MY EXPERIENCE AS AN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY STUDENT

Occupational therapy, a developing profession in the healthcare sector of our community, provides service to a spectrum of conditions that exist in our society in physical, mental, and genetic forms. The primary goal of the treatment plan of an Occupational therapist involves the maximum level of independence for each client in all aspects of their life.

 

As an Occupational therapy professional student, I have realized the worthiness of my profession from the moment I entered my clinical postings. The dedication of each Occupational therapist in each ward to ameliorate the client’s life, starting from an infant who is 1 year old with GDD in the pediatric ward to a client who is 72 years old with stroke in the neurology ward! Especially the efforts of my tutors to bring the best therapist out of us in the course time is always been a hassle for each academic year.

 

An inevitable truth is that our outside views of being an occupational therapist are like playing with the clients, but in reality, it is like a pin in the grassland. An Occupational therapist always needs to think not only of the therapeutic approaches and treatment modalities but also needs to engage the client actively in the treatment process for the progress of the regimen.

 

The event of seeing a client’s recovery from the beginning is a pretty experience; however, watching the attempts of our seniors and clinical therapists to help the patient overcome their functional inability and the impediments the therapists face while helping their client become fully functional and independent in every activity in every aspect of the upcoming days stays as an unforgettable memory in each student's life.

 

In fact, I probably think these memories will help me to cherish myself in future while I am a therapist, handling my clients and working for their recovery process. The efforts made by my seniors and clinical therapist to help each client will never fade from my mind. It will provide me a motivation to put in good effort for my clients treatment progress.

 

I understood the task of being an occupational therapist is not just to provide a meaningful activity to the client to improve their function in the environment, but to add meaning to their purpose of living and satisfy the individual to be “who they are”.

 

To the sense of my candour, the course of occupational therapy was not just to treat a patient to their recovery, but also a holistic performance of healthcare profession to endeavor themselves for the client’s level of independent performance in their forthcoming days.

 

I am proud to become an Occupational therapist!