Musings of an unconventional OT student

And yet again, another prac block has come to an end. Reflecting on this psychosocial block has been somewhat difficult, but illuminating nonetheless. I have learnt so much, about the theory, about prac knowledge and about myself. All the different diagnoses and how to handle each, how to structure sessions to get maximum therapeutic use out of each, how to choose activities to achieve aims, how to formulate aims so that they actually address the client’s needs and how to integrate person, occupation and context to ensure your treatment is holistic. Learning how to treat in a psychosocial setting has been quite an abstract concept. Treating something you can’t see, feel or actually accurately test is rather strange, let alone abstract. You have to constantly dissect everything said by the client because their perceptions about their particular situation isn’t necessarily the same as what the doctor or psychiatrist is saying. So to sum that up in one word - Insight. Insight, ins...

So arguably, this would mean I am doing research all day everyday… Nah, I’m just joking. I know what I’m doing… about 25% of the time… but that is better than nothing I guess (she laughs nervously.) But anyway, let me get to today’s topic of research, or more accurately, research day. What is research day? Where does it come from? Who decided to come up with this concept? Research day is the day everyone presents their research they have been doing for a year on a specific topic. It comes from the fact that in the OT degree, research is considered a part of honours that is sort of meshed with the normal OT degree. So we study for four years instead of the usual three, but we graduate with honours, not just a degree. Who decided to come up with this aspect of tertiary education? I have no idea, and no, I am not going to research it. All I can say is he is probably not the most liked person in history. So back to research day. As a third year, I was invited, along with the rest...