First Year Recap

As I mentioned, these first posts are going to be a backtrack.
This post focuses on my first year of OT school!

My First semester was last Fall (2010) and I took Clinical Anatomy, Fundamental Clinical Skills, Occupation in Human Life and The OT Process.
Clinical Anatomy, is well, pretty self-explanatory.
In Fundamental Clinical Skills we learned skills such as maneuvering a wheel chair, transfers, setting individuals up for meals, positioning in different situations, teaching patients how to use wheelchairs/crutches/walkers etc.. and at the end of the course we had to "role play" with our professor as the patient and demonstrate the skills we had learned. We also focused on learning medical terminology in this course!
Occupation in Human Life consisted of reading many articles and writing journal entries.
The OT Process was an indepth look at each step of the OT process. It was the most challenging class of the semester. We administered the COPM on each other, went to a day care center and administered the Knox Preschool Play Scale. and had many other projects! At the end of this class we had to create a "Tool Kit" for a specific skill and fill it with activites that could be used to work on that skill. I had balance (will have a separate post on what was in my tool kit!). We also had to interview our professor and write a treatment plan based on the interview for our final.

My second semester this past Spring consisted of:
Human Development and Performance: learning about development through the lifespan. We had to visit a day care center and administer the DENVER II, and interview the parent of a child with special needs.
Clinical Inquiry- RESEARCH. we did an evidence synthesis and had to create a poster presentation to present to our class. I did mine on Cognitive Therapy for those with Traumatic Brain Injuries.
Contexts of Service Delivery- this was an overview of the settings in which an OT could work but there was an emphasis on Community Based Practice. We had a big group project in this class that we worked on pretty much all semester- we had to create a community program. My group created a transition program for the public school system in this area.
Psychosocial Aspects of OT- we learned a lot about theoretical models and group treatments. We also visited a state mental hospital 3 times and got to plan and lead group sessions there! It was really interesting!

We also had our first practicum experience in a community based setting. I was placed at a local elementary school at an After School Program. There was 4 of us there and each week one of us was in charge of planning a 30-min activity to do with the group of children. This was definitely a great learning experience in dealing with behavior issues while trying to get through a treatment session.

This past summer, my 3rd semester, we had a Level 1 Fieldwork placement as well as 2 classes.
The classes were:
Professional Seminar- we focused on the things we were doing within out fieldwork placements, and did case studies
Tools for Practice- we did lots and lots of crafts (paiting, stamping, leatherwork, beading, weaving, broom making, paper crafts etc..)
My Level 1 Fieldwork was at the same State Mental Hospital that we had visited in the Psychosocial class. I had a great experience at this hospital. I had no experience with the Mental Health population beforehand so I learned a lot from being there. I was pretty nervous before starting this placement because of the people I would be around, most of them had Schizophrenia or Depression. There was really never a dull moment there! If anyone has any questions about being placed in the Mental Health Setting- just ask!

Sooo.. that completes my first year of OT school! =)