Class Description
Students learn effects of dysfunction on occupational habits and occupational roles, apply the Occupational Therapy (OT) process, problem-solve ideas, become introduced to rehabilitation assessment, treatment techniques, and community resources. Students learn practical application and apply active learning in lecture content.
CEL Experience: Adult and Pediatric In-person and Telehealth Clinics ------------------------------------------
Clinic offered many valuable opportunities to see real-life applications of class material. I love that we had an opportunity to experience things like evaluations, motivational interviewing, reflective listening, and accurate reporting in action. It was informative to see the nuance of real sessions. Sometimes a plan looks great on paper, but it doesn’t work out quite so well in the session. The second years were great examples of thinking on their feet to adapt their interventions in real time based on direct and indirect feedback from the client.
One of the most valuable parts of clinic for me was watching an evaluation. I watched Kristen administer the COPM with our adult telehealth patient. We hadn’t learned about it yet in class, so it was a great introduction into the kinds of things we’ll do as practitioners to help create interventions and help people get better. I loved the COPM because it focused on the client’s priorities, not what the practitioner thought was important. For example, the client struggled with sleep and rated her performance pretty low out of 10, but it wasn’t her priority for the time that she had to spend with OT. She wanted to focus on toileting and being able to care for her newborn. Without that evaluation, a practitioner might have thought that sleep would have been the most important because it affects everything, but an intervention based on that would not be salient in this case and therefore not as effective. This experience helped me see how to guide a conversation so that I, as a practitioner, can help a client participate in their most important occupations.
I also saw a lot of applications of the principles of neuroplasticity. In one case where the focus was heavily on biomechanical rehabilitation, I saw a lot of repetition of desired movements along with stretching and strengthening. One of my favorite sessions with him was when he asked us, the first years, to come up with 4 activities he could do at home. This was an exercise in salience and specificity as well—were the exercises related to the movements he wanted to improve? And were they fun and relevant to his goals? While working on an exercise band activity, the client remarked that the cross-body exercise was a great preparation exercise for practicing his golf swing. It was really cool to see how exercise in OT is never just exercise; it’s always about getting back to what the client loves and values. This understanding will make me a better practitioner because it will help me develop interventions that are meaningful and effective. I loved seeing all the principles from class play out in real life!