When reflecting back on my journey in Physical Rehabilitation so far in OT school, I can clearly identify several areas of growth in my clinical reasoning skills. One year ago, I remember experiencing feelings of incompetence as I asked myself “how will I ever gain the strong clinical reasoning that my professors and fieldwork educators hold?”. Despite these feelings of incompetence and uncertainty when it came to adults and seniors practice areas, I remained dedicated to learning as much as I possibly could and committed to challenging myself in order to develop my clinical reasoning skills. The courses taken in my first semester, human movement analysis and fundamentals challenged me to take very practical skills and apply them to real life situations, which included real client interaction. Through studying the intricate details of joint and muscle function in human movement analysis, I developed a strong foundation in critical thinking. By breaking down complex movements into smaller components, I gained a deeper understanding that every action and occupation involves more than what meets the eye*. My critical thinking skills continued to develop in foundations as I began transitioning from a heavy reliance on notes and pre-written scripts to thinking on my feet in unpredictable situations during skills checks Instead of depending solely on memory and fixed solutions, I learned to consider multiple avenues towards a solution and make real-time decisions which included specific action steps in order to achieve a goal. I am a firm-believer in pursuing and engaging in tasks where you feel uncomfortable, yields some of the greatest outcomes and growth moments in life. For this reason, I feel that my experiences in these courses, as challenging as they were, created a solid foundation for which to build my critical reasoning development from.

Following these foundational courses within my journey in Physical Rehabilitation, I endeavored on the next path in my journey which was the OAS series. I strongly believe that this particular series of courses were the most influential experiences that have shaped the critical thinking skills I have developed today. Similar to human movement analysis and fundamentals, OAS was foundational in nature in that it provided me with invaluable information about the OT process. I frequently think back to the ways in which we were taught the OT process and use this as a grounding point in every single classroom assignment, fieldwork task, and intervention I come up with in our case studies. The most challenging points by far of the entire OAS series, that also yielded the most constructive growth moments, were facilitated by assignments such as the “Ben” case study. While learning the content covered in OASII and during the “Ben” case study, I remember have difficulties distinguishing different intervention approaches as well as making connections towards application. Similarly, when it came to providing my OT analysis, I felt frustrated that I was able to identify every single problem going on in each section. However, I found that when I sought out advising from my instructor and my peers and they were able to question my line of thinking, this opened up new pathways of thinking that I hadn’t considered before. This significantly changed my critical thinking skills as I was able to build new neural pathways and develop more confidence in myself and my abilities as an OT student. Moving onto OASIII, one of my biggest takeaway points of this semester was understanding how to create interventions that go beyond just doing the job and move towards more meaningful and effective interventions that are backed by evidence-based practices. Feedback from the previous semester on the “Ben” case study allowed me to reflect and got me in the habit of providing reasoning for WHY I was choosing certain goals, interventions, and approaches to care.

Overall, I am extremely grateful for these challenging experiences such as the “Ben” case study as they have worked to build the strong critical thinking skills I need to think on my feet and be a SKILLED therapist. Looking forward, I understand that I certainly have room for improvements in my skills as a therapist. To be the therapist I want to be, I believe that I need to work on communicating not only effectively but efficiently. Although I believe I produce very details work, I do so in a way that can at time be too wordy. In practice this is not efficient or effective as there are time restrictions and responsibilities that I will have when collaborating with other professionals. If I write a note that is worded in a confusing way or is too long, this could cause delays that could ultimately negatively impact my client’s quality of care when other professionals are working with them. However, I believe there is a balance. I need to find a middle ground where I am communicating all of the important parts of my reasoning in the most clear and efficient way I can. Lastly, I will need to continue to seek out feedback from my peers and colleagues and always be willing to think outside of the box.

Throughout my experience in OT school, I have been inspired by the creativity, empathy, and care that both my instructors and peers exude in their work and their personalities. I believe that I too share these qualities which is why I aspire to be a practitioner that is committed to doing everything in their power to design and facilitate interventions that are innovative, meaningful to the client, and occupation based. From what I have come to understand, there are definitely some differences between what you learn formally in school compared to what occurs in practice. However, I hope to never lose the quality of the reasoning and theoretical skills I have developed in school while out in practice. I can see how it could be easy to get comfortable with where you are at a specific site or even with your routines and frequently used interventions. I am determined to keep the heart of OT alive in my work while shining bright in my own unique way.

Along with creating meaningful interventions, I hope to be a practitioner who embodies cultural humility values and is committed to lifelong learning and the roles and responsibilities of being an ally. I feel extremely passionate about advocating for my clients as well as learning about what values, rituals, roles, and routines are part of the culture that they identify with. It is important for me to be able to use my privilege to uplift those whose voices have historically and are currently being oppressed. I wish to strive to deliver culturally component care always.

         I recognize that there will be many barriers I experience in practice. Some barriers that I believe will be relevant, knowing my strengths and weaknesses, will be time constraints as well as the expectations that I set upon myself. I have learned that I have both perfectionist and people-pleasing tendencies and have seen in real time how this can impact me personally and professionally. To combat this, I will need to make continuous efforts to support my own resilience so that I can provide quality care for my clients. This included strategies such as reminding myself what things I have done that been working and what areas I may need to improve in. I want to find a good balance where critique myself in a loving and kind way. As a new practitioner, I plan to be a leader by being intentional with my interventions and also challenging myself a new ways every day. I want to continue to dream and be creative with my interventions as I care deeply about those around me.