Saturday, January 14, 2012

a new semester + level 2 planning

First off, if you have a Tumblr, or just want to add it to your bookmarks- one of my classmates started one to document our last year in OT school.... I'm sure you will love her! http://student-to-ot-in-365.tumblr.com/

We're just a few days away from starting a new semester, FIVE classes- i think this is the first time we've had five. These are the classes we'll be taking:
Occupational Therapy Leadership and Management
Physical Dysfunction Practice: Musculoskeletal
Physical Dysfunction Practice: Neurological
Special Topics in Adult Rehabilitation
Working with Older Adults

I went and bought all of my books- luckily I already had one we needed from a previous semester but I had to buy EIGHT new books, and they cost $590 total...is that not ridiculous?? I don't see why textbooks are so expensive!

Its hard to believe these are the last classes that I will take! I'm getting nervous that I haven't learned as much as I should have by now, that after these 5 courses I'm going to be thrown into Level 2's and expected to treat a whole case load..
Speaking of Level 2's we are in the process of figuring out where we will be this summer and this fall..None of us know where we'll be placed for the summer session and seems that only a handful of us have some idea of the area we'll be in for the Fall...this just seems a little last minute to me- like we should have started planning for these placements last year, the last semester of classes...but what do i know??
As of right now it looks like I will be at the Riverside Regional Medical Center or the Riverside Rehabilitation Institute in Newport News. I went out there for a couple of days the other week to look at the area and the facilities just to see if I would be comfortable with the area... luckily I have a couple of friends that live there o I think I would be fine! I'm meeting with our fieldwork coordinator on Tuesday to tell her about my trip and hopefully finalize the places.
Riverside Regional Medical Center

Riverside Rehab Institute- Right on the James River

Rehab Institute


For those that have been through a Level 2 already
What is your advice??

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Student Conclave 2011- Day 2

Day 2 started bright and early...at 8:30 with two sessions on the NBCOT exam.
The speaker went over the steps of what to do before taking the exam
Said we should set up an account at www.nbcot.org (its free), read the handbook, keep up with NBCOT on facebook, twitter and linkedin.
The exam is about $500 !! which seems crazy and I feel like I will have to take out a loan just to take the exam!
It's all on the computer, multiple choice.  There are practice exams available online as well as a self-assessment so you can see what areas you need to focus most of your attention when preparing for the real exam.
They also went over how the NBCOT is created- which is by a large scale survey of entry-level practitioners and a practice analysis that is completed ever 5 years which you can apparently download a blueprint of on the NBCOT website.
There are 4 Domains covered on the exam:
1. Evaluation- assessment tools for different populations, setting up treatment environments, theories, models of practice...
2. Interpreting  information- form conclusions regarding clients needs and priorities, i.e. appropriate short term goals
3. Selection/Implementing Evidence Based Practice- A majority of the questions come from this domain
4. Standards- documentations, ethics, supervision, scope of practice

They also went over some myths of the exam:
- Exam is based on all info in OT programs
- Exam is mostly pediatrics
- NBCOT changes the blueprint annually (this is changed every 5 years)
- You have the right to request a paper copy
- If you skip the tutorials at the beginning, you will have more time to take the exam  (the 4 hour time limit begins when you reach the first question)
- If I pass the Clinical Simulation questions, I'm likely to pass the exam
- Clinical Simulation questions are much harder than the multiple choice
- Its better to select all choices in the clinical simulation questions because you are bound to get the right answer

Next they discussed the Clinical Simulation questions
these are designed to simulate various types of focused experience that an OTR encounters in daily practice. They are like mini case studies and measure clinical reasoning across continuum of care
The problems consist of an opening screen and then there are 4-5 sections in which you choose an action to take and the one you choose determines the next screen/question.
Answers in each screen (actions) are categorized into 3 types:
1. Positive: correct answers -optimal route- adds points to your score
2. Neutral- may be helpful but not necessary- no points added or deducted
3. Negative- hinder/distract appropriate therapy- points are deducted from score


Multiple Choice Questions have 4 answer choices.
Be sure to understand what the question is asking, identify key words (best, initial, first, next)
you are able to mark questions and review them at the end of the exam if time allows

After the NBCOT sessions, I attended a Mental Health info session that talked about using Sensory Integration techniques in the acute mental health setting which I thought was SO interesting since I completed my Level 1 placement in a State Mental Hospital.

Then we went to explore Providence a little bit on our lunch break!
my attempt at a panorama on my iphone




the ones from my class who went :)


If we had gone all the up this hill we would have ran into Brown University


We may have skipped a session that we probably shouldn't have but we were just wandering around the city! oops. We made it back for the Policy and Advocacy session which I know is SO important but it was terribly boring so I will spare you.  If you want to know all about this- check out AOTPAC.

For the last session, I went to Rehabilitation, Disability and Participation which I thought was going to be great since it was supposed to focus on SCI/TBI but it was the worst session. The lady just stood there are read her powerpoint slide verbatim. it was so boring and i mean, i could have just gotten up there and read words from a power point! She didn't even put her paper down to tell us what an OT's role for someone with SCI/TBI is...which i mean she should be able to just explain that without reading a list from her slide.  Needless to say, I didn't take many notes in that session. I was wishing I could leave the whole time and go to another one but I felt bad, even though lots of people walked out after the first few slides of her just reading them.

That night we went to a local bar/restaurant for dinner/drinks and then a few of us went to a pub that turned into a dance club haha we didn't stay out too late since we had to be up early for our flight back to Charlotte.





annnd that, my friends, concludes my Conclave recap :)

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Sorry!

I had every intention of finishing my recap of Student Conclave over Christmas break
BUT I came home and left all of my conclave notes at my apartment, 
my goal now is to try and get those done in the next few days 
since I will be making a trip to my apt tomorrow afternoon



I have started to see some tweets from AOTA about the Conference this April...
is anyone going??
I really want to but will have to see if I can afford it!