RSCC Occupational Therapy Assistant Program

CarFit is a community based program that sponsors events (as a collaborative effort between AOTA, AAA, and AARP) with the purpose of inspecting the older driver in their own vehicle. "trained technicians and/or health professionals work with each participant to ensure they "fit" their vehicle properly for maximum comfort and safety". It takes about 20 mins after which recommendations for adjustments and adaptations are provided. The website provides FAQs and videos with a lot of information pertaining to the older driver and driver safety. Those of you interested in driving rehab may be interested in participating in an event such as this as a COTA in the future.

This is a great resource that is short and concise to help therapist incorporate their patients in the transfer process.  Safe transfers is about good positioning but it is also about have clear communication with the patient.  I like the sample phrases within this article aimed  at having better communication with the patient.  Communication that the patient can understand is crucial to the transfer process.

AOTA website

I thought this tied in with our speaker on Medicare. It takes each setting and explains details of Medicare. It is very important to know this information when we get out in the field.

Abstract: Four hundred twenty-one consecutive patients admitted to an acute general medical ward and two acute rehabilitation medical wards were studied to...

Physical restraint reduction was associated with significant reduction in average length of stay in convalescent medical wards, especially in the cognitively impaired patients.

What can OT do for a person with a hip fracture or hip replacement? More info in the full post. Don't count on the pt. to remember, as you may not have done a full cognitive eval yet, and it may have slipped even a very intact person's mind after the anesthesia.

Bed Rail Entrapment Statistics Today there are about 2.5 million hospital and nursing home beds in use in the United States. Between 1985 and January 1, 2009, 803 incidents of patients* caught, trapped, entangled, or strangled in beds with rails were reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

We are a little past the ergonomics topic, but I wanted to share this because blog was written by a doctor at the office my mom works at. She runs the website and was telling me about it so wanted to share the info!

I thought this was a very informative article regarding hip replacement surgery. The article lists reasons for a hip replacement surgery. The article goes into a fair amount of information about the surgery itself. What to expect after surgery, complications that may arise and how to care for yourself after the surgery. The article has pictures, and because I am a visual learner, I liked the pictures.

This was a very interesting article I read regarding a mind controlled bionic leg. The article is from 2013. It stated that there has been mind controlled bionic arms available for a while now. To date, only one man is testing the mind controlled bionic leg. He says he can walk, go up steps, etc just by thinking about the action taken. There is a very short video of him walking with it. Pretty amazing!

This organization meshes senior living with computer technology individualized for seniors. This is a cool idea and incorporates physical exercises in the system as well as social and cognitive stimulation. I believe it's a great innovative way to keep the aging mind stimulated and in touch with family and friends.

This PDF gives information on the procedure of hemiarthroplasty to repair a fractured hip, as well as, great visual pictures of the body positioning during ADL's for hip precautions. I thought it would be helpful for someone like me, as an OTA student to visualize the correct preventative positioning during sitting, lying, driving, bathing, etc.

This site gives information on the rights of patients while they may be in a SNF or similar facility.

This article is about a man that knew he needed a hip replacement, but dreaded the long recovery of having one. He talked with a surgeon that recommended using an anterior approach for his surgery because it required much less muscle to be cut through. As a result of using the anterior approach, he had an extremely quick recovery and was able to resume all his favorite actives.

This is a blog that I found in AOTA blogs and it is a must read for all. It gives something to consider about occupational therapy for everyone, not just OT students or professionals. Occupational therapy is the best of all worlds and needed in every realm of life and this man hits the nail on the head in my opinion.

So many people are diagnosed with diabetes today. I thought this would maybe help anyone who did want to learn more information on this topic.

This webpage is a resource page in which provides the reader information regarding an individual's personal experience with COPD. I like that she up lifts the reader to encourage changing the negative thinking of "this is not a death sentence" etc. It answers questions as what the individual may be experiencing and offers resources to help people with COPD to be successful and an advocate in their treatments.

This may be a short article, but it is packed with good information. It answers the question "what can OT do for the cardiac patient?". A good reference for clients and a good reference for practitioners.

This page from the AOTA website contains links to various topics associated with the aging adult. These are tip sheets that explain different conditions and how OT can help. These include aging in place, living with Alzheimer's, fall prevention, hip replacement, home modification, low vision, driving and stroke. In addition to the tip sheets, there are links to videos for aging in place, home modification and precautions the elderly can take to prevent falls in the home. This is a great place to look to obtain a lot of good information on a variety of problems the elderly can face and how occupational therapy can help this population.

This address should take you to the "Amputee OT" video. Please let me know if it doesn't. An OT that is also an amputee narrates and demonstrates how a prosthetic running leg is made. It is amazing how much precision and details are used to get the best fit for a running prosthesis.