Sensing OT

As an occupational therapy student who has barely dipped my toes into the large pool of OT, any moment where I am able to practice my OT skills is exciting. My grandmother was recently diagnosed with Leukemia and has progressively become weaker. I became one of her caregivers and soon realized that I think differently than any of my other family members.  I had began working on an activity analysis for a class assignment, which led me to develop a habit of breaking down random common activities in my head step-by-step. I find activity analysis's interesting because it is amazing how many steps are involved in everyday task that take us no more than two minutes to complete. When I spend time with my grandmother, I catch myself thinking about every step it is going to take her to do each task. One night, she asked for a flash light before she went to sleep. When I went to get the flash light for her, I began to think about in what event she would use the flash light and how I cou...

An important aspect in the practice of occupational therapy is using our words mindfully. There are many things that need to be phrased in a specific manner in order to avoid offending, upsetting, and discouraging the people we are working with. A common word that we need to be aware of is "patient". When I first began the occupational therapy program, my initial thought was to call the people we work with patient, since they are receiving treatment. This is wrong, unless the therapist is specifically working in a hospital setting. If a client is in the hospital, they are a patient, but if they are working in any other setting, this is typically wrong. Patient is not only the incorrect term to use, but it could be upsetting for the client. For example, if a client was involved in a car crash that left them paralyzed, they would be working on many aspects of recovery in order to become adjusted to their newfound life. One of the most important aspects of recovery in this s...

I found Lynne Oberle's personal story of her mother very interesting in demonstrating the importance of a knowledge of frame of refrences. It was obvious her mother had not been asked about herself, her enviorment, or her unique needs and desires. None of the aspects were addressed, resulting in her not benefiting from her OT services. If a frame of reference would have been addressed, the treating therapist might have taken more time to look at the client's individual needs, like her daughter was able to do. Frame of reference is important because it focus's on a specific population, diagnosis, and the client factors. These are all aspects that were basically ignored with the client in the example and are crucial to an occupational therapist's role in helping a client. If the treating therapist were to of assessed a frame of reference, they could have actually made an impact to the client, rather than leading the client to feelings of helplessness. A frame of reference...