My OT journey

Above is my most recent glyph on leadership. I compared it to my drawing from the beginning of OT school and the pictures are similar except for a couple of things! This time I added freckles because through the classes and opportunities of school I have learned the importance of self-awareness and how it can enable one to be an effective leader. I also drew straight hair this time compared to curly the first time because I believe organization is a key part to being an effective leader although creativity is also important! I had a hard time choosing between the two. Overall, I believe I have grown and become more confident in my leadership skills the last 1.5 years. I have learned a lot more, which has made me more confident and have been given/volunteered for various leadership opportunities. Before school, I didn't see myself as much of a leader but now I do. Except, I still prefer to be a leader "behind the scenes"!

It's important for us to understand what locus of control is because it can have a major impact on how we interact with our clients and how they respond. The Science PT said we want to encourage our clients to have an internal locus of control from an ethical standpoint. This is because individuals with an internal LoC take ownership of their struggles and are committed to making a change, which is important for therapy. Now, clients with an external LoC are not terrible people and can't be helped; we just have to learn how to communicate and assist them to lead them towards an internal LoC at least for their recovery process. I really enjoyed reading the article because it gave us ideas on how to encourage an internal LoC, which is so important for novices, like us! One way to encourage it is to point them towards the good in life. This can be done through active listening and a positive attitude. Another way is to remind the client that they make the final decision in THEIR

Overall, I think the SIM encounter went a lot better than it has in the past. I felt more confident and not as nervous this time around. I also felt like I have finally nailed down a solid elevator speech to explain what occupational therapy is, which is always a confident booster. I went into the SIM lab with a script in hand but ended up veering from the script because I noticed how overwhelmed and upset Ms. Farris was. I thought that would throw me off by taking a step back, asking how she felt, and reassuring her but it did not. Like we learned in class it is much more important to be an empathetic listener rather than making sure we "check" off all the boxes of information to give them. I tried to explain what sensory processing disorder is in layman's terms but also realized those terms still may not be everyone's layman's terms so I made sure to ask if she needed more explanation and try to do so if necessary.  If I had the opportunity for a do-ver I t

The most significant thing I learned about this assignment was how important it is to get to know your client, and what they enjoy doing. When I was assigned the strawberry basket I was unsure of how I would incorporate the media into a functional and meaningful intervention for Jane. But when I learned she enjoyed cooking, gardening, and going to pottery classes I was able to (eventually) come up with something! I think knowing and understanding what GBS is, the symptoms of it, and the different stages of the condition made it a lot easier to come up with the intervention. Also, I appreciated the goal writing template Dr. Lancaster posted for us! It was helpful to read different examples of goals based on the type of intervention approach - preventative, modification, etc. I am no expert at goal writing but I did learn a lot more than I knew before. This assignment definitely challenged me to think outside of the box! It was difficult to come up with an idea at first because of ho

The movie, 50 First Dates, is about a young woman, Lucy, who was in a car accident and sustained a traumatic brain injury. This TBI damaged part of her temporal lobe causing her to lose her short term memory. She didn't lose her long term memory though so she is able to remember all details of her life up to October 13th, the date of the accident.  I chose this movie because I have seen it multiple times but never paid attention to the "medical" part of the movie. It was interesting and pretty cool to watch and understand the parts they talked about her injury and the affects of it. A big part of the movie shows the various ways Lucy's father, brother, and boyfriend (Henry aka Adam Sandler) try to help her live each day to the fullest despite the loss of her short term memory. They came up with the ideas of videos that she would watch every morning before her day started. These videos told her about the accident and how it has changed their lives, but also updating

The Theory of Everything is about the life of Stephen Hawking, a famous physicist who in the peak of his career was diagnosed with motor neuron disease, otherwise known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). I chose to watch this movie because I was interested in how the media portrayed ALS as well as the rest of the world back then. Overall, I thought the movie was good and showed how far research and technology has come in helping individuals with this condition. Hawking was diagnosed with this condition in the 1960's. One thing I found interesting was in the movie the doctor and Stephen always referred to ALS as motor neuron disease and once as Lou Gehrig's disease but it was never referred to as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Also, the movie did a good job showing the different signs and symptoms of the condition. For example, it showed him having problems with walking, hand weakness, and being clumsy in his distal extremities. He had a major fall that led to the diagnos