OT: Create - Motivate - Inspire

     One rotation of my observations in undergrad was with an occupational therapist who worked primarily in acute care at the local hospital in the city that I was in school. One of the first things that I noticed while shadowing in acute care is that the hospital is all about efficiency. They try to send patients home or to another facility as quickly as possible. Essentially, if the person is stable (even right after surgery), they are already discussing with the client and their family about the next steps for rehabilitation outside of the acute floor. It also really surprised me that we would go visit a client for therapy even the same day after they had undergone surgery just to get them moving a little bit. The clients that we visited came from all kinds of backgrounds and had numerous types of surgeries or diagnoses which made acute care very interesting and fresh. The sphere of practice was mostly biological, although I do feel like there were some patients that ...

     One activity that I chose that really made me think was the TED Talk by Michael Nesmith in regards to the concept of universal design. His main point was encouraging everyone to use and push forward this concept of "universal design" which he defined as "the design of products and environments to be useable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design". This concept is so relevant to me as a future occupational therapist where our mindset is not on the disability but on people as a whole. Occupational therapists seek to eliminate barriers to allow people to live the life they desire including participating in any activity they may enjoy.          Additionally I listened to the "Au-Some Swimmers" podcast which was very interesting! I have never really thought about the large need of the role of OTs in helping children on the autism spectrum learn how to swim. I liked how they addressed ...