For my first job shadow, I decided to shadow an Occupational Therapist that I had met
when my mom had a hip replacement surgery. She was the first person that got me interested in
Occupational Therapy and without her I wouldn’t be in this class or would have found what I
really wanted to do. The facility she works at is the TOSH Orthopedic Specialty Hospital which
is a facility for orthopedic surgical care, rehabilitation and physical therapy, sports performance
training, and nutrition counseling. The occupational therapist I shadowed was in the orthopedic
surgical care and rehabilitation part of the TOSH facility. I believe this area of occupational
therapy falls under technology and assistive-device developing and consulting because the
occupational therapists in this area help their patients by teaching them how to use special
devices after they have had a surgery.
There were four surgeries that this area focused on rehabilitating and those were hips,
backs, shoulders, and knees. Most of the hip patients we saw needed hip replacements, and the
patients ages ranged anywhere from forty to eighty years old. The backs surgeries were for the
patients that needed spinal fusions and their ages were a wide range anywhere from thirty to
sixty. There were not very many shoulder surgeries because it is not very common for people to
have a need for a shoulder fixture unless they have had a serious injury. Knee replacements are
probably the most common surgery that this facility handles because many patients can have
accidents, bad knees, injury, or trauma. Each of these patients had a type of surgery that limited
them on their movements which is commonly known as the B.LT.’s, no bending, lifting, or
twisting. During rehabilitation, occupational therapists emphasize this more than anything
because it can result in failure of rehabilitation and new cause for another surgery. While
patients’ movements are limited, occupational therapists issue them two types of adaptive
equipment that will help them without causing too much movement. These two types of
equipment are sock aids and grabbers. A sock aid is what patients will use to put on socks after
they have had these types of surgeries because most of the times their backs cannot break a 90
degree angle and they cannot reach any lower than their knees. Another types of adaptive
equipment used after surgery is a grabber which is a stick with a type of claw at the end to help
patients put on clothes, grab things that are not within reach, and helps without a lot of mobility
being used. Occupational therapists demonstrate this type of equipment to the patient, consults
them about the dos and don’ts after surgery, and helps the patients set goals for themselves for
the future. Both of these types of equipment are essential to rehabilitating after orthopedic
surgery and without proper use then it is more than likely that these patients will be back for
surgery again. As long as the patients use the equipment properly and listen to their occupational
therapists then they are sure to have a full and speedy recovery.
Even though many areas of occupational therapy use dynamometer and goniometers, this
are actually doesn’t use them for the patients. I still asked to see what they are, how they work,
and how they are used because I thought it would be good to have a visual of therapists using
them. The dynamometer is a piece of equipment used by occupational therapists to determine
the strength of each side. This piece of equipment is used by the patient’s hand squeezing the
handle and measuring their strength. A dynamometer is usually used in a neurology unit and
hand therapy as a starting point for therapists to determine what the patient’s goals should be and
what they need to accomplish for recovery. A goniometer is another type of equipment used in
the neurology unit and hand therapy because it is used to measure the patient’s range of motion
and angle degrees. A goniometer is like two rulers molded together which is held up to the
patient’s joints by the occupational therapist to see how big or little differences there are between
the normal angles and how they improve.
This area of practice is extremely important to many patients and it would be an
interesting place to work, but I’m not sure if I could see myself working there. This type of area
is not the area for me because I would really like to work in acute care and an outpatient facility.
Most of the patients are a lot older and I would like to focus on occupational therapy in pediatrics
because I have always loved kids. I cannot imagine my career without children being involved
but I did have a great impression of the shadow and it was so important for me to see it. My
overall impression of this job shadow was that it was a great experience for me, and I think it
made me realize what type of area I would like to focus on. The occupational therapist I
shadowed was so willing to help me learn, and I am so glad that I had the opportunity to watch
her work and listen to how she views the world of occupational therapy. She is extremely good at
what she does and without meeting her in this area, I would never have realized that she is who I
aspire to be. She is hero to me for what she does and how she helps people every day.