Nan with the Plan

My senior year of my undergraduate degree at the University of Alabama I started a job as a therapy aide at a local outpatient clinic.  I loved the atmosphere and the fast pace as it was a very busy clinic with often times 10 patients an hour between 3 therapists and 2 PTAs.  Often times every client's session started with preparatory exercises such as the arm/leg bike, pulleys, fluidotherapy machines, and more.  As I was working there I saw the purpose to these exercises to warm up the muscles before therapy sessions.  Now that I have spent three months in OT school, I see there might be better activities to engage the clients in and make their hour sessions more worthwhile and motivating.  I wonder if the therapists used these preparatory exercises because they were so busy and could not work the entirety of the hour one-on-one with the clients, forcing them split their time between themselves and prep exercises. I thought the busier the clinic was the better ...

I listened to the Glass Half Full podcast about the role of OT in an Au-Some Swimmers program, a program providing swimming lessons to kids on the autism spectrum.  A group of OT students approached the Au-Some Swimmers program as a community service learning project.  Before I started the podcast I had no idea what to expect or how these students were going to incorporate OT into the swimming lessons. I really liked the way they approached their project because when asked what the objectives were they said they didn't really have any to start out with.  They interviewed the stakeholders of the program to find out what they were having difficulties with and developed the objectives from there.  This reminded me of the process of the occupational profiles we have been doing in class.  The OT students quickly learned the volunteer lifeguards were having trouble communicating with each other and the kids.  That is when I instantly saw the value of OT in this p...

OTPF stands for Occupational Therapy Practice Framework, and it does exactly what it says.  It provides a framework for occupational therapy practitioners that guides their practice.  It serves the purpose of establishing a common language among practitioners and guiding the evaluation, intervention, and outcome process.  It also helps define the occupational therapy scope of practice.  The OTPF describes in-depth various skills and factors to consider during OT services such as client factors, performance skills and patterns, and the environment in which clients engage in their everyday lives.  The OTPF emphasizes a top-down approach, which is understanding the roles clients have in their lives and attending to those roles first and foremost instead of focusing on the limitations, illness, or injury at hand.  This way, practitioners know what the client values in their everyday life, and they can use OT services to help them get back to living their best l...

During the Era Presentations, an event that carried over through a couple decades was World War II, starting in the 1940s.  Men were sent off to war, so women were forced to become the breadwinners of families and make a living for themselves.  If women did not get a job in this time period, it definitely sparked a movement of women entering the workforce shortly after.  WWII created an increased need for OT to tend to injured soldiers and veterans trying to participate in civilian life after war.  This opened up many job opportunities to women, and kickstarted the growth of OT.  It was needed then more than ever.  Soldiers needed to regain strength and mobility to be able to fight for our country, and veterans needed to overcome mental illnesses or other physical limitations to participate in life after war.  OT thrived in these years, and the country needed more practitioners to keep up with the demand.  More and more OT programs were developed ...

I knew pretty early on that I wanted to pursue a career in the rehabilitation field.  Luckily, I was able to shadow many different settings during my undergrad years.  I was offered a job as an OT aide my senior year at the University of Alabama at a local outpatient clinic called Tuscaloosa Rehab and Hand Center.  I had hands-on experience with client and non-client related tasks.  I was exposed to the many different aspects of outpatient therapy, and what it would be like to work on an interdisciplinary team.  This setting really stood out to me, and I developed an interest in hand therapy.  I loved how each client was different and challenging in their own ways.  Seeing individuals lose functioning in their hands, and then being able to help them get back to living their best life would be so rewarding.  Achieving the Certified Hand Therapist (CHT) specialty certification is something I would love to do.  Not only would it make me more spe...

" The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug. "   - Mark Twain  People with disabilities are just like every other human being.  Person-first language puts focus on the individual and not the disability.  We should not identify individuals based on their functional or mental limitations.  For example, a practitioner should refer to someone as "a man who had a stroke" instead of a "stroke patient."  I believe it is important to understand and practice person-first language to be an effective practitioner.  First, it allows the client to feel more comfortable, and you will make more progress together if the client feels like an individual and not a disability.  Second, occupational therapists are trained to help people as a whole, not just the disability, so it is important for us to look past the disability and focus on the client, as well.  There are countless mo...