Lauren LaBorde OT425 + OT 537

The other day in Neuro OCP, we had the pleasure of having guest speaker Fletcher Cleaves come in and share his story about his injury. In 2008, Fletcher was in a car accident and as a result, left him with a C5 complete SCI. He talked about the accident but more so focused on his life since and how it has impacted him. I was amazed at how positive and motivated Fletcher was coping with his new way of life. He left us with a message of "the sky is NOT the limit." When in the hospital after his injury, doctors told him he wouldn't be able to live on his or achieve half of the things he has already done. He made a point to prove them wrong and used it as motivation. Fletcher inspired me in many ways. One thing that really stuck out to me was when he told us how long it takes him to get ready in the morning. If he had to be somewhere at 9:00, he would have to wake up at 5:30 in order to be on time. Of course I understand it would take him longer, but never did I imagine tha...

As I was browsing my options on what to write my first neuro note on, I remembered I just recently watched the movie Concussion. This movie is a true story about how NFL football players who suffer repeated blows to the head can develop chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). These repeated blows to the head over time proved to cause brain damage, something that the NFL ignored could happen and didn't even warn players of this risk. We know from class that a concussion is a form of a mild traumatic brain injury. Sometimes the symptoms of a TBI can be so mild that they aren't taken seriously. Any time there is a blow to the head, your brain is bumped to the front and then to the back, called coup and countercoup. This movie really shed light on how a concussion can affect your cognition and present with such symptoms that one is simply not themselves. In the movie, we see Mike Webster's (NFL player for the Pittsburgh Steelers) life after playing for the NFL and suffering...

Today I learned about a boy named Tyler who suffered a SCI when being dropped out of a helicopter. Hearing his story was very eye opening to think about his daily struggles and what he encounters on a daily basis. From what I learned about Tyler, he likes to be very independent and doesn't want anyone treating him differently because of his injury. Tyler spent 3 weeks at Shepherd Center and he says the coolest thing about OT was how they treated him. They treated him just like any other client, regardless of his level of injury. They motivated him to succeed and get better. What I found particularly fascinating was how much determination Tyler has. After spending time in Shepherd Center, he came home and enrolled school shortly after. He also is already back to driving with an adaptive truck and his injury happened less than a year ago. What I take away from this story is how important it is to motivate your clients and how much self-determination can help one succeed despite the i...

In today's lecture in Foundations, we talked a lot about professional development. Professional development is  planning for and seeking out a cumulative series of opportunities and experiences to ass to one’s knowledge, motivation, perspectives, skills, and capacity for job performance. It is building our path to our career and beyond. To be an OT, one must commit to life-long learning, which is a part of professional development. From this lecture, it made me ponder about plans I have for to grow with professional development and stay committed to being a life-long learner. Continuing ed is something that really excites me about entering into the practitioner field. As I worked as a tech, I remember hearing about all the continuing ed courses upcoming and hearing the therapists talk about them. They all seemed so interesting and enriching. I have set some goals for myself already for when I finally become a practitioner. To grow in professional ...

Today in class, we spoke a lot about clinical reasoning, what is it and how does one get it? Clinical reasoning is the thought process you use as a practitioner to evaluate clients and make clinical decisions. Clinical reasoning helps one carry out the whole OT process. It is not something that is learned or taught overnight, but rather is formed over time. You cannot just "study" how to become good at clinical reasoning, but our fieldwork experiences and what we learn in OT school can help shape our clinical reasoning. This particularly stuck with me because this is something that is best learned by experience, which I believe is the best kind of learning. From my past clinical experience as a tech in multiple settings, I feel as though I have already gained useful knowledge that has already started to shape my clinical reasoning. Experience is what makes you be more confident in clinical situations which is crucial to shaping our clinical reasoning.

On this day in class, we talked a lot about documentation. The common way to document a clinic note is called a SOAP note. This stand for S- Subjective, O- Objective, A- Assessment, P- Plan. In the subjective part, this is where you put information reported to you by the client. This could be a direct quote coming from the client's mouth, or a statement summarized that the client reported to you, such as "I didn't sleep much last night due to pain in my left arm." In the objective part of the note, this is where you state clinical findings and measurable objective data such as, client participated in Dynavision activities to increase trunk balance and UE functional mobility Client was able to achieve score of 85% with minimal cueing or assistance. In the assessment section, this is where you put your judgment and opinion as the practitioner. This is your interpretation of the S and O such as, client has demonstrated increase in UE functional mobility and trunk balance...

Today we learned about the OT Process from referral to discharge. The OT process includes the evaluation, intervention, and outcomes of treatment of a client. In the evaluation process, there is the referral, screening, and as an OT you try to form an occupational profile. The main purpose of an occupational profile is to provide the OT with background information on the client's goals, habits, occupations and history. It helps the OT look at what their functional performance is. During the intervention process, the OT does planning, implementation and is also reviewing as treatment continues. During the outcomes process or re-evaluation, the OT must measure the outcomes, review goals, and decide if they client is ready for discharge or if there is more to work on. Throughout this process, it is important to document because if it is not documented, it technically did not happen.

In this lecture, we had Professor Flick come talk to us about health promotion, literacy, and prevention. It was interesting to have pointed out that many people think of health as just a physical thing. Health is not the absence of disease, but rather having a good mental, physical, and social state of mind. This was the first time I heard about the IHI triple aim. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement put together 3 major recommendations on how we can deliver good healthcare. They are improving the patient's experience, improving the health of populations, and reducing the per capita cost of healthcare. I enjoyed hearing about how our nations spends tons of money on healthcare a year but yet we don't get that much quality out of it. This really stands out to me and shows a need that we really need to come together to achieve overall health.

In this lecture, we learned a lot about universal design. Universal design is a way of setting things up so the maximum amount of people are able to access or use it. I was really interested in universal design and then started thinking about things in the community I see that are built with universal design in mind. Examples of some are automatic doors, reachers, and ramps. This lecture really made me think about things in the community and how things are built without keeping in mind accessibility to all. I now notice little things in the community that either stand out as having great access to all or things that were built without universal design in mind at all. For example, I was thinking about New Orleans, where I am from, and thinking about the city's design and how hard the streets, and sidewalks are to access for wheelchairs and such. Furthermore, all the houses in the city are raised with many steps to enter because of frequent flooding in the city. For a city that I kno...

I am very interested in the brain injuries and it is a diagnosis I hope to one day specialize in. I have worked a lot previous at both inpatient and outpatient setting treating various patients with brain injuries. One thing that stuck out to me that was common with all the brain injury patients I saw was that impulsivity was a common trend. In the past, I have had a lot of fun interacting with the brain injury patients because you never know what is coming next, but it really amazed me with how capable the brain was of changing. We had this one patient who when she was inpatient had vulgar outbursts in the gym but by the time she made it to our outpatient clinic, she was a much calmer and changed person. Her viewpoint had completely shifted and her attitude completely changed. I felt it was very rewarding to work with these patients because it was challenging given that each case presents with different symptoms and needs. I love how much brain injuries vary and keeps you on your toes...

The TED talk was very motivating. I felt that Aimee was such strong person and very inspirational. I agreed with everything she was saying and found it shocking the way disabled is defined in dictionaries. Society should define who and how one is disabled, rather that is something that is more internal and how that person chooses to view or accept their current status. In Aimee's case, she was a bilateral amputee, but did not allow that to set her back in life. Instead she used that motivate herself and prove to society she is capable of achieving what others are, if not more. We need more people like Aimee in our society, to send a message that disabilities are not limitations necessary in life but rather how we choose to move on and accept these changes is what defines us.