a young occupational therapist

The Occupational Therapy Practice Framework, 3rd edition, is a tool for occupational therapy practitioners, students, and other healthcare professionals to use within their practice. It identifies constructs and themes to help with assessing clients and helping them to achieve greater health and other goals they may hold. This specific framework has been used for years, it has just received a few upgrades based on the new ideas and thoughts of practitioners. In this newest edition, there are two major sections: domain (the "what") and process (the "how"). Both of these sections correlate to allow therapists to really be client-centered and holistic. This guide allows therapists to focus on the overarching idea: "health, well-being, and participation in life." Learning about this tool throughout OT school has been very helpful for me, as a student. Knowing that there is a guide for me to be able to turn to when questions arise is reassuring.

Today, MOT1s at UTHSC completed era presentations. We were separated into groups and assigned a specific decade from 1940s-2010s. I learned so much about each era and how occupational therapy played a role in every decade. However, one concept that stuck out to me was women’s roles in the 1950s. In the 1950s women’s occupations included the following: - Cooking - Cleaning - Laundry - Taking care of the household - Taking care of the children And while that list includes several activities and tiny tasks, it blew my mind that women weren’t working jobs, when in the previous decade they played a huge role in the workforce because of the war. It’s like women had to take a step backward for all the men returning to home from overseas. Luckily, in the following decades, women rejoined the workforce and started making changes within their fields, including occupational therapy.

Before beginning OT school... Before starting any school, most people have initial ideas about what it is going to be like, what they're going to learn, even things they're going to encounter. In almost every scenario, people's thoughts and perspectives change almost immediately after starting whatever program they have entered into. For me, coming into OT school, I didn't know what to expect. I had certain thoughts about the career and reasons why I felt I belonged on this path, but as for what I would learn and change about myself and my ideas -- I had no idea what was coming. In just the first five weeks I have learned the following about myself: - Anatomy...WOW. Our bodies do amazing things and it ceases to amaze me. - Living in a new place and finding your way around is never easy. - Learning names of your classmates and professors is daunting. - Grad school is much different than undergrad. But as for OT, this career I was so sure I knew everything abo