Saturday, June 21, 2014

My first Level I Fieldwork: Pediatrics

I am happy to announce that I have completed my  first Level I fieldwork. I honestly love the learning process. I choose to complete my fieldwork a week before class started. It was a great fit for me. I just emailed a friend that I met at the recent AOTA conference about my experience, and I wanted to share some of my insight that I emailed her about with you. 

I wrote, "I went to (Blank) Children's Hospital for a week and I really enjoyed seeing a variety of diagnosis and treatments. I was able to see constraint induced therapy, which I really liked. I learned the true meaning of Psycosocial and how it applies to practice. I was able to lead a session while there, and boy was I ready to break down and cry like my two year old daughter. I felt that my fears of not knowing what I was doing took over and I froze up. My fight or flight really took over that session. However, I learned a very valuable skill since coming home... "fake it til you make it!" (as long as no one is getting hurt). By doubting myself, I prevented my ideas to flow. I had heard my teachers say that OT's are able to succeed from trial and error. When I was in that hour session with that child, I complete forgot that key point. I was actually on the right path because until I get more knowledge in practice, I will be trying what works and what doesn't. Even when I have years of experience, I will still continue to enhance my clinical reasoning skills. So for my next level I, which starts on the 30th in Neuro Rehab, my goal is to accept thchallenge of feeling lost and try more interventions with confidence that I am on the track for "something", since it may be the wrong intervention initially. However, I would still be on track for my own personal learning and growth. I am really excited to start my next level I to continue to grow as a therapist. "

After coming home, I learned how to improve during my next Level I. I found this great article titled "Top 12 Things You Should Know for Your Fieldwork" by Miss Awesomeness that addressed everything that I felt that I could improve on. Reading the article made me feel better  about my "learning curves" from my first Level I because now I know that I am not the only one who makes these mistakes.  Please visit her article:

http://missawesomeness.com/top-12-things-you-should-know-for-your-fieldwork/ 

Another point that I realized in my pediatric course, is that some of the information I learned carries across the ages. Such as the proper head postural for feeding a child and an adult would be a slight chin tuck to prevent aspiration. Food thickness also applies across the ages in reference to feeding.

Even though I have 5 kids, I do not believe that I want to work in pediatrics. As far back as I can remember I babysat and worked as a bus monitor for a Pre-School. Then when I turned 16, I worked in Montessori and daycare facilities. I worked in daycare facility until I had my oldest. When I had my oldest, who turned 12 yesterday, I said that I wanted to enjoy being with him. I did not want to work with kids all day and then come home and not fully enjoy my baby. I am not saying that it can not be done or that people do not do it everyday, it is not something that I wanted. Since then, I have not worked with kids, but I never know, I can always change my mind.

Overall, I had a great session and I am going to take the information that I learned about fieldwork to enhance myself for the next one. 

Thanks for reading my post. I am hoping the best for all of you! HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!

2 comments:

  1. Glad you learned something from your first level 1 field work. Neuro should be interesting!!

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  2. I just saw this, Chena, and I wanted to say I am glad my article on fieldwork helped you feel a little better!!! We all tend to assume we are the only ones who make certain types of mistakes...in reality we are never alone. Sounds like you're doing an awesome job of reflecting/learning/progressing.

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