Occupational Therapy Reflective Essay

Occupational Therapy Reflective Essay â€Å"I’m an occupational therapist, an obscure profession if there ever was one. We are few and far between, maybe because we have chosen toserve people with disabilities. All disabilities. Not a glamorous endeavour, nor a lucrative one. And I say serve because we deem that in helping we see weakness, while in servingwe see wholeness. We’ve opted for wholeness nearly a century ago and have been at odds with the system ever since. We don’t fix people, you see: with them, we simply try to find a way tomeaning,balance, andjustice. I chose occupational therapy because it blendsscienceandhumanism,intellectual rigourandcompassion.† — Rachel Thibeault (fromOccupational Therapists without Borders)1 Occupational Therapy First Year Portfolio Task A year ago, I was in my final year at high school and studying for finals. Now, I am a first year Occupational Therapy (OT) student at the University of Witwatersrand who is getting ready for her end of year exams, scary stuff! But I can’t complain when I think back on how much I’ve learned this past year and how it has impacted me when I think about my future. At the core of it, this year has taught me that OT is not what I thought it was. Yes, I had an idea of what an OT does in terms of activities but I was not aware of what it would take to get to the same point as the OT’s who I had observed during my time job shadowing in my matric year. I’ve learned a lot during this first year and I now have a deeper understanding of the career path that I am pursuing- what it will demand from me, how it will influence the lives of others through me, the scope of OT and what I need to know to not only be good as an OT, but to be a great OT. It has me anxious about the mountainous path looming ahead and passionate to reach the finish line all at the same time. In talking about the mountains that I see rising ahead of me, I thought that I would reflect on the mountains that I have already crossed and how they impacted my grasp of OT and how it helped me to link the theory to the clinical uses. The first mountain was Problem Based Learning (PBL) which actually grounded me in order to prepare me for the much larger mountain: Fieldwork. One of the first lectures that we had was on PBL’s, problem based learning. And to say that I took the concept for granted and wrote PBL’s off as time-wasters would be correct. So when I realised just how helpful and beneficial PBL groups could be, I was all in. PBL’s have taught me the importance of working as a group, time-management, designation of tasks, following certain steps in order to reach a set goal and understanding different concepts from a first-look evaluation and then comparing this to theory or researched constructs.6 This form of methodology can be defined as a teaching and learning strategy where students learn about a subject through the experience of problem solving.6 During this process students learn about thinking strategies and gain knowledge and insight into the topic. PBL teaches us to think critically rather than to draw superficial conclusions. Our first problem in PBL prepared me for what OT is, the background into OT and the profess ional environments of an OT. PBL taught me that occupations are daily activities that reflect cultural values, provide structure to living, make appropriate use of an individual’s time and give meaning to their lives.8 Occupation could also be said to be ‘ordinary and familiar’,4 thus it is the nature of the occupation that gives it purpose and meaning. 4 Even Occupational Therapy was better explained to me once I had combined my new knowledge with that of our textbook: Occupational Therapy can be accomplished through the teaching, facilitation and maintenance of skills, the encouragement of engagement in â€Å"purposeful activity† 2 and in â€Å"occupation† 2 so that a person can reach his/her optimal level of function†. 3 OT is both an art and a science which uses occupation as both a means and an end in therapy, both in individual and group therapies, to enable people, families and communities in a wide range of settings. 7 This is a lot more in-depth and complicated than I ever suspected it could be. I think that I was under the impression that occupation meant ‘work’ like so many others believe. And even in knowing and understanding this, I still battle to explain it to people. I even have a friend who calls OT’s glorified housewives who love to garden! One thing that has become clear to me, studying our Problems in PBL, sitting through our Psychology and Sociology classes and studying OT this past year- OT is very holistic. Never is a patient defined by their symptoms and OT’s tend to study every aspect of a person’s life before drawing conclusions or beginning therapy. The word ‘holistic’ has come to mean many things to me this year, but none more than that a person’s characteristics areâ€Å"intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole†.9 Once I had gained the theoretical knowledge about OT, I was more than ready to start with the fieldwork part of the year. I was placed at Thambo Memorial Hospital in Boksburg for four mornings over three weeks. The patient that I was assigned to was diagnosed with deep partial thickness burns with an amputated lower left arm from the elbow. But aside from my patient I was able to observe my Fourth Year with her other patients, was able to ask her questions and even assist in certain assessments, treatments and activities. This was a completely different experience to the one that I had had when I job shadowed at the same hospital a year before. As an outsider and someone who is not aware of what OT truly meant, I merely saw the assessment of different patients at a superficial level and only really understood the treatment as games or activities that would keep the patient busy so that they did not notice that they were making use of the injured or problem area. Thankfully I now unde rstand OT better and can see certain aspects of therapy and theory coming out in the actions of the OT’s and their patients. Being able to see therapy performed from this view and being able to interact and speak with other OT’s on a more professional level has helped to cement my plan to become an OT. During my time at the hospital I was lucky enough to observe most of the steps in the OT process. The OT process is defined in the Practise Framework as the collaboration of the OT and the patient through the steps of evaluation, intervention and outcomes in order to achieve health and participation in life through the engagement in occupation .5 The evaluation step consists of the occupational profile and the analysis of occupational performance which help the OT determine what the patient hopes to gain during therapy, what they need to accomplish, what the patient can do and what are the barriers or supports to their health and participation in therapy. In this, I was able to speak with and fill out forms for two separate patients and also assist in the assessment of a third patient. With the occupational profile, the patient is very much the centre and all the questions are focused around them so that the appropriate goals for the end of therapy can be set. Intervention has three parts to it: intervention plan, intervention implementation and intervention review. The plan is developed by both the OT and the patient to guide the therapy with the use of theory. Outcomes or goals are also decided upon during this stage. Implementation is the actions of the OT which will revolve around therapy as well as the support and encouragement needed to see an improved occupational performance.7 Implementation is direct towards the goals set and the OT is required to monitor and develop the patient at all times5 so that the activities are appropriate and can be adapted if they are not performing in the intended way. Finally, review is simply reflecting on the implementation and assessing the progress towards the set goals. Outcome is the determination of success at reaching the desired goals. The results of this step will be used in planning further therapy if it is needed. This step is one of the hardest to observe in my opinion and is also very subjective. A patient may feel that he is fine and does not need any more therapy while the OT may see him as dysfunctional. To be dysfunctional is not saying that there is something socially wrong with a person or that they are overtly damaged, this is something that I have come to learn this year. Dysfunction, defined within an OT’s perspective is â€Å"when a person cannot do or is at risk for not being able to partake in occupational participation and performance†.10 In terms of my assigned patient I was unfortunately able to witness the barriers between her and my Fourth Year who was her OT which resulted in her unwillingness to participate in therapy, added to that was her de-motivation and also the selection of an inappropriate activity during therapy. My patient was French speaking and thus the OT could not effectively fill out her necessary forms, could not adequately communicate with her and had to get this information from the patient’s husband. And so the patient, who the OT thought, enjoyed cooking and cleaning chose an activity of making milkshakes. Once I spoke to the patient (since I know some French) it became clear that she does not enjoy milkshakes and only cooked and cleaned because it was culturally expected of her as a wife. This brings into play the therapeutic relationship. The therapeutic alliance between the patient and the OT develops over time11 and requires the OT to be able to communicate in an effective way such that these details are made known. Because of what happened to my Fourth Year with her miscommunication with her patient, I now understand the importance of our Dictionary assignments- to be able to communicate with any patient, no matter how rudimentary it is. Also, the selection of activities is imperative, especially for patients who are de-motivated which often occurs with burns patients or amputees. The loss of a limb or partial limb is a huge thing to deal with both physically and emotionally and burns patients are often de-motivated due to the pain of movement. Choosing the correct activity during therapy of these patients can determine whether there will be any progress in that session or not and also whether the patient will continue to be de-motivated or could possibly start to find reasons/purposes to want the therapy to succeed. This can also be accomplished through the therapeutic use of self to be able to use yourself, as an OT professional, to read the situation and a dapt it, 11 whether it is during evaluation or during the intervention steps. Culture also needs to be considered when referring to patients. An OT need to take their patient’s culture into consideration and respect it. While culture may not define a person, it does indeed impact on their lives and ways of living. 12 Thus, my patient may only cook and clean because she is a wife but it is her responsibility in the home so she will need to rehabilitate to a point where she can continue with her tasks, but it may not be a good idea to use these tasks as activities since she sees them as work rather than leisure tasks. Overall, I would definitely say that this year has been a success. My knowledge of OT and the profession has increased and I am even more certain that I want to be doing this as a career. The importance of the OT process is further defined by role of an OT which is categorised through the use of self, the therapeutic relationship, proper communication and compounded with a firm foundation of knowledge and attained skills. To reiterate what Rachel Thibeault said, â€Å"we see wholeness We don’t fix people, you see: with them we simply try to find a way tomeaning,balance, andjustice.†1 Occupational Therapy is about the patient, it is not about us save for what we can do for others So the goal is to learn, make mistakes, learn from them, observe and experience as much as possible so that we can do everything possible to help them. From this end of the mountain range, I can only see the obstacles blocking the destination from my sight. And yet I am not feeling deterred. Rather, I am excited to see what the mountains will contain and what I can learn from them. The next mountain that I see is end of year exams So I think that I am going to do this one mountain at a time and never forget what I have learned and discovered on the way so that I am prepared for every challenge that approaches me. Works Cited 1 Gerber,AK. OT Without Borders. http://otwithoutborders.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/im-an-occupat/ (accessed 30 September 2014). 2 Hersch, G. I., Lamport, N. K., Coffey, M.S. Activity Analysis: Application to Occupation, 5th ed.: SLACK Incorporated; 2005 3 Thorner, S. The Essential Skills of an Occupational Therapist. British Journal of Occupational Therapy 1991; 6(64). 4 Curtin, M., Molineux, M., Supyk- Mellson, J. Occupational Therapy and Physical Dysfunction: Enabling Occupation, 6th ed.: Elsevier: Churchill Livingstone; 2010. 5 American Occupational Therapy Association. (2008). Occupational Therapy Practise Framework: Domain and Process (2nd Edition). American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 62, 625-683 6 Devan, D., Casteleijn, D.. Problem Based Learning 2014. Lecture presented at Khanya Building, Wits Education Campus; 2014. 7 Schell B., Gillen G. Scaffa M. .Willard and Spackmans Occupational Therapy. 12th ed. Baltimore MD. Lippincott, Williams Wilkins; 2013 8 Jay J. Occupation Activity. Lecture presented at Khanya Building, Wits Education Campus; 2014. 9 Oxforddictionaries.com. holistic: definition of holistic in Oxford dictionary (British World English) [Internet]. 2014 [cited 1 October 2014]. Available from: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/holistic 10 Smith R. Intro to Occupational Dysfunction. Lecture presented at Khanya Building, Wits Education Campus; 2014. 11 Devan D. Occupational Therapy Process: PBL Post Problem Tut. Lecture presented at Khanya Building, Wits Education Campus; 2014. 12 Smith R. Cultural Diversity. Lecture presented at Khanya Building, Wits Education Campus; 2014.

Managing financial and non-financial resources

Universities are institutions where students pursue higher levels of education. This institution enables the students to   study and to conduct research work in various academic fields and after completing and qualifying in their studies   they are awarded academic degrees such as the bachelors degree, master degree and the doctorate degree.The institution is headed by a board of trustees who ensure that the operations of the institution are carried out effectively.   The chancellor is usually appointed to run the institution.   The institution has many departments which are headed by various deans who ensure that the students’ affairs   and the learning affairs of the institution are run effectively and efficiently.In case of public universities they are managed by the government through the   Higher   Education Boards which   review their financial needs and   their budget proposals and then they allocate appropriate fund according to the demand of the inst itutions departments expenses.   The private universities are usually sponsored by private persons thus their operations are not affected by the government since they carry out their activities independently.A budget is a plan of how an organization would like to achieve its goals in the future.   It consists of estimates that the management with its personnel sets so that the operations of the institution can     run effectively.   A budget process is the procedure that is followed by an organization or a government on how to create and to approve a budget.The administrator of an organization organizes   a meeting in order to ensure that all members of the organization participate in the preparation of the budget so that the following year’s activities are adequately addressed and then the financial managers ensure that appropriate funds are allocated against the activities of the organization.   The chief executive officers reviews and approves the budgets so that they can make appropriate amendments if need be.The allocation of resources of a university in the budget process is usually made in compliance   with the university’s strategic plans .   The deans and the directors of the university develop the budget using the proposals for the university faculty.   They consult department chairmen and unit heads so that they can provide a comprehensive budget which is helpful to the particular faculty concerned.   The university vice chancellor is the last person who approves the budget so that it can be made effective and hence he or she directs on how the budget is to implemented by various personnel in the institution..The expenditures of a university are forecasted, monitored and controlled using the following procedure.   The finance officer creates a valid account that relates to the activities that the university would like to achieve then an account number is created to those accounts .   The account is monitored b y carrying one monthly reconciliations of revenues and expenditures and then comparing actual revenues and expenditures to the budget so as to determine the variance so that corrective measures can be carried out. For example for the contracts and clinical activities   Ã‚  they are prepared using invoices which are used to monitor that the terms and conditions of a company are properly followed.In case there are deficit balances on the allocated accounts they are regulated using the accounts that are associated with them .A comprehensive budget for the institution is necessary   because   there are many activities that are carried out in the institution thus   it is important to   correct the deficits that an organisation has so as to enable the institution to carry out its activities effectively   and to   enable it to achieve its   goals in the future.   The management of the university carries out internal controls when preparing the budget.   An auditor is us ually appointed   carries out an   audit in   books of account   so as to ensure that the financial statements portray a true view and also ensure that the books of accounts are accurately and properly kept.   The budget can be forecast using the current years performance and the resources that are available in   the university.The manager of the institution can encourage people to share responsibility by involving them in the decision making process.   This can enable the employees of the institution to contribute their views, ideas about how to run the activities and this can help them to appreciate the operations of the company and they can enhance the implementation the ideas of an organisation.The managers of the institution can manage non-financial resources by employing qualified personnel to handle and oversee their operation since in one way or another they contribute to the success of the business. The management of the institution can also manage the non-fin ancial resources by preparing strategic budgeting approaches which can help them to align the necessary resources so as to enhance proper strategic plans for the institution.The approaches that are used in monitoring and controlling non-financial resources are :activity based costing it is an approach that is used in the measuring the   costs of activities of an organisation this approach enables a manager not to over or under estimate his costs because since either of the two can lead the managers to not to prepare their budget properly since specific funds are allocated to particular projects of a company and this enables the activities of the institution to be carried out effectively.The other approach that can be used in monitoring and controlling the non-financial resources are the use of the balanced scorecard it is an approach that is used in evaluating the performance of the employees of the institution. It enables the management to assess themselves whether they are perfo rming their activities as expected of them ,in case they don’t perform as expected of them they can take measures of preventing the   bad outcomes from happening in the future.The advantages of using this approaches is that they enable the management of the organisation to perform their activities effectively and once they adhere to what they   are expected to do   this   can enable the organisation to achieve its   goals and hence they enable it to have greater returns for the institution . The disadvantages of using this approaches is that they may be very costly for the organisation to implement because of inadequacy of resources to implement the projects , some people in the institution may   oppose the idea of implementing the project   because either they may   biased or they would   not like to accept changes in their institutions..People spend money for various reasons one is to satisfy their basic needs such as to purchase food, clothing and shelter . In case of     the universities the management   spends money in order to meet their current budgets of what they would like to accomplish in a given financial year, thus in their budget they allocate specific funds for specific projects that they would like to set up in the future .The institution may plan in its budget to build more lecture rooms in order to accommodate the increasing of students that are enrolling in the institutions, since these can be a good investment since in the long run it can generate returns for the institution since the students can enroll in it due to the availability of resources that enhance learning to take place effectively.In case of universities they prepare capital budget since their expenditure is mostly associated with the purchase of infrastructure that is most preferable for the organization.   The management of the institution can be able to select a type of investment for their institution based on the risk that is involved in se tting up the project and also with regard to how the plans of setting up the project have been designed so that enough resources are allocated so that the project can be effectively implemented.   An investment can be evaluated by using the following capital budgeting techniques.   One of them is the net present value technique, internal rate of return and the pay back technique.The capital budgeting technique that is called net present value can assist the management of an institution to make a decision on whether to accept an investment or not.   If an investment has a positive net present value then it means that an investor can invest in that project.   The rate of return of the investment should be selected depending on the riskiness of the project.   The riskiness of a project is determined by how the case   is   flowing in the institution, if the cash inflow is higher than the cash outflow then it is important to invest in the project since the returns of the pr oject are high.The internal rate of return is a capital budgeting technique that is used in measuring the efficiency of a project.   It is a discount rate that gives the same result as the net present value. If the internal rate of return is higher than the hurdle rate then an investment   can be implemented   using the rate.The financial tools can be used by the institution in carrying out its activities .The financial tools consist of financial ratios the enable an institution to compare its performance in its previous years performance so that they can take corrective measures if need be since the ratios are prepared using variables in the financial statements thus comparing their performance can be easy since the financial statements of a company are usually prepared annually.It is important to manage the resources of an institution because they enable it to achieve goals and objectives in the future .If the resources are properly managed   the an institution can be able to earn greater returns and hence it can continue to progress in the future.

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How to Make Homemade Liquid Nitrogen

You can make your own homemade liquid nitrogen using readily available materials. Its not really liquid nitrogen, however, but cryogenic-temperature alcohol. Chilled alcohol can be used for many liquid nitrogen projects, such as freezing flowers or other materials. It is not suitable for ice cream or anything edible. Also, although this poor mans liquid nitrogen is very cold, it doesnt vaporize off your skin like true liquid nitrogen, meaning it can give you frostbite very easily. Avoid skin contact and use all the safety precautions you would use with nitrogen. Homemade Liquid Nitrogen Materials dry ice99% rubbing alcohol or methanol (lower percentage will work but youll get a gelatinous cryo-fluid)plastic container (dont use glass because extreme temperature changes may cause it to shatter) Prepare the Homemade Liquid Nitrogen Youve got two ways to do this. Pour the alcohol into a plastic container and nest this container inside a bucket of dry ice.Alternatively, you can pour the alcohol directly over the dry ice. This is easier, but you wont have control over the temperature of the dry ice, so its possible your alcohol will freeze. Use the homemade liquid nitrogen simulant to super-cool science projects or chill materials. If you dont use all of the liquid at one time, you can store it in the freezer or an insulated cooler to help it last longer. If the alcohol warms up, you can re-chill it using more dry ice. After the project is completed, the rubbing alcohol will remain useful for its normal purpose and may be returned to its container.