School is going great and we're officially out of orientation mode and getting into the good/fun/entirelytoomuchtodo stuff. I really like my classmates, it's definitely an interesting blend of personalities, which is awesome. With the insane amount of group projects and presentations that we do, it's been easy getting to know new people.

Here's what's been going on in my classes this week:

OT Practice Skills: We're learning about group dynamics and group processes. We're discussing Leadership Roles as well as group membership norms and roles. The idea is for us to get an idea of what we're going to encounter when we run therapy groups... the types of behavior that we'll see, and how we use the roles of the members to reach the goals. We've discussed a 7 step process of running a group and eventually we'll be implementing our own group. My group is on self-advocacy. We've been doing a lot of role playing with group roles and OT group demonstrations.

Psychosocial Clinical Conditions: We started off by breaking down the DSM-IV and looking at what each axis encompasses. We're looking at things one condition at a time, and this week was schizophrenia. I mentioned in an earlier post about our simulated schizophrenia experience. This week we had a schizophrenic man come and talk to us about his experiences and it was just incredible. I'd love to write more about him because he's a fascinating story, but I have a great fear/respect for HIPPA. Anyway he had delusions, which are false beliefs that he held to be true in his own mind. They really controlled his life, and ultimately effected his performance skills and performance patterns (yeah I had to bust out the OTPF for that one). The neurology of SZ is very interesting, such as a decrease in the size of the limbic system and an increase in the size of the lateral ventricles.

Foundations of Motor Performance: We're learning a tonnnnnnn of information in this class. Kinesiology, osteokinematics, arthrokinematics, biomechanics of functional movement, ROM, motion analysis, skeletal anatomy, physics of movement, basic goniometry.... ah! We're also doing vital signs, respiration rate, pulse and blood pressure. I really need to train my ears to hear those dang Korotkoff sounds. My professor used the dual-head stethoscope and tapped me when she heard it start and end and I hardly heard anything. I brought home a steth and a cuff to practice with so EVERYONE is getting their pressure taken.... family, friends, cat (?) will be getting their vitals taken until I get this down.

Science of Occupation: This class is basically about the theory and philosophy of OT. As important as this information is, it lacks the zest of the other classes. We've been talking a little about observing events around us and trying to figure out the occupational significance of these activities. We had an entire class on how to use the library resources and health databases... I found some of it very helpful. Next week we're supposed to dive into the OT Practice Framework which I'm excited about because that's the document we base our entire careers on in a way.

Physical Clinical Conditions: In this class, like Psych clinical, we're going through it condition by condition. We already learned about cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and now we're discussing burns. We're really just covering the basics of symptoms, prevalence, etiology, etc. We touch on the OT's role but not in depth about treatment and I really wish we did... but that's covered in another class. We're doing case studies and chart reviews. We're also doing a book report on a disability of our choice..... of course I chose TBI! The book I'm reading is called "Where is the Mango Princess?"

This weekend I'm starting my program for autistic children called Circle of Friends. I'm definitely a little nervous/anxious about this... it's my first experience with autism. This weekend I can sit back and watch though because the children have a music program the first week. My job begins next week. Part of my job is to videotape the sessions because they are being coded by OTs for different social components.

Also as part of my GA I had to find assessment tools that we're going to use for the group. I had a hard time finding them at first but once I found one, I found a ton. So if anyone is looking for good valid and reliable skill assessment tools check out...

ProEd
http://www.proedinc.com/customer/default.aspx

Western Psychological Services
http://www.proedinc.com/customer/default.aspx

Pearson
http://www.pearsonassessments.com/home.htm

That's all the rambling I can handle for tonight. : )

MSOT Class of 2009!!!

Some things money can't buy.

Cost of Fall semester textbooks.... $500.
Cost of the commute to school.... $40 a week.
Learning activity analysis by watching Richard Simmons.......

..........Priceless.

Week 3

On to week three and I'm still loving OT school. The awesome thing is that it's not extremely difficult, it is just extremely overwhelming. Most things make sense to me and I cannot express enough how helpful it is to work in a rehab hospital. There's not a day that goes by that I don't learn about something I saw at the hospital. I have a lot of moments where things suddenly make more sense and seem more practical. To anyone considering OT school.... WORK IN REHAB I swear life will be a little easier.

Oh I'm now a note-taker for two of my classes. . . I had a car issue over the weekend that set me back quite a few dollars, and it was definitely fate that this job opportunity opened up today, so of course I jumped on it.

Here's some of the excitement I have coming up:
- Quizzes every Tuesday on Psychosocial Clinical Conditions.
- Mental Health- professional areas of practice research paper and 30 minute powerpoint presentation to the class.
- Professional behavior assessment paper
- 5 midterm exams.
- Case study project
- Quizzes every Monday for OT Practice Skills
- Plan and implement a self-advocacy OT group with Leigh-Ann
- Run a 'warm-up' for a group therapy session.
- Brain, Cranial Nerve and Dermatome charts
- Lifespan task analysis group observation guidelines and presentation.
- Exams on Muscles of UE, LE, Trunk and Shoulder.
- Motor performance lab practical exam.
- 5 final exams.
- 24 hour activity log
- Occupational Profile project / Frame of Reference project
- 3 community observation logs
- APA Writing paper/presentation with Cathy
- Medical Terminology quiz every Thursday
- Illness/disability awareness book report.

Hmm, that's all I can think of for now.... it'll be nice to start crossing things off that list as I accomplish them.

Time to exercise and get to work.

Schizophrenia

Today was interesting. In Psychosocial Clinical Conditions (which I believe will be one of my fav classes, I looooove psych), we got to be schizophrenic! We learned some of the basic etiology, incidence (did you know the onset of symptoms is usually in the 20's? Ah!), diagnosis and next week we're going to cover methods of treatment, and the OT's role in intervention.

We had a guest speaker come in from Atlantic County mental health and she gave us a taste of what it feels like to be schizophrenic. We had to wear earphones and listen to tapes made by schizophrenic patients with recordings of their actual auditory hallucinations. We had to do different activities (play a game of pictionary with a group, go on a scavenger hunt around the school which included asking people for directions, etc, and taking a few IQ/brain teaser type of tests). I found the tests incredibly hard to do, and I probably reread each question 5 times before it made any sense. Hearing voices (particular ones telling you to push someone into traffic) really isn't something you can zone out while trying to focus on another task. What a horrible disease. I can't wait to see the types of OT intervention we can offer to these patients.

We also had our first SOTA meeting today.

I have a lot to get done tonight and i'm beat. Power naps have become an essential part of my life this week. . . and coffee and green tea.

Week 2.

I'm still too exhausted and overwhelmed to write much. I've had four of my classes, and my final one is tomorrow. I spent a long time just organizing my syllabi and trying to condense it into one manageable timeline. Hopefully I can manage. ; ) But to sum it all up....... I seriously LOVE OT SCHOOL. My professors are awesome, the girls in my class are great and I'm starting to get to know them better. People are incredibly supportive, the 2nd year students had a lunch for us today and gave us a pep talk.

We spent the first week mostly in orientation mode going over all (325325432523) assignments, exams, presentations, research projects, essays, quizzes and observations we are expected to do this semester.

With that in mind I should probably get started on something.....

Oh I got this quote in an email today, how appropriate:

Bite off more than you can chew,
then chew it.
Plan more than you can do,
then do it.

- Anonymous

and so it begins...

Well I made it through my first day. :) I'm too exhausted to write much about it, but I can tell already that this semester is going to be really fun, challenging, exhausting, etc etc.. My classmates seem really cool and it's nice that I'll be going through this with the same 20 people for the next two years.

I'll write more soon once I settle in.

Ah!

Tomorrow's my first day of graduate school.... MSOT here I come.