Friday, November 30, 2007

I love school, but I'm ready for the semester to end. I am pathetic because some of the things I'm excited to do are: Organize my bookshelf (which has just accumulated insane amounts of books, articles, and random papers throughout the semester), reorganize my closet, and go back to work. Yes, simple things make me happy.

I have 7 more days of class and they are probably the most overwhelming days I'll have this semester. On Monday I'm running a group lab about self-advocacy with Leigh Ann. We'll be running an assertiveness training session. (THANK YOU KAREN for this suggestion.... Have I told you lately how awesome you are???). Anyway, I put together a powerpoint presentation with clips from the movie Office Space. I'll be having my group watch some clips, decide how the character could have been more assertive, then they'll act out the scene using assertiveness techniques.

On Tuesday I have to turn in a case-study (12 pages!) project about my patient who has OCD... I have to look at every aspect of the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework and decide where her deficits are, and determine some treatment ideas. It's actually pretty interesting.

Wednesday is task analysis day!!! My group had to videotape 3 people performing the same activity (turning on a faucet), and then break down each component, the type of movement, muscles and joints involved, etc etc. It doesn't seem difficult but it's just incredibly time consuming. We'll be working on that project all day on Sunday.

Thursday is my last medical terminology quiz!!! Woo!

The following week is finals week. : )

Time to get stuff done... I'll be posting a blog soon about questions I've gotten throughout the semester from prospective occupational therapy students. I'd love to help anyone I can because OT is awesome and as crazy as school can be, it's worth every minute of it.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Thanksgiving


Happy Thanksgiving!!!

As usual, I've been busy with life. We are winding down the last THREE weeks of the semester. I have some major major things coming up including a task analysis video presentation, a 12 page case study project, 5 exams, a lab practical, and I have to run a group lab about self-advocacy. I am so psyched to get this over with and go back to work... It'll be so cool because I'll be going to the rehab hospital with an entirely different perspective now. I understand things a little differently now that I have a new vantage point.

So anyway today was a very educational OT-Thanksgiving. Every year we go to my aunt & uncles house in Freehold for dinner, and every year I see Ron. Ron's been a friend of the family for as long as I remember. He's a really nice, smart guy and cool to talk with. About 10 years ago he was in a really horrific car accident which left him a C6 quadriplegic.

Ron is more of an occupational therapist than I can ever hope to be. He's adapted his home and car to meet his needs 100%. I hardly see any obstacles for Ron, because he's found a way to get around all of them somehow. He's great because he really wants to show me how he lives his day and functions independently. I'm going to make it my mission to make some sort of photo/video blog of how he goes about his day, because it's just incredible and he's eager to share it.

Time to sleep... the tryptophan is kicking it... and I don't even eat turkey.
Maybe it's just the sleep deprivation. : )