Occupational Therapy

This will be the topic that Fizah and I will be doing for our manuscript for the OCT4NRE module. We are now in the phase of summarising the literature and tomorrow, we will attempt to critique the current literature.

Mirror therapy has been used for patients with phantom pain, complex regional pain syndrome etc. However, use of mirror therapy on stroke rehabilitation is pretty new as evident by the small number of literature. So far, use of small sample sizes and neurologically healthy subjects are found. Some of them are of single case studies. However, all of them showed positive results in using mirror therapy in improving hand functions. It is also worthwhile to note that mirror therapy does not increase spasticity.

For a more detailed critique of the current literature, please keep a lookout for the next update (after the meeting, yeah!).

Time really flies! It’s now the end of Week 7 of my semester. So what have I been up to these few weeks?

As you can see from my Photo category of this blog, I went for 2 days trips last month: Mt Buller Snow Trip and Great Ocean Road trip. Both the trips were an eye opener for me. I recommend those who intend to join La Trobe University to sign up for events organised by the International Students’ Association as they provide huge discounts on such trips.

Well, that aside. Academic-wise, I had presented for the first time in this university. Culture difference as they feedbacked that we, Singaporeans, talked too fast! Probably, they may have difficulty understanding our accent or we really talked way faster than them back in Singapore. However, this is an important point to note for me as there will be many more presentations occuring in the next few weeks.

I have also handed up my first written assignment. They are very strict with referencing. Any missing full stops or italics, there your marks go.

I must say that although we are learning the same things (ok, revising), expectation-wise is much higher than in NYP. But we shall make it till the end

As for the upcoming OT conference, I am not going due to financial issues. But not to worry, there will be always more opportunities when I’m back to work next year.

I attended a lecture by Prof Carolyn Baum just now on Participation & Performance in Person’s with Stroke. In her research with the Cognitive Rehabilitation Research Group, they focus more on linking neuroscience to everyday life. That’s their motto.

I found out several new, amazing stuffs they had discovered in their research with stroke patients in the US.

• There’s clinical pattern of stroke of usually not of single lesions. Only 350 out of n=5000 have single lesions.
• Usually rehab is more targeted to those of moderate stroke. But half of the sample researched has mild stroke. They have good social skills and do not portray their impairments vividly until they are tested with the executive functioning tests.
• NIHSS - a stroke scale used
• They measure participation using ACS to know their previous occupation profiles
• Need to focus beyond tasks in FIM. More on activity participation in the community.
• EFPT is a performance test using cueing system to see what it takes for them to succeed in the task
• Sequencing is affected across all types of stroke.
• People with performance problem are more likely to have clinical depression and decrease in community integration.

What I learn is that the OT in the community setting plays a very important role in stroke rehabilitation. So should I go to a community setting instead?

Hi there!

School has been great so far. The main highlight of the day was the FIM training course. FIM, Functional Independence Measure, is used widely in Singapore and I guess, globally in the healthcare industry as it uses common terminology for the understanding of various healthcare professions.

I had the training just now from 1 to 5pm. This half day training course covered the following areas:

• Components of the Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation
• Administration of the coding sheets
• Detailed study of the function categories
• Use of the FIM scoring scale
• Use of the FIM with practice case studies

I’ve got the certification for the training!

To be able to use it in the hospital settings, I have to be certified, that is, to take the exam. I’ll be taking it back in Singapore next year.

Cheers!

Hi all!

It’s been 3 weeks of school. One thing I have to say is… there’s LOTS and LOTS of readings! Expected actually. I’m trying to keep up with weekly readings of all modules but it seems to be quite hard to do that. This is especially so for the Illness and Spirituality module. It takes a lot of focus for me to understand the articles. On the other hand, the rest are fine for me.

An interesting event/class that happened this week was the long-awaited 2nd and the final practical class in the independent living centre. We learnt more about hoists and seatings. I was more than willing to be the subject for the hoist session. I want to be hoisted, to know the feelings that my future patients may have. It’s quite scary as you don’t really know what to expect or what could happen, especially when my friend (BIRD) was the so-called therapist. Hehehe! Sorry, Bird. Well, this was better than the one in NYP. It was electrical and not hydraulic. Hydraulic hoists have jerky movements, which is not recommended for patients, especially those with high anxiety levels.

In seatings, we learnt more about ergonomics of dining, lounge and workplace chairs. Cool! I was fasinated by the ‘kneeling’ chair. I have yet to see one in Singapore. It’s good for people with low back pain as it relieves some of the tension in the spine. BUT it translates the pressure to the knees. Thus, this kind of chair is not suitable for long-term use.

Yup, that’s all for now. I’ll update if there’s more exciting stories in my life here in Melbourne. As usual, pictures are in the ‘Photos’ section or in my Facebook.

Till then!