RSCC Occupational Therapy Assistant Program

This peer-reviewed AJOT authored by Bracciano, McPhee, Rose details the appropriate use of physical agent modalities (PAMs) within the OT field. They discuss the facts regarding different categories of PAMs to include superficial thermal agents, deep thermal agents, electrotherapeutic agents, and mechanical devices. The authors explain the relevance of The Occupational Therapy Code of Ethics and Ethics Standards as it pertains to the use of PAMs.

This is a touching video of a boy hearing his mother and father for the first time. The Dr. Explains just a little bit on where the implant if located on the brain.

This article gives a little history on the Shriners and their work with burn patients. With their four burn hospitals, Shriners cares for children with burn injuries from the time of acute injury through rehabilitation and individual reconstructive needs throughout their childhood.

This website stresses how serious work related kitchen fires can be. It states that commercial kitchen fires are the most common among all kitchen fires and can be prevented by following their simple tips. Kitchens in busy restaurants are cluttered with too many personnel and too little room to maneuver, this can lead to a scalding or fire accident easily. The suggestions on this website make it simple to reduce the risk.

I know someone has posted about palliative care, but I wasn't sure of the difference between palliative and hospice. So, I began to research it and it made sense to me as to why it is better to get palliative care. It also said that it helps to increase the survival rate by 3 months. Also, here is another link to shows you the difference of each. http://www.stcam.com/hospice/palliative-vs-hospice/

I feel all health care providers should read this article not just OT's. This article talks about how patients may be feeling after being diagnosed with cancer and how we should help them through this. They may not be able to do a lot of the things they were doing but these things are still important to them. It is our job to help them believe that there is still hope. As a health care provider and a daughter of someone that had been diagnosed with cancer, I totally agree with this article. Just because they are diagnosed doesn't mean they have to loose hope.

I know we have already went over this topic, but I thought this page was really informative on dysphagia. Usually most pages just list the definition and the symptoms, but it goes on and on about various aspects that are associated with dysphagia. It even explains what you should ask that doctor when you first visit him/her. I just wanted to share this site encase you know someone that suffers from it and this would be helpful!!

The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of static resting splints in an early RA population. The study hypothesis was that there would be a difference in the change of hand function after 12 months in patients with early RA who received standardized occupational therapy plus static resting splints compared with standardized occupational therapy alone.

information on how to treat burn patients

This website provides a lot of information about the types of treatment that are provided on an outpatient basis and from what I see is very OT related. It includes info on scar control and massage, pressure garments and how to put them on, therapeutic exercises including using the PNF technique, work hardening, common interventions, modalities, ADLs , and the different splints used and why they are used.

It covers the do's and don'ts of burn rehab as well as how to administer different exercises, garments, and scar massages.

This website contains information on various exercises for dysphagia therapy after a stroke. These include tongue exercises, lip exercises, jaw exercises, swallowing exercises, and the steps to perform them. It also describes what dysphagia is and how it is evaluated.

This Youtube video is an OT in a cancer treatmen facility. She is sharing advice and tips for helping cancer patients with fatigue. The most common symptom of cancer is fatigue. I thought this would be good information to know as COTAs.

This story of Jacob LaFerriere, a burn victim gives back to his community and gives back by giving motivation to kids who have been burned.  I like this video because it shows him working with an occupational therapist and doing fun rehab activities.

Oh my! This is a youtube video on a skin grafting technique. I was curious how they do skin grafting. I found out! This video made my stomach, toes, and my whole body clinch up watching it! If you can handle it, it's interesting.

watch this short video on classification and treatment of burns. This just reinforces what we are studying in Physical Disabilities right now. I thought this video had really good images of the layers of the skin as well as images of burns on the skin.

This Youtube video may seem a little scary. I google searched toxic epidermal necrolysis to see what it looked like to share and this was one of the videos to come up. It is Steven Johnson Sydnrome which can result in toxi epidermal necrolysis. Seems a little frightening hearing the causes, but it this syndrome happens to 1 in a million. Interesting video about this syndrome and information that is good to know for working in the healthcare field.

Hospice care and palliative care are very similar when it comes to the most important issue for dying people: care

Wow! This is amazing and kinda scary at the same time. It gives a lot to consider about the future and progress that is being made, but at the same time makes me wonder how far is too far with what parts we replace and what keeps us alive. I have no doubt that one day they will have developed a replacement for every organ and part of the human body. While that is exciting and gives a lot of hope to many, the thought that a non-human can be created to be human freaks me out. See what you think of this video, it is pretty cool.

With most of the younger workers, they seem to believe themselves so entitled as part of the "Me" generation. It was very refreshing to see this 18-year-old have such tremendous and admirable goals. In relation to our subject matter, it will be interesting to follow her cancer research and hopefully see a cure during my lifetime.

I found this on the AOTA's website and it is a tendon tip sheet. It tells exactly what a tendon injury is and also what OT implements with this form or injury. It is a short, but informative page on this topic. I thought it would be beneficial to print out as a source to keep to look back on.

This is a really good article on OT, work, and workers comp. It even goes into problems of workers comp.