Blast from the past – OT, Evidence-based

http://otstudents.blogspot.com/2010/05/evidence-based-practice-practitioner.html

I was in a Google+ video chat meeting tonight with Anita Hamilton, Cheryl Morris, and Christopher Alterio tonight (Army OT guy was absent – something about this thing called a Super bowl??? ;)) – we are presenting at the AOTA conference in Indiana in April, on the Saturday morning, about social media, so we are getting our ducks in a row….we hit quite a few different topics and it suddenly occurred to me that it was ANITA HAMILTON who had once called me out on not presenting myself as evidence-based! I went back and re-read the exchange that took place and I felt like doing a blast from the past, because she spoke again today of “learning out loud” and how it takes a brave person to do that.

I love the idea of “learning out loud” which is exactly what I have done with this blog, but I never would have thought of it that way, and I certainly wouldn't have thought of it as brave. If anything, I very much admire the more formal blog presentation that are much more succinct and professional, rather than my typical blabbery stream of consciousness with ten thousand ideas in one long never-ending paragraph. So in comparison I feel quite inferior. It meant a lot to me when she praised me for being brave! I do know I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE when I get e-mails from people telling me I helped them decide to go to OT school, or when I learn of new blogs that mention me inspiring their own blogs. Makes me feel like an OT bunny, multiplying….hahahaha.

I HAVE been SUPER SUPER SUPER bad about responding to e-mails/comments lately though. I did email AOTA and asked their social media dude about whether there was someone there who I could perhaps forward the questions to. It seems very Centennial Vision, and I get great questions from prospective students, but it sounds like they don't really have the resources to take on all those questions randomly. He recommended sending y'all to their monthlyย  prospective student chat and checking out www.aota.org, and I think otconnections.aota.org is partially accessible as well. I have a new good idea though – they should pay for my AOTA membership and maybe that incentive will help me respond in a reasonable amount of time! HINTHINTSUBLIMINALHINTTHISISNTOBVIOUSATALLRIGHTIMVERYSUBTLEHINTSUBLIMINALHINT

All those e-mails I've gotten remain untouched in my email box until I have time to respond – as I always say, I ALWAYS respond, it just sometimes takes me up to a year… yeah not very chronologically helpful I know. :X I also need to update my blog sidebar again, so if anyone has some suggestions/additions/deletions that they want to offer, let me know…..

Gearing up for another week…..trying to decide my focus for this week….and need to email Tonya of TherapyFunZone.com about getting our newest handwriting paper up and running……the lava/worms/bees paper works nicely but I had some new ideas and I need Tonya's amazing Photoshop skills to make it work! I thought about making a version of Angry Birds paper (but calling it Angry Words) but I couldn't “make it fly”, excuse the pun….but seriously guys, turn handwriting into a game and see how much better the kids handwriting gets!

I am about to go make a green monster smoothie with my Vitamix….spinach, chia seeds, almond/coconut milk, banana, apple, orange…..that's probably it for this one. I'm trying to walk or do Pilates or work out pretty much every day plus eat MORE OR LESS close to a gluten-free vegan diet. Of course I've had quite a few missteps but overall doing pretty well. Trying to be kind to my body and soul as I struggle with personal life issues. And btw, I am happy to report that I was wrong, they decided NOT to place Grandma on hospice quite yet. She does have inoperable cancerous lesions throughout her abdomen so she is by no means in the clear but she is actually looking pretty good right now. Hoyer lift level though. ๐Ÿ™ Wish that wasn't the case, but glad she can still joke around with us! She did a little shoulder shimmy for us today! As my friend Kim commented tonight, “You don't do a shimmy when you're in hospice.” We visited Grandma again today and it was lovely to see her laugh. I feel blessed to have an OT background and be comfortable in a SNF (skilled nursing facility) or hospital or wherever she is. ๐Ÿ™‚ Actually I kind of lie, I THANK GOD I do not work in a hospital or SNF because it is so NOT my passion ….I feel the gifts I was born with are much more suited for pediatric work! Although I do love pediatric hospitals. Anyways. Tangent.

Oh one last tangent (is this a secant now? I'm a dork) is that I have been really interested in grief and its relationship with religion lately. Being in healthcare means I do see a lot of grief (although a lot of beauty as well) and now with the advent of blogs and caringbridge sites etc, there are a lot of “grief journals” out there so to speak. I'm fascinated with how people's grief evolves, especially in correlation with their religious faith – would make an interesting PhD dissertation. Wonder if I could make it correlate enough to OT to make it MY PhD dissertation one day! First I have to start hating my job though as I don't plan to start a PhD program until I'm unhappy, AHAHAHAHA. Just kidding. Kind of. No seriously, love my job, love that I get PAID to do something I love so much! I say that now, of course I won't say how much I love my job when it's 3am and I have a meeting with an advocate the next day, but hey, overall, LOVE LOVE LOVE! LOVE occupational therapy!! Rah rah rah, sis boom bah, I am clearly getting delirious, time to go drink my spinach!! And go to bed. Wow, 10pm, time flies when you're writing ridiculously, ridiculously long blog updates. CoughIwon'tmentionallmylaundryIstillneedtodocough.

Feb 06, 2012 | Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: 4