Saturday, February 23, 2013

What I Learned This Week

Sometimes school is supremely boring. Other times too many things are happening at once and it's impossible to really soak it all in. Regardless of what kind of week it is, I do feel like I am learning a lot this semester. My expectations for what being a graduate student studying Occupational Therapy would be like are finally starting to match up with reality. My classes are more concrete, and require more effort, but I am starting to see how and why I might actually use this information in real life.

Here are just a few things I learned this week, both school related and not.

1. Regina George's doctor fails at correctly applying a halo appliance.



No vest? This halo brace is basically useless :P

2. The NBCOT Exam is going to be very, very hard.



I had 3 tests in the span on 36 hours, but nothing could have prepared me for the test in my Occupational Performance in Children class. My professor supposedly models her exams after the style of the NBCOT exam, the major test I will have to pass to get officially certified/licensed as an Occupational Therapist. Out of any of the classes I've taken so far I felt most prepared for this one because all of my prior experience is with children.... but wow that test was hard!!


3. Human hands are amazing, but also kind of gross sometimes.



Think of all the different things you to with your hands. There are probably hundreds of combinations of movement, position, grip etc. that get you through your day. This unit in my Human Structure and Function class we've been going into an extreme amount of detail about all of the muscles, tendons, nerves, and bones that make up the hand, and all of the things that can go wrong with it. I've watched a video of someone get tendon surgery in their hand (probably the most traumatizing thing I've seen in a school setting) and seen more deformed/broken/lacerated/bent fingers than I care to remember. There's a lot material to memorize, but these lectures have been incredibly relevant because I have been placed at a hand therapy clinic for four weeks during the summer!


4. Elementary schools and the students in them are quite awesome. 



This morning I volunteered at an elementary school with some people from my church. We did a lot of inventorying, organizing, and general tidying up. Even though the kids weren't there, I could tell this school has some spunk and is really good at what they do! We were given the opportunity to explore different classrooms and here are some of the gems I found. On the left, the robot-looking guy has written on it "I am proud to be crippled", the Obama sign was found inside one of the 4th grade classrooms, and on the bottom right is a collection of rocks that children named. I was especially impressed by the cleverness of the kid who named his "rock and roll"!


5. Accent nails are fun



I've tried this before with different colors and didn't really like the result, but I've decided this is my new favorite way to paint my nails :)

6. The Harlem Shake is a thing, and it's hilarious. 

I am apparently not tech savvy enough to embed videos... so go here to see what I'm talking about.

we are hoping for a potential OT school version soon :)

What have you learned this week?



Post inspired by From Inmates to Playdates

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