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Class Description -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Fieldwork: Aspen Ridge East Transitional Rehabilitation Center -------------------------------------------------
For fieldwork this semester, I went to Aspen Ridge East Rehabilitation in Murray. I loved my time there! Aspen Ridge is a transitional rehab center that treats adults, mostly 50 years old and older, with various acute injuries and illnesses. Most are coming from the hospital after surgeries or other treatments. These conditions are usually compounded by comorbid diagnoses, such as Parkinson’s disease and dementia. Because it is acute care, usually for physical injuries or illnesses, most of what OT does is biomechanical rehabilitation and mostly in individual sessions. Many of these patients are retired, so interventions tend to focus on preparatory activities that improve strength and cardiovascular wellness for leisure activities and ADLs. Most sessions included time on the bike machines (arm bikes or regular), some strengthening with weights or therabands, and some form of fine motor manipulation like theraputty or games, as well as at least one ADL activity, like functional mobility and hygiene.
Community Engaged Learning Project: Medication Management Practice Kit ----------------------------
For my service-learning project, I updated a medication management practice kit for the OTPs. I used pony beads of various sizes and colors for the “medication” and gathered and cleaned some used pill bottles of different sizes to store each “medication.” I printed colored circle stickers to match each pill color so one could easily tell which medication was which from above and match the beads to the bottles. I found an activity booklet written by an OT and edited it with permission from the author to fit the needs of the facility more closely.
I was asked to do this project because the previous set that the facility had was “ugly, outdated, and complicated.” The previous set had confusing directions, overly-complicated practice “patients,” hand-written directions, and a few pill bottles that were cracked or very faded. The OTPs at Aspen wanted a more functional and more attractive kit, which was right up my alley. They wanted something they could use for various skill and cognitive levels. The kit would be used as both an activity to practice medication management and an opportunity for the OTPs to ascertain how well a patient understood and could manage their medications. The kit provides a meaningful intervention because a number of the patients receive new medication. This way, they can practice med management where an OTP can provide support and offer compensatory strategies where needed.
I really enjoyed this project, and I am very proud of the result. I love being creative and making something useful for the facility that can help a variety of patients. That being said, this initially seemed like a simple project, but the more I researched, the more I felt overwhelmed at the thought of writing effective activities. I eventually found a kit written by another OT, and I gained a greater appreciation for the knowledge, time, and expertise that such an undertaking requires. My favorite thing about this project was the opportunity to see principles from coursework put to practice. I was completing this project around the time that we were discussing ACLs in Modalities, and I was able to relate the different cognitive levels from class to the various activities in the booklet. The variety of activities in the booklet provides the perfect opportunity to develop “just-right” challenges for patients of various cognitive and physical abilities. Additionally, this kit provides an excellent, meaningful set of activities for patients to use during rehabilitation. We learn in class that salience is key to developing an effective therapeutic activity, and it is the core of occupational therapy. It is very satisfying to know that something I made will be used to help patients improve their skills during rehabilitation.
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