Camille Vaughn OT 425

This Wednesday, Fletcher Cleaves came and spoke to our class about his story. The story begins when Fletcher was about to begin his freshman year at Lambuth University as a starting football player. He was on his way back to his dorm with his roommate when a driver who was on her phone swerved into his lane. Fletcher lost control of his car and flipped into a ravine, landing upside down. Luckily, his friend was okay enough to run to get help; however, Fletcher could not move. After arriving at the hospital, he was informed that he broke his C5 and C6 vertebrae, resulting in a spinal cord injury. The doctor immediately began listing things that Fletcher would no longer be able to do, but this did not affect him. Fletcher always had the mindset that he could do anything that he put enough time and effort into. While he will most likely forever be in a wheelchair, this does not limit him to a certain lifestyle. Fletcher told us to always remember that the sky is NOT the limit. You define ...

Last week our class participated in an assistive technology lab with some speech pathology students from the University of Memphis. I was very excited to not only to learn about assistive technology in our field, but also to learn more about speech pathology. One SLP student taught a few of us the basics of using a Proloquo2Go Crescendo core word board to help nonverbal clients communicate with others. We practiced using the board, and I found it surprisingly difficult to use! I think it is very cool how people can use apps on iPads to design their own boards with words that they use often to communicate more efficiently. I found that the worlds of both speech and occupational therapy are very client-centered, making interventions and devices adaptable for each individual's lifestyle. Assistive technology opens countless doors for individuals with disabilities who seem to be in hopeless situations. I look forward to incorporating assistive technology into my future practice as an o...

Tyler is a 23 year old full-time student at the University of Memphis. On June 11, 2016, he was dropped out of a helicopter, resulting in 9 broken ribs, a broken sternum, a broken shoulder blade, and two broken vertebrae (T7&T8). One of the broken vertebrae cut into his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Tyler spent 3 weeks at the Shepherd's Center in Atlanta, receiving PT and OT ~4 times a day. They worked with him on regaining upper body strength and adapting to life in a wheelchair. He stated that the therapists at Shepherd Center were very positive about his condition and helped him keep an open mind about what was to come. The occupational therapists were significantly helpful by teaching him new ways to dress himself and brush his teeth. Tyler remains very physically fit and goes to the gym 3x a week with no adaptive equipment. He tries his best to live a normal lifestyle that is not centered around his disability. In my opinion, Tyler is an extraordi...

For this assignment, I decided to watch a movie called The Fundamentals of Caring. The title of this movie had caught my eye while scrolling through  Netflix  a few times before, but I had never taken the time to watch it.  This movie is about a retired author named Ben who decides to enroll in a class and become a caregiver. He takes on a full time job caring for a boy named Trevor who has muscular dystrophy. Although Ben has no previous experience as a caregiver, it does not take long for him to gain the respect of Trevor. He decides to get Trevor out of the house and away from his dull daily routine to embark on a road trip together. Trevor saw and experienced things that he would never have had the chance to do before Ben came into his life. Ben made sure that Trevor could check things off of his bucket list without solely focusing on the worry of medicines and treatments for a week. My main takeaway from this movie was how Ben did not treat Trevor differently...

In today's class, we discussed "clinical reasoning." Clinical reasoning is basically your instincts as a professional in the medical field, and in my case, as a future occupational therapist. As a first year student, the whole concept of clinical reasoning is a little intimidating and overwhelming to think about. It is hard not to worry about future situations in which I simply hope my instincts and decisions as a practitioner are right. That feeling you get when you are not quite sure what to do is referred to as "gray space."While observing, I often found myself wondering just how the OT knew what to do or how to respond to a situation. My professor today explained that often there is no one true answer to a situation, and you must use your clinical reasoning skills and instincts gained over time to make the best decision possible. I have faith that throughout my time in school and on fieldwork, I will gain more confidence in my own clinical reasoning skills. ...

In class last week, we began to learn about documentation in the world of occupational therapy. While completing my observation hours prior to applying to school, I always dreaded this part of the day. I would even sometimes struggle to keep my eyes open as I watched the therapist document her therapy sessions. As a future OT, I have developed more of an appreciation for documentation. My professor made a point in class that proper documentation can even be a way to promote the field of occupational therapy. This idea seemed questionable at first, but then I thought more about it. Some doctors still do not even have a clear understanding of what we do or why we do it. If we take the time to properly document and represent our profession, we will begin to build a greater name for occupational therapy in the medical field. Sure, paperwork isn’t the most exciting part of our day, but we owe it to our field and our clients to properly document our sessions. So go rock those docs!

In today's class we began to learn about traumatic and non-traumatic brain injuries. Brain injuries can be caused by a variety of factors and can affect a victim in numerous ways. It can be very difficult to work with a brain injury patient because oftentimes they do not show physical symptoms, but instead emotional, social, and/or cognitive symptoms. It is fascinating to me how a brain injury can completely change a person's personality, however; this is what also makes this type of injury most traumatic for the loved ones of the victim. When you have a loved one who has suffered from a brain injury, it is possible that he or she is altogether not the same person you have always known. Though physically they may look the same, they are not emotionally or socially the person you loved before. We listened to a podcast before class about a nurse named Dawn who was attacked by a hospital patient, resulting in a TBI. The would lash out in frustrating situations and also had terribl...

Today in our neuro class, we watched Aimee Mullin's Ted Talk. She spoke about people's different perceptions of the word "disabled," and how it can affect the mindset of individuals with disabilities. She began her talk by listing the different synonyms for the word "disabled" from a thesaurus. This part of the talk is what struck me most. Harsh, unforgiving words such as "useless" were used in the thesaurus, followed by antonyms including "whole." I could not believe that this is how the idea of being disabled was described. As Ms. Mullins stated in her talk, using words or casting ideas about disability such as these could be causing a major threat to the potential of those with a disability. If these individuals also believe they are broken and useless, what hope could they see in their futures? I think that society has come a long way in opening their eyes to the idea of disabilities; however, we still have a long way to go. Advances ...