International perspectives as a new OT student

I'm reading through these comments and seeing a lot of cool stuff! Also, it took me a while to see how old all of the posts are. I am an OT student, currently at the end of my 9th month of a doctorate program in Southern California, United States. Not sure what to say at the moment but wanted to say hello and hope you are all doing well in the OT world!

Hi Rachel for second year my syllabus includes general medicine, general surgery, pediatrics, pharmacology, ENT and ophthalmology, pharmacology, Biomechanics and applied anatomy, applied physiology, clinical neurology, clinical orthopedics and radio diagnosis and FUNDAMENTALS OF OT

For third year : Community Medicine, Basic Nursing and First Aid, Health Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Clinical Psychiatry. OT in Psychiatry , OT in Orthopaedics, OT in Paediatrics

For fourth year : Clinical Cardio Respiratory and Work Physiology, Rehabilitation Medicine,

Organization and Administration in OT ,OT in Rehabilitation ,Group process in OT ,Project, Research Methodology and Biostatistics .

Hi @Rachel Bowen

I'm @Beena Prety , second year OT student studying in India . The course is Bachelor of occupational therapy and it is for 4 years and internship is for 6 months.. My syllabus for first year was anatomy, physiology, psychology and sociology,basic occupational therapy..

By the way, please link me to any OT blogs or Instagrams because I find those super cool! Currently I follow some well-known ones likes OT Miri, Seniors Flourish and Allie the OT on Instagram. Also @Rachel Bowen let me know how you're doing, totally forgot to ask in my last post :)

Hi @Rachel Bowen ,

Sorry for this super late (1 month-ish woops!) reply. I just finished university a.ka. my first year of uni! :)

NZ OT's do work inter-professionally with teachers, social workers etc.... but they also work with physiotherapists and rehabilitation therapists as well. Currently, OT as a profession is mainly under the government but there are some private practices as well. So I just finished my practicum and did manage to gain some skills which I expected to gain (hoisting, communication) . But I think what surprised me was how interesting being an OT was, especially in a school setting. I got to run my own engine room programme (which focuses on sensory/vestibular functioning) and also be part of a cooking programme which is focused on giving the students independence within the kitchen. Also, it's very cool that you have a module which is centred on assessment and interviews! My fieldwork educator just guided me through the whole process via a wheelchair assessment that she did with one of the students. It was super interesting because the client was graduating from this school and was learning to flat independently, so he requested for some parts of his wheelchair to be replaced/readjusted to accommodate this new situation. I think the 4th year of this degree is targeted towards students who want to do a Masters. When you complete the 4th year, you get a Bachelors of Honours and it kinda boosts you into further study. I think we still get accreditation to practice in 3rd year.

@Jamie Grant We're currently having a practicum revamp! So there are no requirements in the sense that you don't have to choose a mental/physical health training. However, it is advised that you pick a placement which has a Maori centred focus at some stage (e.g. one of the papers is focused on Applied Primary Maori Mental Health). Interestingly, paediatrics is a growing field here but there is more focus on mental health and aged care. To be honest, most of my cohort entered OT because they were super interested in mental health! Once again, sorry guys for this super late reply!

Loving the international connect and collaboration going on here! As @Rachel Bowen points out, the Disabled Living Foundation is a great resource for you to tap into; based in the Uk but info is relevant much more widely. @h29maira Ana, do universities in New Zealand give you any choice over which practicums you get? Are you expected to do at least one mental health and one physical health placement during your training (like the UK)? Also, paediatrics wasn't an area that grabbed my interest - but I found that very few students got offered this area of practice. Is this more common in NZ? I know paediatrics is big in the US, but less so here... Jamie

Hi Ana @h29maira

Happy World OT day!

I hope the first week of your practicum has gone well? It sounds like you have a really interesting placement. What sort of things are you and the OTs there doing? Do OTs work interprofessionally with other professionals in New Zealand? (eg. with teachers, nurses, social workers etc) Is OT typically part of your health system there or does it operate more independently? Here we have a National Health Service (NHS) and a lot of OTs work in different specialist roles within that, but some OTs also work independently or in more emerging roles outside of that.

Are there any specific skills you are expected or hope to learn from your practicum? How will this be measured and do you have someone to mentor you? We have an Ongoing Achievement Record to complete and are assigned a practice educator who mentors us in our placement setting. We’ll be focusing on observation and assessment this year and using a person centred ’top down’ approach to that. I start a module next week which is all about assessment and interviews so that I gain the skills to do that.

I’ll keep a look out for resources on OT practice with Activities of Daily Living for you.

Does the 4th year of your degree give you an additional professional qualification? We get professional accreditation to practice if we successfully complete the 3 year degree.

Best wishes,

Rachel

Hi Rachel! @Rachel Bowen

Thanks for sharing some legislation! That's a really handy resource. We also have a code of conduct in the form of the Health & Disability Commissioner https://www.hdc.org.nz/.

My course is also 3 years, but I'm hoping to do a postgrad which will bump it up to 4 years (ah, life of a student haha). In NZ, we don't really have modules but papers which are about the things you just mentioned (e.g. assessing activity and occupational performance goes under one paper). These papers are called "Experiencing Occupation", "Personal & Environmental Factors" and "Practicum 1".

In terms of practice placement, I have a 2 week observation/assistance role that's going to begin next week. In Year 2, this becomes more regular and I will be going to my placement once a week for the whole year. In Year 3, I have placement for 10 weeks where it's a bit more intense since the placement requires more participation and less observation.

I'm actually going to a school for my practicum next week. I'll be working alongside a registered OT in the inclusion unit (which is about helping young adults with disabilities participate in school life). If you have any resources about OT practice in areas such as Activities of Daily Living or feeding/toileting - that would be so helpful!

Cheers,

Ana

Great to discover your Maori health models [@h29maira] !

Hi Rachel,

I'm Ana from New Zealand and I think it's so cool to connect with other OT students. I'm in my first year too!

Currently, we use the normal models of the CMOP-E, MoHO, etc.. but we also integrate some Maori health models such as Te Wheke and Te Whare Tapa Wha. I've attached some files for you to check out.

Te Wheke:https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/populations/maori-health/maori-health-models/maori-health-models-te-wheke

Hi @Rachel! Like yourself and @Laura, I also trained in the UK, so can't offer a different perspective personally. But I'm keen for this forum to grow, as it could provide a hugely useful perspective for so many. Why not go to your original post above and share the forum discussion via social media? I'll do the same via The OT Hub's Facebook group, 'The OT Hub Community'. Let's get the conversation going! Jamie Urgent Care Occupational Therapist (Bristol, UK) Director of The OT Hub

Hi Rachel,I probably can't be a great deal of help with your query as I studied in the UK, but I was just wondering but I was just wondering how you're getting on in the your first year!

Hi there Rachel, Thanks for getting involved in the Community Forum!

Responses can sometimes take a little time to appear, but we'll be reminding fellow Members today of the Forum, via our latest newsletter. Perhaps you could give us all a flavour of some of your experiences to-date? Warm regards The OT Hub Team hubteam@theOThub.com