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Imposter Syndrome

  Imposter syndrome is when a person does not feel like they are competent or intelligent enough to be doing the things they are qualified to do. It seems like this is especially evident in the healthcare field. And even though most people think they are the only person who feels this way, as it turns out, most people actually do or have at some point. This is something we have learned about a lot during our master’s program, and it has made me realize that I have also felt this way in multiple different situations. However, learning about imposter syndrome has helped me figure out what can cause it and what I can do to combat it. The times I have felt most like an “imposter” has been leading up to a fieldwork or being on fieldwork. There is always the anxiety of “I don’t know what I’m doing” or “I feel like I don’t know anything” or the fear of failure, but I also know that I would not be where I am if I wasn’t capable of doing it. From reading the article “Facing Imposter Syndrome
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Locus of Control

Locus of control is a phrase that refers to a person’s views about what causes different things and events to happen in his or her life, whether from their own doing (internal) or from outside factors (external). My OT class did an activity to determine whether we had a more internal or external locus of control, and I scored an 11, which is almost directly in the middle. I would say this is pretty accurate for my personality. While I do believe most things are within my control to an extent, one of my favorite phrases is also “que será será” which is Spanish for “whatever will be, will be.” I do the most that I can to handle different situations and get my desired outcomes, but I also know that some things in life are just simply out of my control. For example, when applying to OT schools, I did my best to maintain good grades in undergrad, have a great application, and apply to a variety of schools. However, after interviewing and doing everything I could on my part, it was out of my
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Neuro Media Project

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 For my media project in my neuro class, I was assigned index cards to use as an intervention or adaptive device for my client who has transverse myelitis. My client was mainly functional with his upper extremities but had decreased strength and range of motion in his lower extremities. I’d be lying if I said it was easy to come up with something to do with index cards and that it didn’t take me more than a couple of days, especially when it was for the lower extremities. This project made me realize how seemingly mundane things can become really useful for therapy with a little bit of creativity. While it took me a decent amount of time to come up with an idea, even with asking others for help, I eventually just had to really sit down and think about what would be useful and meaningful for my client, and then incorporate index cards into that. I ended up making a game out of it that my client could do laying down, in a gravity eliminated position for leg flexion and extension, where
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Neuro Note #5 - Dementia

  For my final neuro note, I chose to read an article called “Playing Along with A Dementia Patient’s Realities” written my Carol Bradley Bursack. I chose this article because we just learned about dementia and Alzheimer’s in class, so I thought it would be beneficial to me to find another way to further my learning. In this article, Bursack talks about her father, who sustained a closed head injury when he was younger that would later be the cause of his severe dementia. The scar tissue from his original injury caused fluid to build up, and when he went for a procedure to get it removed, it left him with his dementia. Bursack explains how she tried to live in her dad’s reality instead of trying to make him live in hers. Her dad was always insisting that he had won an award or gotten another degree and would be looking for his certificates. Instead of trying to help him understand that this wasn’t true, Bursack would make fake certificates for him. She said there was no harm in that,
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Neuro Note #4 - Huntington's Disease

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For my fourth neuro note, I chose to watch a Tedx video on YouTube about Huntington’s disease. It is called “Facing Death Full of Life” and the speaker is Danielle Valenti. I chose to watch this video because I did not know much about Huntington’s disease and the title was intriguing to me. Danielle learned her mother had Huntington’s disease two years after she had been diagnosed. Her mother kept the secret from her until her health really started to decline because she did not want Danielle to be filled with worry. Danielle eventually took her mother to a Huntington’s disease nursing home where her mother ultimately decided to end her own life by choosing not to eat anymore. She passed away 67 days after her last bite of food. Danielle spoke about how hard it was to let her mother do that, but she wanted to honor her mother’s last choice. From this video, I learned that Huntington’s disease has a strong genetic link. Danielle explained that children of a parent who has this disea
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Neuro Note #3 - Guillain-Barre Syndrome

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For this neuro note, I chose to watch a YouTube video called “ Guillain-Barre Syndrome – Miranda’s Journey ,” which follows along with a girl in her diagnosis and treatment of this syndrome. I chose to watch this video because I did not really know anything about Guillain-Barre Syndrome and Miranda was a freshman in college when she was diagnosed so it was interesting to watch since she is relatively close to my age. Miranda began having symptoms of an unknown virus during her finals week of college her freshman year. This was ongoing and around five days later, she began have stranger symptoms like extreme back pain and tingling in her extremities and lips. When she sought medical help, she was given the diagnosis of mono, however, her symptoms kept progressing and getting worse. Three days later, Miranda was weak enough to be unable to walk and went to the hospital where she got her diagnosis of Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Her symptoms progressively got worse until her whole body
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Neuro Note #2 - Multiple Sclerosis

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For my second neuro note, I watched a YouTube series called “ Multiple Sclerosis – My Story ” from a woman named Carolyn who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and she recounts a lot of the experiences she had leading up to her diagnosis. I chose to watch this because I did not really know a lot about multiple sclerosis in general, so I thought it would be interesting and a good way to learn from someone who is living with the diagnosis. In her videos, Carolyn mentions that she believes she was living with symptoms of multiple sclerosis for around 12 months until she received an actual diagnosis. It seemed like she always knew in the back of her mind that this is what it was, but she never wanted to believe it. She even stated that she had worked or volunteered at a facility that worked with people who had multiple sclerosis, but just could not believe how someone who worked there could eventually end up having the diagnosis themselves. I think she thought that it seemed just
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