let's play catch up :)

So here we are, it has been an awful long time since I have updated this blog! Since my last post lots has happened! I am now done with my time on campus..no more classroom instruction!! I will be starting my first Level 2 Fieldwork next week (!!) and will be there until the middle of August before moving to Newport News for my second Level 2 placement.

The end of the semester was so busy and stressful, as usual.  This whole semester we have been working in groups of 4 to create a business plan, I am not sure if I have mentioned this before- I think I may have briefly. My group created a Transition Program for students in the three counties around my university. I had never taken a business related class in my life so this was pretty difficult for me, never had heard of a SWOT analysis, or a Market Analysis, or a Break Even Analysis..but it all had to be done and then some. During the last week of class we had to give a 30 min presentation on our business. My group did really well on it and my professor stressed that there is such a need for the services in the area that she hoped we would take the business plan and really put it into action. hmm...we'll see about that ;)

Also, I had two skills competency checkouts for my Musculoskeletal and Neurological courses. They were the same style but different clients. We had to go in an choose a 'client' from a card, spend a few minutes reviewing the case, making a list of evaluations and treatment ideas for that client and then our professor acted as the client and we carried out an evaluation and did a treatment session, and then we had a couple of hours to write up an eval note, daily tx note, and long term/short term goals.

 For Musculoskeletal the client I had was diagnosed with Low Back Pain so that was not too challenging because it is all about client education: no bending arching or twisting, and introducing adaptive equipment to reduce the need to bend/arch/twist the back.
For Neurological, the client I was assigned had a CVA with severe L neglect (meaning she did not attend to anything to the left of mid-line, for instance if i had placed items on the left side, she would not even know they were there, even if they were placed within a normal visual field). I had to do the Letter Cancellation Test for the evaluation, and a bathing task for the tx session.

Other than written finals, those were the main assignments that kept me busy through the end of the semester.

So for my first Level 2, I am at a SNF (skilled nursing facility, aka 'nursing home') in Roanoke and I'm really excited about it. I called my supervisor the other week for the first time and she was SO NICE. She just kept telling me how much fun we will have and that she does not want me to be stressed out at all. She said she had 3 Level 2 fieldworks that were all awful and she promised herself that she would never make a student feel the way that she did. She also said that she wants me to come and be a little sponge and soak up all the information and learn as much as I can, and that if I'm too stressed, I won't be able to learn as well.  I can't wait to meet her on Tuesday :)

Since I am moving to a new area this fall for my fieldwork, a friend/classmate is also placed in Newport News - we went two weeks ago to scope out some apartments that offer short term leases and found one that we both really liked and that is affordable so that takes some of the stress off with that! Now we just need to sign the leases and get it all in order for the fall.

AND last but not least, a friend of mine from highschool, who is an Occupational Therapy student at Colorado State, just started a blog that I think you all will like so go check it out when you get a free minute: http://otbliss.blogspot.com/