February

"Hello, my name is Vicky and i'm an Occupational Therapist"

Well not quite yet... but I have been refreshing my BSL signing skills during this month and learned how to sign 'occupational therapist' in a deaf awareness lecture with a lady who lost her hearing at the age of 12 due to contracting meningitis. She went on to study to be an OT and she highlighted the problems she endured during her training as her educators and lecturers often didn't have the awareness and communication abilities to support her whilst she studied. She also explained the difficulties she faces as a qualified OT. This session was really insightful and revealed the importance of being deaf aware and how loosing your hearing can affect your life and participation within occupations. A great insightful, OT session all round! The class also learned how to finger spell, which was a good little revision for me as I have already attended a beginners course in BSL. 

...Notice my cat on my lap in these photographs... she is currently recovering from recent surgery. She is deaf also and I have my own little cat gesture sign language which I do to communicate with her. Cat OT in the making!

Back to school.

I have been back at university for 3 weeks now and in that time I have completed my second assignment and started 2 new modules and endured a lot of train journeys!

I feel a little more confident this time submitting my assignment now that I have passed one previously. However, I don't really know how i've done until results day! I have really taken on board the feedback I received from my last assignment and have tried my best to improve on these areas and have read more broadly using a wider range of academic texts and journal articles, so fingers crossed!

One of the modules we have started is our scholarship and research module whereby we are to submit a research proposal in the summer! I felt very anxious over this module as I have never done a science based or research based degree before so it is all new to me! My tutor was aware of this and supported me really well during the session. We went back to basics and have been learning about the many different types of research and processes.  A lot of the words are extremely abstract at the moment to me and I feel that until I actually carry out some of the processes, I won't really understand them fully. I am trying to come up with a research question - I'm currently thinking I would like to link my knowledge of autism and my experience of art and relating it to OT. However, i've not had a lot of experience of OT with autism so that will be my job for the foreseeable future - doing lots of research into research!

We have also began some practical training sessions to finish off our intro to OT module and I attended the moving and handling session on Friday! It's good to learn the basics to transfer into practice!

We have also started another module where we have been looking at the OT process in-depth and relating this to practice placement experience we have had. This has really helped and re-enforced my understanding of the theory.

Placement update!

For my next placement I have found out I will be spending 8 weeks with a community stroke team. I am really looking forward to this to build up on my experience from the observational placement with a community neuro team and it is an area of interest for me! I also really enjoy community work however, I am a little disappointed as I feel my placements so far haven't given me a wide range of experience and I really needed a hospital placement, paediatrics or mental health. Fingers crossed for next time! The bonus is that it is in commutable distance so I won't have to move away from home for the 8 weeks.

So that has been February.

It's been a very busy month and now there is a lot of weight off my shoulders now the assignment is handed in. It has freed up time to concentrate on my new modules and research proposal! I feel March is going to be a month of lots of learning for me!

Time really does fly on this course!