Skip to main content

Area of Interest

One area I am interested in learning more about is Acute Care. During my observation and shadowing hours, this was an area in which I received very few hours, resulting in a lack of overall knowledge and experience. I’m very interested in learning more in order to determine whether or not this would be an area I would excel in.

A few of the things that draw me into Acute Care is the fact that you are one of the first individuals getting to make contact with the patient and their family after a traumatic event. I believe being able to be one of the first sources of encouragement and aid would be extremely rewarding. In addition, I believe you are able to strongly incorporate advocacy and education about OT during this time, which is an important skill to strengthen, especially as a young professional. One area of Acute Care I believe is specifically interesting is the Burn Unit. 

However, one of the downsides is that the patient turnover time is typically very short, allowing for minimal time getting to know your patients and witness their progress until the end. In addition, I feel as if the room for creativity would be fairly narrow considering the vast need for therapy and around the clock care. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Proper Posture & Body Mechanics

Posture encompasses the position of the head, limbs and trunk and ultimately allows our muscles and organs to function optimally. When discussing posture, it is also important to note the role of one’s Center of Gravity and Base of Support. It is important to keep our COG over our BOS in order to maintain postural control. The body is more stable when we have a larger BOS, or support surface, and therefore can majorly impact the way we move our body in order to reach a fixed and supported position. Here are 4 reasons why it is so crucial to teach proper posture and body mechanics to an individual, or future client, who has poor posture. 1.) Statistics show that 80% of adults will at some point experience back pain, and 90% of the time the low back pain will return or be recurrent. It is also important to note that the average age of experiencing this pain can begin as early as 30 years old. Many of these statistics could be avoided with the implementation of proper body mechanics w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Implicit Bias

Implicit bias is the way we see or stereotype groups of people without even realizing. Implicit bias is a result of years of being taught to look at things or people in a certain way. After time, these ideas become so embedded into our thought process, we don't stop to think twice about the situation or person as an individual. As occupational therapists, we have a responsibility to look at our clients holistically. If we were to go into an evaluation with our own preconceived notions, we would miss out on the beauty of what makes our client unique and motivated. Most importantly, as (future) practitioners, we may not hear or understand the actual needs or beliefs of our client. So, how do we catch ourselves in implicit bias? A few ways we can examine and take initiative against our own bias is by active listening. Taking time to hear a client and truly work towards understanding their point of view will help in decreasing the formation of our own. With active listening, there ...
Post a Comment
Read more

SDoH

A Social Determinant of Health is what you do and live everyday that directly impacts your health. Many times, we are unaware of how our environment shapes our overall health, therefore, the conditions worsen or go unresolved. For example, in the TED Talk, a patient named Veronica was asked about her home situation and whether or not she had mold, insects, and/or water leaks. After admitting to all three issues, Dr. Manchanda was able to conclude her chronic allergies and migraines were a direct result from her living situation and environment. With the help of a community specialist, they were able to do what they could to help relieve the symptoms by altering from home. In return, her chronic symptoms improved and even helped with her children’s asthma, creating an improved overall mental state for the whole family as well. Social Determinants of Health play a huge role not only in our physical health, but our cognitive/mental health as well. If an individual is living in a dangero...
Post a Comment
Read more