The first lesson I ever learned in life, and presumably the most important lesson, was caring for others. I owe the majority of my empathy and compassion to my grandma, who constantly puts the needs of others above herself. “Growth of the ones you care about is growth for yourself.” She symbolized this in everything she did, especially raising me. She taught me the importance of patience and dedication in all that you do. I knew that whatever I wanted to pursue in my life had to do with improving the lives of others. Likewise, I feel that this is a foundational “must” for occupational therapy. Having the ability to help others regain meaning and a sense of independence in life is exactly why this is what I want to do.
During my time at Michigan
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I learned how to stay very organized early on, as I had up to 12 clients at a time. Each day would have medications that were given routinely, along with medications given as needed, and medications that had dosage changes per parameters. I also did more advanced treatments, such as Insulin injections, Lovenox injections, peg-tube, and ostomy care. I was able to learn these difficult hands-on skills and practice them daily. While I worked as a PCT, I worked independently in my role. There would only be 1 PCT while the 4-5 other staff members did more direct-care. This taught me to be independent and create my own schedule for the clients while collaborating with the other staff based on their respective client schedules and day-to-day fluctuations. My communications skills, though always being a detail-oriented communicator, grew substantially. I was creating reports daily about each client which I gave to the next shift’s PCT, and communicated extra information to wherever it was meant to be directed (OTs, PTs, Nurses, Physicians, etc). For the second year, I worked as a Direct Support Professional. I absolutely loved this position, as I felt like I was doing some of the work that occupational therapists do. I