OTA 1170 Physical Dysfunction Fieldwork I is a one hour/week lecture and thirty hour clinical site experience. Lecture prepares for the off-site experience and future fieldwork IIs by requiring academic & practical competency-based assignments. The externship will be arranged and take place at clinical facility sites within the community under the direction of an academic fieldwork coordinator. Emphasis is to expose students to a variety of diagnoses and to develop professional behaviors and clinical observation skills. This is a designated service-learning course.

Community Engaged Learning (CEL) Project

This assignment requires you to provide a service to your fieldwork site.  Collaborate with your fieldwork educator and determine if the facility or a particular client may need adaptive equipment you can fabricate, a handout or home treatment program, or lead a group of clients. I chose to research Psychosis and Dementia and write an educational newsletter for the rehabilitation facility.

Connections 

For my fieldwork community-engaged learning project, I made a newsletter with information about psychosis and dementia. Between writing, researching, and creating my newsletter, I spent 11 hours working on this project. I spent 3 hours writing/producing my newsletter, and the other 7 hours, I spent researching and discussing it with peers, family, and fieldwork educators. This project didn’t cost me any money to make but I believe it was a beneficial service for the OT’s as well as the other staff working with this client. 

I chose the topic of psychosis and dementia after working with a couple of patients during my fieldwork who experienced this. From my observations, a lot of the staff (nurses, doctors, CNAs) had a challenging time communicating with this patient due to memory loss, hallucinations, behavioral instability, etc. 

I believe my newsletter could be useful to all staff who work directly with this patient. Through my research, I found many helpful assessment and intervention tips and tricks for supporting and communicating with individuals with psychosis and dementia, such as being flexible, recognizing that each day and session will likely look different, social engagement, behavioral management, and ADL/IADL training. Not only would it benefit the staff to know and implement these techniques but it would greatly benefit the patients as well by allowing them to feel heard and understood and get their needs met. 

When I first chose this topic for my project, I was unsure of how much information I would be able to find on psychosis and dementia combined. I thought I might have to adjust my topic to one or the other. After starting my research, I discovered there is a lot of information on this topic, along with many strategies to support staff and clients to feel good about each interaction. This experience was meaningful as it directly applied to multiple clients at my fieldwork site, which led me to know that many other individuals in different care facilities/rehabs also experience this and could benefit from their staff merging these tools into their treatment plans. By being able to deliver this information to my fieldwork site, it was meaningful for me as well to feel that I was contributing to the quality of life of these patients, who are often seen as more challenging.   

After doing the research, I felt that my interactions with these particular clients were significantly more meaningful, and I was able to approach them differently to make my engagements with them more successful. I noticed that these clients responded better to me when I put these intervention skills into action.  

Reflection 

Creating the newsletter on psychosis and dementia for my fieldwork community-engaged learning project was a highly rewarding experience that not only deepened my understanding of these complex conditions but also allowed me to contribute meaningfully to the care team. Through my research and interactions with peers, family, and fieldwork educators, I discovered a wealth of strategies to support both staff and clients, such as promoting flexibility, enhancing communication, and encouraging social engagement. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of information available on this combined topic, which reinforced the importance of integrating these techniques into treatment plans. The most meaningful aspect of the project was seeing how the knowledge I shared improved my own interactions with patients, making my engagements more successful and helping clients feel heard and understood. This experience enhanced my ability to provide person-centered care and gave me a greater sense of purpose, knowing that I was positively impacting both the staff and patients at my fieldwork site.