I quickly learned in graduate school (in my physiology and neuroscience courses) that I learn best with flow charts – when I can form a plan and visualize what steps come next. The same is true for me now when treating a patient in my hand therapy setting. Regardless of how simple or complicated the […]
As an occupational therapist, you know how wide of a variety of jobs we have to choose from. From inpatient rehab, acute care, pediatrics, home health, neuro outpatient, and of course, hand therapy. If you’re interested in pursuing a career in hand therapy, you will likely want to consider becoming a Certified Hand Therapist (CHT) […]
Occupation-based interventions: It may seem like common sense to use these as occupational therapists. After all, our title has the word “occupation” in it, for goodness sake! Unfortunately, assembly-line therapy has reduced the use of occupation-based treatments in favor of exercises that make point of service and high productivity the main objective versus providing quality, […]
So you want to be an occupational therapist, but you still have to jump through the hoops of applying for grad programs. One mandatory part of the process is writing a great personal statement specifically for OT school, which can be pretty intimidating when it’s time to put pen to paper. Well, I’m here to […]
Whether you work as an occupational therapist or COTA in home health, outpatient, acute care, rehab, or in a long term care facility, you will certainly encounter patients with a dementia diagnosis or co-morbidity. If you work primarily with older adults, this might even be a large percentage of your patients. In this article, I […]
From the first time we enter class as aspiring occupational therapists, we find ourselves surrounded by a community of peers sharing a similar experience. The best occupational therapy forums have the ability to extend that environment beyond physical encounters into online spaces. That camaraderie, whether enjoyed in person or digitally, provides a support network through […]
The following article on Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy (along with Modified Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy) was guest-authored by Janet Meydam, OTR/L and Meredith Chandler, OTR/L. We want to give both of them a huge thanks for sharing their insight and research for this article. According to the National Stroke Association, it is estimated that 9 out of […]
My interest in all things “vision” in the occupational therapy world has been stewing for several years. Working as an occupational therapist in inpatient rehab, I became interested in perceptual skills but did not dive into furthering my education or competency because I was more concerned with continuing education courses designed for stroke recovery, neuro-shoulder […]
We’ve probably all been there—you receive an order to fabricate a splint for a patient and you groan. You haven’t made a splint since OT school and you feel uncomfortable with your abilities to confidently create something, not to mention the amount of time it will take you to complete it! Don’t fear—no need to […]
Occupational therapy is such a rewarding profession. There’s not a day that passes that I question if I made the right decision when I went to grad school, and most occupational therapists I speak with feel the same way. However, there is the undeniable fact that this experience comes with a price: most of us […]