At work today another staff member cautioned me to wash my hands often, as there seemed to be a bug in the building. Back in school I remember the importance that was stressed with proper hand washing techniques, before and after treatment with each patient, before and after eating, and after any ADL's. As a teacher I remember teaching the ...

  Some time ago I wrote a blog about COTA salaries, and in it I mentioned that with the increased cost of schooling and decrease in salaries that soon we may see a shortage of people seeking to enter the field. Was that a bad prediction?   The cost of the two required years of OTA school can vary greatly. At the local community ...

  Just the other day I was talking with one of the nurses I work with, and we got into a discussion of wasted dollars in healthcare. One of the patients was upset because for three days in a row the lab nurse came to draw blood. Another patient was mad because they were being sent out to the hospital for a routine procedure that could have ...

  This is a topic I've covered before, but I've always wanted to show the emblem I was given after passing my national exam. It was actually enclosed in the envelope with my passing test results. My certification exam was completed under AOTCB (American Occupational Therapy Certification Board) which used to be a part of AOTA (American ...

What a crazy week!  I started my final fieldwork placement in an acute care setting at a major hospital.  Talk about culture shock.  It is a whole different world there and I am scrambling to learn what I need to survive the next 7 weeks.  Everyone keeps telling me that I will see a lot there.  I have no doubt about ...

By this time next week I will be knee deep in school again.  I wish I was more excited about it.  I wish I was one of those people who just loves school for the sake of learning and experiencing new things.  I am not.  I see it as a means to an end, the necessary dues I have to pay to get where I want to be.  I may enjoy ...

How did 10 weeks go by so fast? They always say on the first day of class that the time will fly by and I always say by week 5 that this class can’t be over fast enough! Now I’m half way through finals week and am looking back at the blur that was this quarter. Specifically, my Intro to OTA class seemed to go too quick. I was really looking ...

     I had every intention of getting up today and writing about how hard it has been for me to find a place to do my student observations.  I have only had one flat out no, but the rest just have not returned my messages.  I am/was getting so frustrated.  This was just an observation, practically no paperwork is ...

How many times have we been told as students about how diverse the field of Occupational Therapy is?  I know that this point is brought up in my classes often.  We discuss all the places OTs and OTAs can work, the different populations they can work in, the different settings and so on, but still, as students, we can get bogged down with ...