Students will be able to perform competently in a professional setting.

During my two weeks at Helping Hands, I was able to shadow various Occupational Therapists and Occupational Therapy Assistants as they worked with patients and discussed treatment plans with parents. After getting comfortable with those who worked there, I was able to get closer to the patients and participate within their appointments. Throughout my time, I played board games, made crafts, did exercises, and more with them. I found it incredibly intriguing that the OT’s in the office were able to meet their treatment goals with these children through seemingly simple activities such as board games. Since I got to work with so many OTs, I was able to watch them each individually handle adversity throughout their appointments and witness how they de-escalated the situations. This provided me with a lot of insight on the tougher aspects of this career. For example, during one of my first days there, a young patient was having a hard time leaving his mom to go in for his appointment. In order to divert his attention and de-escalate the situation, the OT brought the patient toys. The OT explained the plan for today to make him more comfortable and set a timer for the duration of the appointment in order to show the client how much longer until they get to go back to their mom. All of these things turned out to be successful in helping the patient calm down. The usage of these distractions and diversions caused the patient to forget about the timer completely. They were able to cool off and began to have a great time in the gym with all the equipment. Experiences just like this one was able to give me a lot of insight into the daily operations in this career, specifically with children. 

While I did learn a lot about the daily operations, the OTs and OTAs showed me new ways of reaching my career goal that I had no knowledge of. Going in, I thought that an OTA did completely different things than an OT. I was proven to be wrong through my experience at Helping hands. OTAs get to do the same interactions and treatments with patients as an OT without creating the treatment plans. Many people pursuing a career as an OT use becoming an assistant as a first step towards their career completion. On the other hand, some people have the assistant role as the end goal since there are not as many responsibilities. Becoming an assistant is a steppingstone that allows the individual to gain real experience in the career. It can make an individual more comfortable with their knowledge as well as experiencing first-hand patient contact before being given the added responsibilities as an OT. 

After this experience, I plan on becoming an OTA and working while I study to become an OT. This way, I’m able to gain experience for more job prospects and continue towards becoming an OT. Through this experience, I was also able to gain insight into new master’s programs around the country, both in person and virtual, for OT. I was able to compile a list of schools to look into and to research before I start applying around this time next year. All of this insight has shown to be useful for me not only in the future, but in the present tense as well. 

This experience also allowed me to challenge myself throughout this experience by pushing myself out of my comfort zone. I was incredibly nervous going into this internship. I was unsure of how much hands-on interaction I would have with the patients, and it turned out to be a lot more than I had anticipated. There was always someone in the room with me when there was a client, which eased my anxiety. Although I was not alone, I was able to play games with the patients and led them through crafts without much help from the OT. During these times, I was able to learn more effective ways to communicate with children who are on and off the autism spectrum. As I have worked with children for several years, this new and enlightening experience allowed me to work with children on the spectrum. I was anxious during my first few approaches with such children; however, I quickly became confident in my conversation and actions after becoming accustomed to the patient. I learned that I cannot allow feelings of fear or anxiety to get in the way of a constructive learning experience. If I would have let my nerves get in the way of interacting with such patients, I would have missed out on such an illuminating and informative experience. My confidence grew even more after receiving feedback from the OT on my performance. Each time I received feedback, the OTs were very happy with my effectiveness and compassion throughout those patient interactions. From working with these children and throughout my experience as a whole, I confirmed that I want to become an OT. I hope to work in a hospital setting or rehabilitation center rather than solely working in pediatrics. This way, I still get to work with children while also getting to work within a broader age range as well.

This internship was the best experience that I could have hoped for. This internship has me more excited than I’ve ever been before about starting my journey to becoming an Occupational Therapist. While this internship surprised me in many ways, I left with the knowledge that I need to prepare me for what is ahead. It challenged me to deal with my anxieties, which was difficult at times, but I know this will help me in the long run. I not only gained experience and knowledge, but I also gained new connections for my future. I plan on continuing to be in contact with Helping Hands and the wonderful people I met throughout the process. I have already connected with some of the people from Helping Hands. I know that having connections like this will only benefit me in the future if I have any questions, concerns, or if I need help as I move along this journey. This experience has helped me in more ways than I ever imagined. I am extremely grateful that I was able to participate in such an experience.