Slacking biggg time on the whole OT blogging :)
I just heard from a friend who gave a seminar to rehab students; he apparently mentioned my blog with praise. If you are reading it nowadays, there isn't much to praise, unfortunately! I've been a really bad blogger. My biggest readers still tend to be prospective students – while I do think they can get a good idea of what OT school is like by reading the archives way back at the beginning, I have to say that since I haven't been a beginning student in like, 5 years….I am not probably the best person to ask for up to date advice on the process!!
So….read my archives/past and try not to look at my newest blogging too closely or you will be disappointed. I'm still pondering in my head about how to write up my 7 weeks in Bogota, Colombia, at CIREC – a rehab center that works closely with land mine victims. I'd like to submit an article to OT Practice (like a reflection of the hearts kinda piece, one page) but first I need to think of how to write it up!
I'm also still working on getting a job. I get a little overwhelmed by people who apply to a bunch of jobs/interviews at once; I've always been the type to throw my eggs in one basket. And with the exception of one exceptionally painful experience, it's always worked. I'm a very honest person in most ways ( we all tell our white lies) – so I have a hard time going into interviews acting as if it's the one and only job I really, really want…..unless it's true. Right now I am waiting for a job panel interview next week, where I have to answer some basic questions and then get ranked. I'm studying school OT as we speak, I have four textbooks open to pages on school OT (the Case-Smith OT for Children book has the best/most extensive amount), a whole bunch of hand-outs I printed out from various websites, at least one of which I shared in an earlier post, and then I ::gulp:: need to go through the 200 pages of the CA for school OT/PT book! I'm going to formulate questions they might ask and hope I'm right on at least some of them. I need to get familar with IEPs, IDEA, commonly used evals/assessments, etc….I am going to try and write my notes up on the computer so I can transfer them to you all.
What's nice about OT is that there are so many options…..although when it's time to find a job it can get overwhelming to decide….do I want to work in a nursing home? A rehab center? Outpatient? Peds? Adults? Schools? Hospitals? I've already determined that rehab centers/SNFs kind of freak me out but you never know….I am always VERY tired in the early morning, no matter how much I've slept….my heart is racing and I feel like I will jump out of my skin because of the adrenaline that tries to kick in to compensate…when I have to help people get up with their ADLs and they are in dark rooms waking up and then wanting to shower or get ready and it's really hot, I find it very stressful! It's a sensory overload for me. Therefore I think I'd prefer a job that doesn't start early in the morning with ADLs….I can do it just fine without people realizing I am struggling, but I'd prefer to not go through that torture!! One of my former classmates was actually helping out with a shower for a spinal cord injury patient and got reallly hot and fainted and hit her head and had to go to the hospital!! Yikes.
I'll have to remember to tell you all about showers…..I had to give a ton of showers during one of my fieldworks at a behavioral health hospital. Wow. That's worthy of a post by itself. Maybe my next post. Ooh the memories!! Oooh, ooh….I can think of lots of the top of my head about that fieldwork…
Just rambling now – I always feel guilty neglecting my blog for long even when I have nothing specific to say beyond still job hunting and putting a lot of hope into a school position right now….but have quite a few other options in the works if need be. 🙂
Better stop procrastinating. I just signed up for a 2-day Handwriting without Tears workshop in San Diego in March, which I am looking forward to. Used very often in pediatric therapy. And I am looking into CPR recertification to do this week too since almost all days require current CPR cert from AHA or Red Cross….I am going to wait on new TB test until I find out requirements of where I end up working..some want it done only at their own facility. And now I need to work on a cover letter, call a few nursing homes, and read up on more and more school OT. As I've been begging lately….if you are a school OT, puh-leez let me know so I can contact you to pick your brain a little bit, or just admire you. 😉
Hope your eyeballs didn't bleed reading this!! Writing is my therapy…helps me pull everything out of my brain. Like that Harry Potter thing where the wizard would stick a wand to his head and extract thoughts to help clear it……