The begining:

Through out my three years of being posted around the country you can hopefully see how my skills have developed. I can now see the occupational relationship and i have seen a broad range of how occupational therapy works in different settings. For example in fieldwork six i was not sure where Occupational therapy fitted into the placement but by the end of it i could see how its importance. Just by looking through my diary abstracts i have seen how my grammer and occupational language have changed and developed as a student. I encourage you to comment on my blog so that i can get some feed back and also other students that might be looking at this can pull from my experiences and know that they are not the only people who might be going through difficult times. It is also important to remember about cultural safety, when i travelled to th far North i was faced with cultures that i had not had much to do with in the past. Just by going to talk to the Maori liaison i learnt a lot of important protocol that i otherwise would not of know. Through out my three years i have personally realised that it is important for me to understand my own culture before i can understand someone elses. This has been a bit factor in my final year of study and i reccomend that you take this point on board.

Fieldwork Six:

This was a placement that was a bit different from the others. For this placement we were given a project that a service had identified as a need that they wanted us to develop and present. I was working for three weeks with Immigrants and refugees that were new to Dunedin and struggled to use the bus services in Dunedin. I was paired up with another member of my class and from there we had meetings with the agency to develop ideas around the need that was being met. We decided that we were going to present to the service a teaching resource that would have a pamphlet of easy step by step directions to using a bus, a DVD that also gave a step by step visual and audio presentation of how to use a bus from start to finish, and finally we presented them with a teachers resource which was a more indepth look at how to teach the students how to use a bus in Dunedin. To do this we had to do a lot of researching and also did three bus activity analysis so that we could look at this and make it as easy as possible for the immigrants and refugees to follow. We completed this and presented this to the agency, of which they were very pleased with and appreciated all of the hard work. Skills i have developed from this placement were, collaboration and conciliation with others, communication skills, public speaking, prioritising, job sharing and learning to compromise with your partner.

Fieldwork Four

This placement was a good opportunity to work with the same group of clients for the whole five weeks I have been here at the residential home and hospital. It was a good place to practice your interviewing and group facilitation skills. On this placement I ran groups such as art, cooking, bingo, housie, crafts and community outings. Challenges I faced were motivating the residents to participate in the activities, I had to know the routines and seating plan of all of the residents so that there were no fights between residents as some of them are so stuck in their ways and do not except change as a positive. This placement is good for students that have limited knowledge of geriatric care as you get a wide scope of practice with resident living in the rest home, hospital and supported flatting care.

Day Fifteen:

Day Fifteen:

This is my last week of placement, this week I will be tying up all loose ends. The man with MS has received his new wheelchair which we fitted for three weeks ago. I will pass over my case load to MDT. This week I am to take some residents over to Alexandra for appointments. I am still continuing to run and organise group activities which involve brain stimulation and exercise.

Day Eight:

Day Eight:

I have started to get the flu. My supervisor is still off sick so I have been doing initial interviews today on all of the residents that do not yet have one in there profile. This has been a good experience for me as it has given me a chance to practice the interviews and then write up the results in their profiles. It also gives me a chance to spend some time with most of the residence and find out what their interests are and how we can get them engaging in new occupations so they don’t get board and will stay active through out the day.

Day Five:

Day Five:

This is my first week over and it has been quite a week. There has been a bad flu going around all of the patients and staff, so there has man many staff away including my supervisor. This has meant that I have had to do a lot of self directed learning. I have also been joining in on the group activities that the activities people do on a daily bases. Today we took 8 of the residents out for a drive to Arrowtown. It was such a beautiful day so we went for a walk along the main street and stopped in at a café for some lunch. The residents all enjoyed this and wished to go back there soon. I also took my MS patients out with us and he was a changed man when he returned. He was so grateful to be be getting back out and back to his home town.

Day one:

Day One:

Today was my first day at a residential home and hospital. This place is an amazing place. The staff there are so close to the clients and everyone in there seems to get along. I was given a tour of the home and hospital and along the way meet the residents that lived there. The Home part of the establishment is where all the residents with some kind of independence live. The hospital side of it is very high needs and there is a range of illnesses and disabilities from stroke to multiple sclerosis (MS). I meet a man today who is one of my patients to look after while I am there, he is a 53 year old male and he suffers from MS. He is not enjoying living in the hospital and wants to get out for daily trips. This man is blind and also quite deaf so this will be a challenge for me. The other three residents on my case list are two patients that have had strokes and one with dementia. My hours are 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday.