denice’s journals

On Tuesday I went to Advocacy Day in Columbus with some other OTA students and Kim. This was a great experience for me. We listened to Marc Schaffer (OOTA President), State Representative John Carney, Monica Robinson, Jeff Rosa Executive Director OT/PT/AT Board, and Capitol Consulting Group talk about budget cuts and how they are going to impact OT and support Autism Insurance Reform. Then we went and talked to Legislators Rep. Troy Balderson, Sen. Jimmy Stewart’s Aide and Rep. Jennifer Garrison’s Aide. about these various matters and ask for their support.

On Wednesday, I went back to Cambridge to the nursing and we had some patients do a group activity with tapping a balloon back and fourth. I also had individuals do therapy with the weight bar and theraputty. I also performed AAROM on patients hand.

On Thursday, I went back to the grade schools. Since it is getting close to the end of the year, we did all of our activities with them on the play ground. With most of the kids we let do their writing and paper cutting on picnic tables and then we played pass with two different sized weighted balls. They had a blast.

I am ahead on hours so I hope to finish them up the following week. I am going to miss Erin and the kids, but this quarter has taken a tool on me. I can’t wait for it to be over.

S: Advocacy Day was a great experience for me.

O: I participated in Advocacy Day, and therapy with a balloon, weight bar, theraputty, AAROM on a hand, weighted ball, writing and cutting paper.

A: I seem to be enjoying what I am doing and I get to do a variety of activities.

P: I am ahead on hours so I plan to finish my them the following week.

Denice Cochran S/OTA

I continued to do some treatment this week. One in particular was with a preschooler. I had him work on some sensory integration, manipulation and cognition. I had him picking out individual alphabet letters with magnets on  the back of them out of rice and placing them on the floor in alphabetical order. He got everyone right. Only a couple of times did I have to say “do you really think that ones goes there ” and each time I would have him sing the alphabet and he would figure it out on his own.

Kim Lawler showed up at Conesville elementery school to visited our fieldwork cite. She talked to Erin and then to me. She watched me with the preschooler that I was doing therapy with and she watch Erin while she was doing therapy with a grade school-er she seemed very pleased with everything that she saw.

Progress note: I treated a preschooler with some therapy and that went well. Kim visited the grade school and seemed very pleased.

Denice Cochran S/OTA

I am feeling more and more comfortable each week. Erin is having me do some treatments, while she watches and doesn’t interfere, so I’m thinking that she is getting more relaxed with me also. She is even having me pick out some of the  activities that I am using for treatment. Some of the goals that most of the clients have in the grade schools are working on their grasp, writhing skills, coordination, and some sensory integration issues. Some of the activities that I chose for a couple of the clients was five writing activities and I let them choose two out of the five because I feel if you give your clients a choice then they are going to respond to the activity a little better. The  fun activities that I gave them a choice of was that they could play pass with a rubber ball about the size of the palm of your hand or a big ball that they could sit on and bounce around on. Of course, they chose bouncing around on their butt. Erin said that every treatment activity that I picked out was perfect.

Erin is going to have me continue coming up with treatment activities and do more treatments next week. I am glad because the more I do the more comfortable I get. The clients seem to be just as comfortable with me.

Denice Cochran O/OTA

Contact Note: Fieldwork

S: I feel more comfortable each week. I think Erin is more relaxed with me.

O: I performed some treatment activities for some clients that are having trouble with their grasp, writing skills, coordination, and sensory integration.

A:I chose writing activities and the fun activities were playing catch with a ball or bouncing on a ball.

P: I will continue picking out more activities and do treatments with clients next week.

This week I went to the schools as usually on Tuesday and Thursday with Erin and saw the same kids that we have been seeing. They are a lot of fun and they are getting pretty comfortable with me. I helped out a little more with there therapy. When Erin had two kids in therapy, I would work with one and she would work with the other. I helped out with their writing skills, mostly recognizing when to write upper case and lower case letters, staying between the lines and grasping a pencil properly. We also tossed a weighted ball, which worked on coordination, strength, and endurance.

On Wednesday I usually go to Coshocton Health and Rehab with Erin but this week she was sent to Cambridge Health and Rehab (this happens to her quite often right now) because of lack of patients at Coshocton. I met up with her at the facility because I didn’t want to get to far behind on my hours. I was introduced to all new therapists and patients and everyone was real nice. I mostly watched the therapy treatments and talked to the patients. Erin wasn’t real familiar with the patients so she wanted to make sure that they were comfortable with her before she had me doing a whole lot with them. The facility and people were nice and I felt real relaxed while was there.

Progress note: I went to the schools and helped work on some writing skills with some patients and tossed a weighted ball to work on some exercises. I went to a new facility to me and met a lot of nice people.

Denice Cochran S/OTA

This week turned out to be pretty traumatic. I went to my fieldwork at Coshocton Health and Rehab on Wednesday and my supervisor (Erin) was not there because her house had caught on fire at about 2 A.M. that morning. She did leave me a voice mail on my cell phone but I never thought to turn the phone on before I had to be at the cite. They are able to save the frame of Erin’s house but they are going to have to gut out the rest of her house. She is currently staying in a hotel with her husband until they find an apartment to live in while they rebuild. Needless to say, she took the rest of the week off. Her co-workers were nice enough to let me stay and put my hours in. I also go to grade schools with Erin on Thursdays, so they told me to come back to the nursing home and put in the rest of my hours that I would have done with Erin. I thanked them and told them how much I appreciated it.

While I was at the nursing home on Wednesday, I performed PROM on a patient who was full of cancer. Both COTA’s that I was working with had told me that they hadn’t seen thispatient that bad. He would usually perform AROM himself. I talked him into moving his arm a little bit and I also steadied his arm while he moved it along the table reaching for a target. Most of the time I did do the work for him. I also worked with anoter patient on standing balance and the proper way to sit down in his chair. He had several accidents lateley where he would lose his balance and fall on the floor, he even had bruises on his face. By the time we were done, he had a good grasp on the proper procedure to maintain his balance.

On Thursday when I went to do my fieldwork, I found out that the patient that I had performed PROM on had passed away. The nurses aides helped him get up and to get a shower and then he laid back down and passed away. I thought that was sad. No wonder he did not want to do any activities the day before. On the brighter side of things the COTA’s picked out a patient for me to interview, so I got that done. That was one more thing that Erin did not have to worry about. I will let her read the interview the following week so she can sign off on it.

Progress note: My supervisors house caught on fire. Her co-workers let me put in my hours with them. I performed PROM on a patient that passed away the next day. I worked with a patient on standing balance and and the proper way to sit down so he won’t get hurt. I completed my interview on a patient.

Denice M. Cochran S/OTA

This week when I went back to the Conesville elementaryschool for my fieldwork I helped with a preschooler that we didn’t get to see the week before because he had been in speech therapy while we were there. He was a real joy. He cut out squares, rectangles, circles and triangles, glued them on construction paper, while working on attention functions, coordination, and grips, just to name a few skills. Then we sat on the floor and ran a truck back and fourth to each other. After we were done with this patient, we went into the third grade class room and sat there watching a patient for half an hour assessing him and watching his behavior in the structure of the classroom. My supervisor said that she only knows how he acts when it’s just her and him, one on one and she needs to see how well he is doing in the classroom. He seemed very distracted. He was even playing around with his shoes and shoe laces. He was interesting to watch and if I would have done this observation sooner, he probably would have been a good candidate for my observation vs. interpretation.

I also went to Warsaw elementary  this week. This was my first time visiting this school. I didn’t get to involved with the patients because they didn’t know me yet. I met them and I mostly sat back and watched the therapy trying not to distract them. I did play some pass with a rubber type toy.

I didn’t go to Coshocton Health and Rehab this week because of lack of patients. My super was sent to there sister facility in Cambridge. We did  talk about it and we decided that the next time that I am suppose to be with her and she gets sent over there, that I am going to go with her.

Progress note: I worked with a preschooler and sat in on an assessment for a third grader at Conesville. I visited Warsaw school for the first time and missed out on my fieldwork for Coshocton Heath and Rehab.

Denice M. Cochran S/OTA

This was a good week for me. As I stated in my first post, my supervisor Erin (COTA/L) had to cancell a day on me and I have already made most of my hours up that I had missed. That happened a little quicker than I expected. With her working for two different places (SNF and schools), my schedule has fluctuated a little bit. I am OK with that because everything seems to be working out.

When we were at one of the schools, Erin had to see two kids at one time because she was running out of time so I helped with some of the therapy “at my suggestion”. She was trying to play pass with both kids tossing sponge balls and she would have both balls coming at her at one time. So I suggested that I play pass also and she thought that was a great idea and so did the kids because then they were getting the individual attention that they deserved. I think Erin is doing a good job at including me in on the things that she is doing. She is always showing me her paper work on each patient that she is treating so I will understand what she is working on and answers any questions that I have. I am her first student and I think sometimes she is afraid of making me uncomfortable so I have to remind her that I can help, if I am not crossing the line of her therapy. I also got to sit in on Erin and Marin (OTR/L) meeting as they collaborated over changing goals and making up new goals for the patients. I thought that was interesting because that will be a part of my job. This was the first time that I had met Marin. She was OK with me joining them and was eager to answer any questions that I had.

Progress note: I am almost caught up on my hours. I got to participate in some therapy, tossing a ball with a patient. I met Marin the OTR/L for the school district and listened as Erin and Marin set new goals fot the patients.

Denice M. Cochran, S/OTA

Hi everyone!

Well, I finished my first week of fieldwork. I was more excied than anything to get started. I wasn’t real nervous because I had already met my COTA/L that I am hanging out with the week before my fieldwork started. She wanted all of my paper work (backround check, physical, and assignments) before my first day on the job. I feel like I have the best of both worlds. Not only do I get to go to a SNF but my therapist also sees patients in a school district so I get to go to some grade schools. I was fortunate enough to see patients working on their cognitive, fine motor, strenth and endurance skills.

I was a little disappointed and so was my COTA/L, she had to cancel one of her days with me because she would not be seeing any patients that day. It was the end of the grading period and she had to fill out forms and meet with some of the teachers about the progress her patients were making. I am a little behind on my hours now. I’m not real concerned about my hours yet because I know I will not have any trouble making them up. All in all, it was a good week and I can’t wait to get started this week.

Initial note: My supervisor is Erin Hughett, COTA/L.  My fieldwork sites are Coshocton Health and Rehab (People First) and Rilverview Schools. I have the luxury of seeing therapy for geriatrics and school aged kids.