My placement- in a nutshell

So what am I exactly doing on placement? Well as I have been asked this time and time again so I will try to explain.

The purpose of placement
It accrue 1000+ practice placement hours to enable students to learn and to demonstrate skills and knowledge. The hours of hands on practice that test your people skills, communication skills, ability to manage self and environment, prioritisation skills, clinical reasoning, ability under pressure etc. You name it, there's probably some sort of task that will test your ability. It also allows you to see if the area(s) you are interested in you would actually enjoy working in, and you are suited to, or in some cases you will find that you aren't suited to an area.

How it's graded
In the first year it's pass or fail. With a case study to complete. Second and Third year it's graded (D,C,B,B+,A) which corresponds to a % and a classification e.g. 2:1. Case study to complete as well as reflections  and a context of practice report (3rd year only). The marking is increasingly difficult, an A in 2nd year is only a B+ in 3rd. During all 3 I am required to build a learning resources file, that may be used to evidence some of the grading criteria.

The client group
There's so many different areas to work in: Paediatricts, Acute, Rehab, mental health, community, equipment, social services, learning disability, law - personal injury claim, driving assessment, home adaptations, and then of course there are more generic roles such as in a charity or as a care coordinator.

I am currently working in a children's community team. I see a range of children from 0-11 with a wide variety of conditions. Mostly it's conditions such as autism, down syndrome, aspergers and cerebral palsy, however I see some rare genetic conditions, degenerative conditions, and end of life children. Additionally I see children with complex postural needs and specific hand needs.

The 'OT'
Cases are prioritised, parents are invited to an intro workshop, and then assigned an OT. Children are allocated a block of therapy from 4-8 sessions. The first few sessions are observation, and assessment, where priority areas are identified and goals written. The rest are intervention with the last session used to measure whether goals are achieved.

The assessments are varied; some are standardised, e.g. the sensory profile or sensory processing measure, the Movement ABC, VMI et. Others are things such as clinical observation, interviews with the carers, home visits and school/nursery visits. The information gained from the assessments is then used to inform the goal(s) and the intervention to address this. Goals are written in a SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely) way and may be educational in nature (e.g. you are teaching the parent), compensatory, functional, sensory, bio-mechanical, or neurodevelopmental to name a few.

Areas observed and addressed include: Fine motor, gross motor, cognitive/attention, interaction/play, self care, sensory.
Areas of intervention: Functional - dressing, writing, feeding, toileting. Balance, coordination, understanding, danger awareness, concentration, play skills, decision making, sensory processing. The list goes on!

What I gain from it
+++ increased knowledge of development, +++ increased observational skills, +++increased communication skills, styles and abilities, a broader knowledge of OT assessments, increased confidence in knowledge and ability to be professional, broader understanding of function and impact on this, a sense of self, confidence in autonomous working.

That's a very brief overview. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask!!

xx