Becoming an Occupational Therapy Assistant has been a big ambition for several years now. By researching and talking to people in this field, I have decided to make this my career. My passion is to help people by seeing them progress and recover from their injuries or disabilities. Helping them to be more independent and relying on themselves. I am a very family and church-oriented person. I have been on several mission trips, like Haiti and Show-Me Youth Home, in Barnett, Missouri, and to see what I could do with this degree is exciting. Seeing the need in other countries, as well as my own country, has motivated me to pursue this medical field, as I continue to go on mission trips in the future. Reflecting back on my observation hours,
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I observed under Tammy Wallace, an Occupational Therapy Assistant, and she was great in telling me about what the life of an OTA, consists of doing. When I shadowed there, we had one patient that had a lawn mower accident where it fell on top of him. The activity that she had him do that day were to see if he was prepared to go back home, on that following Saturday. He used the designated kitchen to make a grilled cheese sandwich. She was watching to make sure he was doing everything safe, so that if he went back home he would not hurt himself. Then I assisted with a patient by tapping a balloon back and forth to her to try to loosen her muscles and increase her range of motion. We had a patient take off and put on her socks by using several aides to help her. Afterwards, we did a reach exercise, where the patient had to reach and take the cones away from Mrs. Wallace and give them to me. I observed another patient play with moldable putty that had tiny objects in it. They had to use their fingers and trying to pull the objects out to increase strength in their hands and fingers. I got to observe Mrs. Wallace help a patient with her shower, which was neat, because I never thought that it would be a part of what an OTA performs. I had a great learning experience at Crystal Oaks and it really showed me, that I really want to be an OTA! I desire to help people and see them succeed. There are so many people that need help in this world, and I would love to be apart in helping them with the skills that I would learn from this OTA
I observed under Tammy Wallace, an Occupational Therapy Assistant, and she was great in telling me about what the life of an OTA, consists of doing. When I shadowed there, we had one patient that had a lawn mower accident where it fell on top of him. The activity that she had him do that day were to see if he was prepared to go back home, on that following Saturday. He used the designated kitchen to make a grilled cheese sandwich. She was watching to make sure he was doing everything safe, so that if he went back home he would not hurt himself. Then I assisted with a patient by tapping a balloon back and forth to her to try to loosen her muscles and increase her range of motion. We had a patient take off and put on her socks by using several aides to help her. Afterwards, we did a reach exercise, where the patient had to reach and take the cones away from Mrs. Wallace and give them to me. I observed another patient play with moldable putty that had tiny objects in it. They had to use their fingers and trying to pull the objects out to increase strength in their hands and fingers. I got to observe Mrs. Wallace help a patient with her shower, which was neat, because I never thought that it would be a part of what an OTA performs. I had a great learning experience at Crystal Oaks and it really showed me, that I really want to be an OTA! I desire to help people and see them succeed. There are so many people that need help in this world, and I would love to be apart in helping them with the skills that I would learn from this OTA