Occupational Therapy

[chloemercina]

Hi all,

I am studying Occupational Therapy at ACU.

My HSC:

I honestly didn't think I'd get the marks to get into OT so I had all these other choices. I didn't even include ACU OT in my preferences for offer round 1 as I was so sure I wouldn't get an offer. However, I did get my first preference in offer round 1 so in round 2 I decided to put OT down just to see. I was SO surprised when I got an email telling me I got an offer!

Why OT?

I love the diversity of the career. I can with young, old, disabled, injured etc the possibilities are endless. I also love how OT's focus on occupation and how occupation can be used in treating people. I have wanted to do this course since around year 10 so it feels awesome to have got in.

My experience so far?

I am so far loving my course (it's only been 2 weeks!). Just looking at all my units tells me there's going to be a lot of work ahead of me and quite a lot of content but I really want this career so it'll be worth it.

If anyone has questions about OT or studying at ACU, feel free to ask and I'll try and help!

[Joseph41]

This is awesome! What prompted you to make a uni journal?

Super exciting about your offer. That's surely a good lesson for any future HSC students. What are your units atm? Do you have much choice or is it all the same for everybody in OT?

[chloemercina]

This is awesome! What prompted you to make a uni journal?

Super exciting about your offer. That's surely a good lesson for any future HSC students. What are your units atm? Do you have much choice or is it all the same for everybody in OT?

I decided to make a uni journal so I could always have something to loom back on as well as having a platform for people to ask me about Occupational Therapy as it is often a profession that not many people understand.
Currently I'm doing BIOL121 (a human biology unit), ALHT106 (a unit relating psychology to the area of allied health), OTHY100 (foundations of Occupational Therapy) and OTHY101 (health and occupation).  There's no choice for us, pretty much all OT's do the same units as it's a pretty set course!

[Bri MT]

I'm not very familiar with occupational therapy at all but your units look interesting - do you have a favourite so far? 

Love your passion about your career path

[chloemercina]

Hi all,

I've completed my second week of un! Yay!

It's been such an amazing two weeks, I've learnt more than ever about the profession as well as made a heap of new friends. It has been a bit stressful as I'm getting used to the whole notion of doing readings (which can be so long) as well as having a lot more independence with my learning compared to high school. We've been given directions about starting our first essay (worth 30%) which is a bit daunting for me. I've also got quizzes coming up for 3 out of 4 of my units.

I'm so glad they don't set any really complicated or big tasks until the later weeks as they scare me!!!

Uni is a lot more different to high school than I originally thought. Like I knew it'd be different, I just didn't realise how different! Uni expects you to take total responsibility for your learning. They definitely don't provide as much guidance as high school. Also, if you need help, you are expected to ask for it, help won't necessarily be offered to you. Also, uni's have SO many opportunities. Like my uni (ACU) has academic and numeracy workshops that they run based on skills such as writing essays, time management as well as maths based ones such as problem solving. It's really important to find out about these things as they can often go under-utilised.

If anyone has any questions, I'm more than happy to answer!

[chloemercina]

I'm not very familiar with occupational therapy at all but your units look interesting - do you have a favourite so far? 

Love your passion about your career path

Funnily enough, I get asked about what OT (occupational therapy) is all the time! It's amazing how misunderstood it is, yet it helps so many people with injuries and disabilities do the things they want and need to do!

The definition we were given is: Occupational Therapists are health professionals who are trained to assist people to overcome limitations caused by injury or illness, psychological or emotional difficulties, developmental delay or the effects of ageing. Their goal is to assist each individual to move from dependence to independence maximising personal productivity, well being and quality of life.

As an example, someone may have a car accident and sustain a spinal cord injury. What an OT would do is look at their life, what they need, want to and are expected to do. For example, they may want to cook. So what an OT would do is look at their kitchen and see if it can be modified for a wheelchair such as installing height adjustable benches and providing wider walkways.

Another example would be a stroke victim who has experienced weakness of the hand(s). The OT may use devices that require the patient to squeeze which builds up muscle in the hands. They may also play games that require fine motor skills so the patient regains control.

Hope this was helpful, if you or anyone has further questions, feel free to ask, I love when people are interested in my degree

[chloemercina]

Hey guys,

So I'm more or less at the end of week 3 (yay!). Things are definitely getting more stressful now, assessments (particularly quizzes) are coming up and we are delving into some hard content. I am really enjoying it though. So far what we are learning about is exactly the kind of stuff I am interested in so that's a relief. We have a really hard bio unit which is really stressing me out though.

I have joined Toastmasters on my campus and so far think it's been a good choice (only been to one session so far). If anyone on here has joined Toastmasters let me know what it's like and if anyone wants to know more feel free to ask.

One thing I didn't expect from uni would be how much I'd have to spend on textbooks. In our course, we use textbooks quite a lot and so need to refer to them frequently. I thought I'd just use the library copies, however, they are often REALLY hard to get ahold of as they are often out on loan with a few people having requested it already, therefore it could be potentially weeks until I get ahold of it. This is because so many people in my course refuse to buy the textbooks. As such, I have forked out a lot of money to buy all books required for this semester. I see it as an investment (or at least trying to!).

Something that surprised me about uni was the amount of independence you have. In terms of assignments, completing class and pre-class work, it's really up to you. The lecturers and tutors aren't going to necessarily tell you when to do things.

Overall, I am loving uni so far. I am sort of looking forward to doing the assessments as they seem really interesting. I love the diversity of uni, you meet so many different types of people (even different ages). My advice for uni would be to make friends and try to get involved in uni life as much as possible as it not only makes uni more fun, but also provides stuff to add to your resume.

Again, if anyone has any questions, let me know (no one seems to be asking anything!)

[chloemercina]

Hey all,

So its now end of week 5! I meant to update you guys last week but was so busy I completely forgot. I had my first essay due yesterday which was exciting but also daunting. I kept putting it to the side because it didn't look too hard and I ended up starting it the day before, cue me working frantically on the day to have it submitted by 9pm!!! I definitely won't be doing that again, especially since my assignments that are coming up (an essay, an interview/report, and a group work one) will be a much longer process and require more detail.

So far I have enjoyed uni. Next week is the halfway mark for the semester (YAY!) I'm definitely stressing about all the work I have, the more I think about my assignments, the more stressed I get!

I have a biology quiz next week so I'm currently preparing for that!

Hope everyone has had a fantastic week!

As always, feel free to ask any questions you may have about OT or uni (or anything for that matter)

[chloemercina]

Hey guys,

Its been a while since I've updated this as I've been incredibly busy!!! I'm currently on my 1 week Easter break with next week being week 9! Therefore, I only have 4 teaching weeks left!

The last couple of weeks have been really hectic, I've had lots of assessments and lots of readings and work to do! I've also had to start preparing for my end of semester exams which is kind of stressing me out, to say the least. I am definitely enjoying my course, but it is harder than what I imagined. It's funny because in high school we were told that uni would be easier which I haven't found to be true.

Anyway, uni is going well, let's hope the next few weeks run smoothly!