OTA 1150 Phys Dysfunction Lab

Service-Learning Reflection

Adult Onsite and Telehealth Clinics

I had the opportunity to observe 5 clinicals in total at Adult Onsite and Telehealth Clinics. By observing the second years running clinics was a great learning experience to see how all the material we have being learning through the semester being applied in an actual clinic. The ones I really enjoyed observing were the Adult Onsite clinics because I was able to see the client in person and being able to see how they perform the activities. Which it gives me a better understanding of what I have learned in OTA-1150, about spasticity by being able to feel what spasticity feels like in a client. Another connection to the program was about writing SOAP notes. During OTA-1170 we learn the concepts of how to write SOAP notes and then we practice, this was very helpful because in the future it’s going to be me who is going to be running clinics. Being able to observe others and practicing it would facilitate my understanding of the material and making it easy to flow during the program. It was nice seeing the second year’s SOAP notes because it is different from just writing notes from a video than writing about a real client in clinic. Writing notes on real clients makes more sense to me now. The last connection on the program is about making adaptive equipment for clients as we learned in OTA-1120/1130. It is so interesting to see how our creativity can make a massive difference in the client’s ADL’s.

This clinical observation also helped me to meet course learning outcomes. One of the course learning outcomes is to identify and describe evaluations. On every appointment there was a briefing before the appointment with the second years and first years discussing about the client concerns. Another course learning outcome is developing a treatment plan depending on the client history and level of function. During this observation I had the opportunity to see how the second years developed every activity for every appointment to meet the client’s goals. Also, demonstrating effective documentation is very important for therapy records. SOAP notes play a crucial role in OT clinical; this is a way to demonstrate how the client has been improving.

This experience will influence my clinical growth by preparing me to run a real-life clinic. Even though I was observing as a first year, I got the opportunity to ask questions that I may have had and being able to write a SOAP note from a clinical perspective. Also, it helped me on the way to learn how to create activities and how to communicate with clients.