#Elbasiouny S. M. Moroz D. Bakr M. M. & Mushahwar V. K. (2010). Management of spasticity after spinal cord injury: current techniques and fut

[nomvelokhanyile21-blog]

LIFE OF AN ASPIRING OT MEDICAL PRACTITIONER

Some would say going to a different fieldwork site is exciting because you get to experience differential diagnosis and get to experience how other OT departments function, as much as I agree with this, my experience wasn’t this optimistic. For me change of scenery is always accompanied by anxiety and distress and this was exacerbated when I learned I was going to a chronic facility with a possibility of getting spinal cord injury client.

They say there is a first time for everything, I learned this the hard way, the one thing I was drenching happened, tetraplegics as clients!!!!!!!!, for 2 or more minutes my heart pounded in a tachycardic manner, my anxiety levels reached a plateau phase, and feelings of distress engorged my mind because I had prayed for an opposite outcome, due to my conceived idea that it’s difficult to assess and treat spinal cord injuries.

They say that faith is taking the first step when you can’t see the whole staircase, the residue faith that remained helped me gain strength and confidence that I will manage. My faith was restored on first encounter with both client, they optimistic, willingness, perseverance and motivation to become independent. This made me eager to intervene and read more about the condition so as to help them achieve their goals.

Things don’t always go as prearranged, but learn to deal with this accordingly, at most cases avoid being hard on yourself, my treatment session for instance didn’t go as planned and I struggled with implementing my treatment principles but luckily my supervisor was able to note these and give me a few pointers on how to improve these looking forward in my treatment of the client this information was extremely helpful.

It’s always best to adhere to the original plan, but when this is an impossibility make the necessary adjustments which still try to improve the original goals. Supervisor was not so impressed by my alternative adjustments of the session plan because some skills that were ascribed to improve some performance skills where impractical and didn’t really achieve the desired treatment, her ability to note and correct this will allow me to set up and improve my treatment sessions in the future.

Always try not to focus on the preconceived thoughts that have been impeded in your mind in the early stages of practice. Supervisor advised me not to only dwell on basic ADL activities if the client is able to perform these independently, she advised that I prepare challenging activities so that the client won’t be bored. She advised me to shift from this preconceived knowledge that ADLS  are the most potent and main focus of the treatments and that I should also consider other areas of occupation such as instrumental activities of daily living such as(community mobility) and leisure.

Always have an understanding of what your client’s diagnosis is, understand limitations and complication of the diagnosis, supervisor encouraged me to learn more about the condition and the effects of muscle spasms on performance of occupations, she recommended a few reading that I should engage my attention to so that I better understand the impact of these on the performance of activities.In conclusion I would like to say that in the two days I’ve been on my fieldwork site I have acquired lot of information from both clients and supervisor that will help me in my planning and treatment of the client in the future.  

References 

Sköld, C., Levi, R., & Seiger, Å. (1999). Spasticity after traumatic spinal cord injury: nature, severity, and location. Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation, 80(12), 1548-1557.

Holland, B., Kuhn, C., & Rossier, A. B. (1971). Medical and Practical Aspects of Occupational Therapy in the Treatment of Tetraplegics. In Occupational Therapy Today-Tomorrow (pp. 116-121). Karger Publishers.

Dobkin, B., Apple, D., Barbeau, H., Basso, M., Behrman, A., Deforge, D., ... & Harkema, S. (2006). Weight-supported treadmill vs over-ground training for walking after acute incomplete SCI. Neurology, 66(4), 484-493.