Home stretch


I am now officially into my final semester as a doctoral student in the Nova Southeastern University occupational therapy program. For the past three years I have traveled to south Florida three times a year for the launching and wrapping of classes. In between, I have lived my life on the computer, completing my reading and research, responding to the posts of my colleagues, and participating in long distance chats with other OTs from Spokane to Puerto Rico. I would be remiss if I did not mention the writing - the innumerable research papers that have taken me on a journey from the genesis of occupational therapy all the way to consideration of virtual contexts and how they can be used as occupational therapy tools. Those papers have spawned one article submitted for publication, another article perpetually waiting to be submitted, one presentation at a national conference, and one presentation at a state conference. Not bad.

I don't have too much that is profound to say about it all at this time. The last class still has to be completed and will include a field trip to Washington, DC to lobby our public officials about relevant health policies relating to OT. Then there is also the capstone research project to complete which was supposed to be done by now but life and scheduling seemed to get in the way. I thought I was done with my proposal and the IRB process but small technical and format issues with my proposal still need tweaking. So I thought I would be traveling back home WITHOUT my proposal but I need to place my consent forms on NSU letterhead and make some minor format changes to my forms before it can be resubmitted. The data collection itself will not be too difficult, and I will be happy to move away from planning, formatting, and literature review.

Then there is the larger issue of whether or not I will continue on to the PhD program. Our profession is still a little confused about the clinical doctorate and the OTD credential (which will be hopefully bestowed on me in short order). I have no need for the OTD, and even less need for the PhD. I suppose that if I ever return to teaching the research degree will be helpful. I have contributions to make either way so it is something that I really need to think about. Right now, I am a little tired. I have walked a journey, and realized I am here. There is another summit ahead of me, and I need to decide if it will be worth the climb. Wonderful people are cheering me on, and I appreciate their support in more ways than I can ever express.

The philosophical question that I am left with tonight is this: what does one do with accumulated knowledge? In some ways I hope that I feed it back into the machine, and it results in things like ABC Therapeutics. There still seems to be larger things to do. It seems like a responsibility.

In true Forest Gump fashion, that's all I have to say about that.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On retained primitive reflexes

Each year I receive several emails from colleagues about 'retained primitive reflexes.'  I am also seeing an increased number of reports from local 'health care' providers who are documenting these alleged problems so I thought I would write a summary of my opinion on this topic.   Predatory 'health care' providers including some OTs, PTs, chiropractors, and behavioral optometrists are creating a new 'market' for treating this alleged 'problem.'  Parents should be very wary of these practitioners and other professionals should challenge these practices whenever they are seen. The following is the kind of information that causes concern and was provided to me by a colleague as a sample from a student's IEP: The student continues to demonstrate the following retained primitive reflexes that at times interfere with his ability to demonstrate appropriate adaptive responses: Fear Paralysis Reflex, Moro Reflex, Palmer Reflex, Tonic Labyri...
Read more

Deconstructing the myth of clothing sensitivity as a 'sensory processing disorder'

Please note first that there is no formally recognized clinical designation of  'sensory processing disorder.'   It is a term constructed by occupational therapists that has not been formally recognized by the larger medical community. In our clinic we receive many referrals from local pediatricians when parents have concerns about children being overly sensitive to their clothing.  Most often the children referred are from four to seven years old and the families are severely disrupted by the children's behaviors and responses to clothing issues.  Commonly, children will have severely constricted tolerance for certain outfits, want to wear the same clothes repeatedly, complain that clothing is itchy/scratch/bumpy/wiggly/ouchie, and this all leads to disruption of daily dressing routines.  There is no doubt that the behavioral concerns are very real. The pediatricians tend to be appropriately conservative and provide families with good behavioral manage...
Read more

Occupational therapy education: How to navigate in a Perfect Storm

Image
Please click on and read all of the links - they include critical information that is required for this analysis.   A little over four years ago I stated that there are too many occupational therapy educational programs in New York State .  At the NYSOTA conference legislative information session in 2023 I stood up and suggested that we should all stop taking jobs at these institutions that were seeking to develop new programs.  I thought that if we did not take those jobs that the problem would be solved.  That was not realistic or correct, even if the intention was good. Well karma tends to strike when you make public pronouncements, so I thought I should expand on my perspectives on this topic. At current count there are still ~22 occupational therapy programs and ~11 occupational therapy assistant programs in NY.  Most of the programs are delivered at the master's level.  There are a very small number of entry level doctoral programs, but some of t...
Read more