

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About 99% of the 560 OT students at Conclave…were attractive little 20-somethings, mostly females. All the male hotel employees were in heaven. I pointed out to Cheryl that almost all of them were quite trim (statistically unusual in the US) and her comment was “OT students are too stressed to eat”.

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We need to remember quality of life is about meaningful engagement in occupation! Occupation is NOT referring to just “work” in this case. It could ANY activity that brings you fulfillment!
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NBCOT has announced they are changing the template of the licensing exam for those students graduating in May 2009..like, for example, my class. They will be putting out information for the new test in Fall of 2008. They have a website…but last I checked, no news on this exam change!

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Remember the Centennial Vision…we need to find ways to bring OT into the 21st century…be proactive, be creative…donate your time or energy or money or SOMETHING…keep the profession ALIVE! Be the best OT you can be! ::waves pom poms::

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Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none