Yes, its the Occupational Therapist.

Since I've been looking for a job, recently I have been calling and getting calls from places that offer OT services. I already have my grade and my provisional license but still, it feels so weird for me to describe myself as and Occupational Therapist instead of an OT student.

I went to Guadalajara, Mexico this April and the security guy at the airport asked me what was my occupation. I  remained silent for a couple of seconds thinking that I'm not a student anymore but I am not and official OT either. I ended up telling him "Occupational Therapy Student". It seems that my hesitation made him suspicious as he asked me several uncomfortable questions after that like: "how did you afford this trip if you're a student?" 

I think once I have an actual OT job it won't be so difficult to tell the world that I am a proud Occupational Therapist!

NBCOT Done! (Hopefully forever)

Today I took the NBCOT OTR exam. Tolerance wise, it wasn't as bad as I thought. I was able to complete the clinical simulations and 85 of the multiple choice items before I took a break. The clinical simulations were the worst part. I wish the NBCOT study guide had the rationales for the correct answers of the clinical simulation practice items, but it doesn't. This makes very difficult to know why are some answers correct, neutral or wrong, which made me less confident about my answers in the real test. The multiple choice items were very similar to the ones in the study guide so I hope I score high in that section to compensate for my deficits in the clinical simulations.

I'm not going to know if I passed or not until at least a month from now because the NBCOT doesn't releases the pass/fail status until they receive a transcript that states that you have graduated. My graduation is this Friday and my University is kind of slow issuing transcripts, so we''ll see. I hope I don't have to see the NBCOT study guide or the TherapyEd review guide ever again! I'll keep you updated!

Pediatric Anecdote #1: M&Ms

As you may know, my pediatric rotation was the one that I enjoyed the most. I had a lot of fun working with kids and high school students with autism and other conditions. I would like to share some posts with some of the stories from this rotation. Here's the first one:

One of my patients was a high school student with autism who was non-verbal. One day, I went on a road trip with his whole special ed class to help them pick materials to later on teach them how to make beaded bracelets. It seems that seeing me in his weekly road trip made him realize that I now was officially part of his class. 

The next day, he grabed me by my arm (I was super scared since he is way bigger than me), and dragged me to his lunch box. He sat down, opened a small bag of m&ms, took one for him and  gave another one to me . He had shared with me! His helper told me that he rarely does that without someone asking him to do it. That day, he dragged me 2 more times to his lunchbox to share another m&m and a cookie with me. It was so funny because he never looked at me in the eyes during the whole process. Since that day every time I eat m&ms I smile and remember how such a simple thing had made my day. 

NBCOT preparation time!!

Hello!

I'm currently studying for the NBCOT certification exam. I plan to take it the first week of June or the last of May, not sure yet.  Started studying a couple of weeks ago when I came back from a cruise vacation with my classmates. We had soo much fun! I can't say the same thing about studying though.

I bought the famous Therapy Ed book by Rita Fleming that everyone recommends. I also have the NBCOT study guide. Today I started chapter 6 of the Therapy Ed book. Chapters 4 and 5 were eternal, but this one seems more manageable.

 My plan is to not get stuck in the chapters for a long time, since I probably don't need to memorize things in such a specific way, just have an idea to be able to use the information in clinical situations. I want to focus more in taking the practice tests, and learning the tricks to analyze the questions fast. Then, I can review the areas in which I need reinforcement.

Is anyone out there who recently took the exam and has any recommendations for me?

Level II Fieldwork: Last Update

My last Level II Fieldwork experience was at an outpatient mental health hospital. I spent there 2 months as well as in my other practice settings. I really enjoyed this last experience. My favorite part was that I was able to give group therapy sessions to adolescents as well as adults. Even though I seem younger than what I am, they followed my instructions and treated me with respect. Since it was an outpatient clinic, the patients were pretty functional, so the focus of the therapies were stress management, autoeficacy, communications skills and things like that. I also got to do crafts as therapeutic exercises for problem solving, impulse control, etc. Through the patients,  I learned how important it's to keep a positive mind, to forgive yourself for your mistakes and to keep moving forward no matter what. It was a nice and relaxed way to end my OT training.

The last day of practice (I'm not going to lie) felt a little bitter sweet. I always wanted so bad to finish OT school so I could go back home, but I felt a little sad when I was leaving the capital.  It felt like the end of an era. Now the real word, where I have to find a job, pay bills, and be an actual adult awaits. But for now I still have to finish my thesis (which I'm not going to miss at all) and prepare myself for the NBCOT and local tests. So, one day at a time right?

PS: Yesterday, my OT program made us take an NBCOT practice test and even though I haven't started studying yet I passed it, so I'm exited!

Level II Fieldwork 2nd rotation: Pediatric OT!

Don't have a lot of time,  but just wanted to say that I looooveee my second rotation setting! I'm working at an elementary school and a high school.  I feel so full of energy just by being around the kids. It's not as hard to wake up in the mornings and Mondays are not bad at all. I think this is the true feeling of loving what you do!

I'll keep you updated,

Luna

Level II Fieldwork update

So I'm about to finish my first fieldwork rotation and I wanted to let you know that my plan (the one I talked about in my last post) didn't work. Since other therapists gave treatment to patients over the weekend, most of my treatment plans were already done by Monday! So you can imagine that I felt pretty frustrated. But the good news is that things got better with time. As I got more experience with different patients with similar conditions, I got better at figuring out what to do with them in sessions. I also got much better at my time management and documentation skills.

The only thing that stills pretty difficult to me is doing transfers with patients. I'm 5'1" tall and weigh less than 100 pounds, so moderate assistance for transfers feels like total assistance to me! This is the only barrier I have to be able to work in the future in this environment (Impatient Rehab Hospital, that I have learned to love over these two months). Lets see how it goes on my next rotations!