Field Work Reflection-Occupational Therapy
Exposure to the realities of occupational therapy (OT) was a bit of a shocking experience, both for my self and the members of my group. On the first visit, I did not know what to expect. My group and I were informed that we would be working with traumatic brain injury victims and victims of stroke. However, once we started the OT session with the patients, we found that we also dealt with victims of multiple sclerosis as well as amputee patients.
Initially I had a lot of anxiety about working with actual patients as I felt that I did not have enough knowledge and felt that I was equipped enough to deal with patients. However as I started interacting with them, I discovered that I could handle a lot more than I thought I would. The fact that I was working in the hospital as part of a team gave me strength and the confidence to do it. My interaction with the patients helped to relax me as I gradually shifted the focus off myself and my anxieties to the patients. The realities of what they had to cope with made me empathize with their situations and it became very easy for me to be client –centered. I was also fortunate to have a team with whom I worked well. We planned the group activities together and brainstormed to come up with suitable activities for the leisure therapy treatment sessions.
Our group selected papier maché, picture frame decoration and plant potting as our activities for the leisure therapy activities. These activities were chosen for their simplicity and ease of excecution.we also thought that they would be wholesome in the sense that they would involve the mind and the body to execute. As much as they involved the use of the hands, they also carried with them a creativity component, and we thought that they would both be challenging and fun for the patients. It was envisioned that aside from helping the motor functioning of the patients, the activities would also stimulate their minds and foster socializing and bonding.
The activities were beneficial to the clients in that they focused on both cognitive and physiological aspects of the therapy. Papier maché and picture frame decoration both involve an element of creativity in their execution. The activities fostered and encouraged motor locomotive capacities. The manipulation of the papier mache to create recognizable shapes involves hand and upper body movements. The coordination required to perform those activities proved beneficial for the clients. The potting of the plant was beneficial for the clients’ coordination as it is a delicate process. My group and I were happy that we chose those activities after the sessions were completed. The clients seemed generally relaxed by them and seemed to really enjoy them. It would however have been to have known the diagnosis of the patients before having to come up with the patient activities. This would have better helped us to select more patient-specific activities that would have suited the different needs of different patients. It would have served to make the activities more patient-specific. The activities chosen specifically worked on the development of the clients’ cognition by working on elements like clients’ attention, when the clients had to concentrate on particular tasks for significant periods of time. The activities also worked on clients’ memory by exercising their ability to recall things that the tasks involved. The clients’ coordinative responses were also greatly improved .This coordination is a cognitive component. The tasks also required the patients to follow directions so as to be able to accomplish them and master them. This was also beneficial for their cognition.
Physical activities such as fine and gross motor skills, hand-eye coordination and dexterity were exercised during the performance of the tasks. Furthermore the socio-emotional needs of the patients were also met because the activities allowed a lot of interaction and cooperation among the patients to take place. The activities fostered a social environment and patients got to talk to each other while they performed their tasks. Mastery of skills as well as the process of performing those tasks served to foster a sense of accomplishment for the patients and this generally led to the boosting of their confidence and self-perception.
In occupational therapy, sometimes cultural differences might need to be considered during the therapy, for instance, the patient’s culture may make it difficult for him to perform certain tasks involved in the therapy, or may generally involve a very different world view from that of the therapist. Such cultural differences should always be put into consideration and the needs of the client prioritized. Ways should be formulated to meet the needs of the client and perform the needed therapy without offending their sense of culture and general world view. The therapist should appreciate the need to respect the patient’s culture and conduct therapy in such a way as not to offend them. As a rule, therapy should always be client-centered. During our OT sessions my group and I did not however experience any issues as a result of culture clashes.
Family involvement during occupational therapy can have a dramatic impact on the recovery of a patient. This is mainly due to increased motivation in the patient to work harder so as to get better. The support provided by the family member acts as a source of emotional strength for the patient. During the OT sessions some patients had family come over to visit the. It is interesting to note that these patients seemed more motivated during the planned activities. Their families also joined in the activities. A positive change was observed in the patients whose families were visiting in terms of productivity and the general willingness to participate. The faster improvements of patients during OT when their families are present may lead to faster discharging and better prognosis.
My group and I had to work with multiple stroke victims who had different need as depending on the severity of their conditions, these needs became evident during the leisure therapy activities. For instance some of them had a lot of difficulties in holding the brush while painting the picture frames while others did not. Intervention for them was done by assisting them to hold the brush by a hand-on –hand method. Some however had the activity modified for them by having them paint with their fingers instead of the brush. Most of the activities went as planned with minor challenges. Fro instance, there was a challenge experienced when visually impaired patients had trouble locating white paint for the art work because the paint was set on white trays. They thus had to be assisted to do so.
Over all my experience at the hospital reinforced my appreciation for the challenges of OT patients and their need fro high quality care and committed occupational therapists.
The experience also served to make me aware of my strengths such as the ability to think on my feet, my self -control as well as addictiveness and flexibly in different situations. On the other hand it made me aware of my need to develop my interpersonal skills so as to better r relate to patients. The experience could. have been made better if we had received information about the patients’ diagnosis so as to better prepare us psychologically to deal with them as a well as help us to come up with activities that would have been more client-specific.
