Occupational Therapy Class, Essay Example

I have sincerely enjoyed my time as an occupational therapist during this professional experience.  In order to lessen the impact of my imminent departure, I had two different strategies to deal with staff and clients. Regarding the staff, most already knew that my time to leave was approaching; thus, I only had to notify a few regarding the date I would leave the organization.  Regarding clients, prior to my last session with the client, I would set down with him/her after  a session and tell him/her the next session would be last.  Overall, I have substantially increased my professional confidence in all aspects from dealing with administrative staff to dealing with clients.  In particular, I now know basic techniques to deal with clients- whether the client is easy or hard to deal with.  This was particularly true in dealing with elderly individuals, many of which who have several underlying conditions.  In addition, I have greater resilience if I run up against trouble with different clients: I learned how to ask more specific questions, and in the cases where clients would talk on, I would be polite in moving to the next topic.  I have also learned the immense importance of interpersonal communication, particularly in building a responsive relationship with the client. My relationship with the staff and other students was supportive, and I ultimately learned a lot regarding the profession from everyone I encountered.  This is particularly true of my supervisor who took an active interest in my professional development during the internship.  She not only answered all of my questions, but also played a key role in helping me to establish a good relationship with the clients.  There was a dramatic change from the first FW 1 to my current position: I have gained more confidence in my ability to work with administrators and clients.  This process has allowed me to see how I must work hard to gain the trust of all stakeholders in the process to be successful.

Overall, I thought the evaluation was fair and transparent: I certainly need to work on establishing ways to communicate better with the client in order to provide the best service possible.  Part of the problem was my inexperience with several conditions, particularly with more difficult older patients, however, having dealt with the elderly I now have confidence to deal with any type of client.  I thought classroom assignments played a valuable role in consolidating knowledge.  If I didn’t need to reflect on my experiences and interactions with different clients, I probably would not have retained the requisite knowledge moving forward.  I have gained a lot from this experience: In addition to important professional knowledge about my future career, I also learned a lot regarding myself and personal challenges I need to master to become successful in this field.