Family education: One of the most important aspects of occupational therapy in the rehab setting. With such a high level of importance comes the big responsibility to remember everything. As a student or new grad, that can feel pretty scary. When I was new at family education, I would get super nervous around a patient’s family […]
Pretty frequently I’m asked by new occupational therapists and students what a typical day is like working as an occupational therapist in the inpatient rehab setting. While there’s not one simple way to answer this question, I think it will be valuable to at least lay out what happens in a “normal” day for me. This basic […]
When I started working in inpatient rehab, I felt totally clueless to all the conditions I was seeing. My favorite and most-used resource during that time was the Quick Reference Guide to Occupational Therapy by Kathlyn L. Reed. It has been massively useful at times when I need to look up something very specific fast. I use this book regularly and […]
Unless you’ve been living off the grid, you may have heard of this silly Pokemon Go game. If you haven’t, check out the first few minutes of this video on YouTube. You also may have even seen the news article about Occupational Therapists using Pokemon Go as an intervention in Oklahoma. After reading the article, […]
Caregiver burnout, caregiver stress, and caregiver exhaustion. Whatever you choose to call it, caregiver burnout among all settings and diagnoses is unfortunately a very real and very common phenomenon. It not only affects caregivers’ mental health but their physical health as well. Studies show that at this time, 43.5 million people (or 18%) of the U.S. […]
Whether you work as an occupational therapist or COTA in home health, outpatient rehab, assisted living, or in a skilled nursing facility, you will encounter patients with a dementia diagnosis. If you work with primarily older adults, this might even be the majority of your patients. In this post, I want to provide you with meaningful […]
The upper body ergometer – or as we usually call it the UBE or “arm bike” for short – has been causing a bit of a stir in the field of Occupational Therapy lately in various Facebook groups and other online forums. Why, you may ask? It’s because it isn’t exactly the most functional, meaningful, […]
If I had to pick one and only one textbook or resource to use as both a student and as a new occupational therapy practitioner, I would hands-down 100% pick the Occupational Therapy Toolkit (currently 6th edition, which is the one I have). It is written and illustrated by occupational therapist and real-life wonder-woman Cheryl Hall. I […]
When working with acquired or traumatic brain injuries for the first time, it can be challenging, exciting, and even stressful as a student or new grad. This is especially true if you have not been exposed to such a patient or any cognitive interventions for traumatic brain injury. The purpose of this post is to cover […]
I was inspired to write this post about interventions for unilateral neglect as I was remembering my first evaluation with this condition on my own (after grad school and at my first “real job”). I realized that it was much more of a challenge for me to figure out on the fly the optimal interventions […]