No longer a baby OT - A brief summary of my three years at uni

Today I had a phone call from HR to discuss my start date and sorting out all the paperwork, I then spoke to someone from the OT department to discuss my starting week. Initially I have some training days, which I have been assured are boring but necessary, before I start on the wards. I will be working across 3 surgical/medical wards and thankfully have the assistance of a Band 3.

Apart from that, I don't really know much. So I am heading to the hospital on Friday morning to sign some paperwork and pick up my unconditional job offer etc, and to sort out the uniform.

It's all real now, it's happening all too quickly, and I'm suddenly feeling overwhelmed and under-prepared, although I'm sure I'll be fine when I start. I've wanted this for over 3 years, and now that it's here it doesn't yet feel real. I think once I start it will sink in a bit.

The 3 years in a nutshell.

I'm really proud of myself for sticking at it when I moved away from home at 18 into halls, where I didn't get on with most of my flatmates (see older posts, sept-dec 2010) and couldn't afford to have a social life or go home. The workload was a shock, it was full on and intense with 22 hours of contact time; I spent approximately 16 hours a week studying anatomy and physiology (6 hours contact time), which was tough!!! The amount of mnemonics and songs I learned/composed in order to learn of the parts of the brain/cranial nerves etc. for the exam, I'm surprised that amount of information managed to stay in my brain. Everyone was really stressed and worried about the OSCE (see older posts), but reterospectively I don't see why, because it was just 'being' an OT and demonstrating this.
 My first placement in general medicine in a very acute setting was very enjoyable and was the point in the course when I was sure that I was right for OT (and not OT being right for me...). Those 6 weeks were tough, I really hit the ground running, but I was happy that I really got to grips with the role, and was working autonomously (with supervision of course) by the end of those 6 weeks and didn't feel like I was a student in the way, or making more work for my PE, but was actually contributing to the effectiveness of the team.

Going back into second year was a bit daunting, because I never felt that I got the normal 'student' experience in my first year, not that I'm entirely sure I wanted it, as it's not very 'me'. But very quickly I formed bonds with 3 girls from the course (two of whom I sat with for A&P in first year, the other a friend of one of the girls from placement). These 3 quickly became my cornerstone and my social support, and I wouldn't of coped without them! Assignments included the 'dreaded' partnerships assignment, and the long and arduous module that was research methods (although of paramount importance for writing the dissertation in 3rd year) - the research exam was difficult, but I passed with a surprisingly good grade.  The EOP 2 exam was really the first time we put all the elements of the OT process together to demonstrate our knowledge, understanding and skills and were marked on it. We were given 2 case studies, although it seemed difficult at first, it was very useful, fun and interesting (which was a suprise!) as we were working in an 'ideal situation'.
The placement I had in this year was my mental health placement, where I decided that I was best suited to working in a physical setting. Although I worked with some fantastic professionals (and am still in contact with one of the OTs), and was able to complete and observe many standardised assessments and other such things that students love, I didn't particularly enjoy the placement or the setting I was in.
We also had the mandatory training updates for things such as manual handling - unfortunately we were the guinea pigs and were taught by an outsourced company, who unfortunately knew nothing of OT and quite frankly what they taught us was wrong.

Third year meant being thrown in at the deep end, straight into placement for the first 3 months. This was my favourite placement, but also the most difficult as we only briefly covered children and development, and the placement was community paeds. It was a great experience, and fantastic in terms of skill acquisition, I really enjoyed the placement, and was sad to leave. Dissertation writing dominated the first 3 months of 2013, although it was started May 2012, it was a horrible experience, writing for 7 hours a day, I thought I was developing contractures, and definitely experienced occupational deprivation. But it was the best feeling when it was printed out and handed in! Again there was a partnerships module, which reaffirmed the opinions formed during the first and second partnerships. We had to create a poster... It wasn't marked but was mandatory, so sort of a waste of time, but it went with our conference presentation. It was stressful, but it was the first time the cohort has really been together and supportive, and in the end it wasn't as bad as expected. This final semester was literally non-stop and ended with a 3 hour exam similar to the one in second year. Everyone got massively worked up about it, but it was just the OT process.  I'm ready to get out into the big bad world and be an OT now!!

(As I know I have quite a few student OTs who read my blog if you are interested in reading about particular assignments or experiences I had during the course it is possible to view the archives of my blog by month, or by label, e.g. 'partnerships').

I keep having fleeting moments where I have this strange, guilty feeling, and I think it's because I'm not used to having NOTHING to do - I thought I would enjoy it but I'm not.

So that's it, it's all done, handed in and completed. Now to start my job on Monday, and wait for my results (Monday 10th).

xx