OT Students Interaction Topic 2: Challenges encountered as a Student

etalas

Hi Ruthie! Joining extra-curricular activities is a good thing since you will learn a lot from it. But don't forget to set priorities or should I say don't forget to study first? hahaha 🙂 Since you were not able to develop good study habits before, maybe this is the best time to develop it. With good study habits, you will be able to enjoy your extra-curricular activities and acads at the same time. Have fun! 🙂

rfgenuino wroteHi this is Ruthie from UPM ^^

I often have difficulty managing my time in college, like most others do. I've never really done anything much outside of regular academics back in high school but now in college I've found so many other things to do outside of just studying. For the first time, I'm genuinely interested in extra-curricular activities and it's interfering with my studies because I'd honestly rather much do those than study.

I also still have problems with studying itself, because I never really developed good study habits before and I'm definitely paying for it now that a lot of our lessons require self-directed learning. I've never really been used to reading long chapters ahead of time before lessons and usually cram a few days before the exams, it's probably about time I've learned haha.

Sam Agura

Felix Isaac Tiburcio wroteHi there! I'm Felix Tiburcio and I'm an OT student from the University of the Philippines Manila (UPM)

Throughout my two years of OT education, I've learned that the OT profession and the allied medical professions in general are supposed to uphold a client's quality of life, which is why I found it shocking when one of our professors told us that the majority of student appointments at the Psychiatric Department from our internship hospital (The Philippine General Hospital) come from the College of Allied Medical Professions, where anxiety and depression are common among these students.

It makes you wonder if the course is too challenging and demanding for the students to take or if the program is too condensed for us students to follow. You see, our course was supposed to be a five-year course but our college insisted on condensing it to a four-year course; thus we immediately studied human cadavers in our second year without any prior knowledge of comparative anatomy during our first year. In my opinion, the biggest challenge for us OT students is the somewhat "disjointed" transition from juvenile freshmen immediately to a sophomore who is expected to carry a rather heavy load that our first year wasn't able to prepare us for.

Going back, the weight of the curriculum's demands sometimes get the better of me. Sometimes, the heavy workload makes you question your very position as an OT student, and you just get stuck thinking about it. I'm not saying that I'm depressed or anxious, it's just that sometimes you need time to breathe. Whenever that happens, I just tell myself why I fell in love with OT in the first place. And breathe.

Hi Felix!

I think that the knowledge that a lot of students from our college have appointments for counselling in the Psychiatric ward was a big shock not just to you, but to majority of the class. While it is believable considering how toxic the environment is, it's another thing altogether to find out that it is really happening. This knowledge makes it more real and makes you wonder if there is a need to reassess whether the curriculum demanding too much or if there needs to be a change in the way it is paced.

I feel like a big factor that probably adds to the stress level, in the OT program specifically, is that there no real room for school breaks. Considering the fact that we have required classes to attend during our supposed summer break, we aren't able to fully relax and recharge from schoolwork. This is especially true since there's a lot of information we have to digest for each subject. While we do have holidays within the school year, these are usually spent working on academic requirements instead of unwinding.

Here's to us and hopefully we'll all be able to get through this together.

spvillarama@up.edu.ph

For someone like me who was forced to take a degree that does not really suit my interests, everyday is a serious challenge. Since the start of the semester, all I ever did was to contemplate every morning whether I should get up and attend class or just binge watch K-drama for the rest of my life. During examinations, my motivation to study is absolutely non-existent that I end up sleeping the whole night before the exam without even browsing my notes.

However, recently, while of course procrastinating and browsing through the Internet, I bumped into an online article of the best productivity methods for students, and I thought why not try one just to see if it actually works and partly to check if my laziness can still be helped. Surprisingly, among the three techniques I tried, the famous Pomodoro technique combined with the GTD method worked really well and helped me progress on my academic tasks and org works without losing my mind. You might want to also try them whenever you are feeling lazy and overwhelmed with your responsibilities.

Here in the Philippines, occupational therapy is not yet a well-known profession that you can expect people to often mistake it for physical therapy or even massage therapy. Whenever I try to explain what occupational therapy is, what I never fail to mention is that we help people to do the things that are meaningful and important to them through the therapeutic use of everyday activities. Usually, a few examples follow this explanation so that they can really understand what I want to say, but trying to compare and contrast it with physical therapy is very helpful in clarifying questions that they may have about the practice.

Spending time with my family is an occupation I didn’t realize until now is very important to me. Going home to the province every weekend is something that I always took for granted before, but now that more is expected from me in college, I end up staying in Manila most of the time when all I look forward to every week is to be with them. Of all the things that I do, I consider this the most important and most satisfying. Being reunited with them gives me the strength and motivation to overcome all the difficulties I face in college.

spvillarama@up.edu.ph

Hi Violet!

I hope you're doing great. Are you still able to keep up with your timetable?

I figured that you might also want to try the Pomodoro technique which surprisingly works really well for me. For college students like us, time is an enemy. We race against the clock to finish our assignments and meet deadlines that it’s pretty easy for some, as you may have experienced to end up feeling like they can’t enjoy their free time if they haven’t had a productive day. Let me share with you this awesome method.

The Pomodoro technique allows you to calculate the value of your time, plan your pomodoro sessions accordingly and then work to that plan to deliver a balanced outcome. In this way, you can meet your time frame and value targets, improving productivity. It can also help you power through distractions, hyper-focus, and get things done in short bursts while taking frequent breaks to come up for air and relax.

The main premise behind the technique is to work in blocks of time, typically 25 minutes long called pomodoro sessions, followed by a 5 minute break. Each pomodoro session should demand your full attention on one task while every break requires you to step away from your work to rest. After four pomodoros have passed meaning 100 minutes of work time with 15 minutes of break time, you then take a 15 to 20 minute break. Do not forget to mark your progress with an "X" every time you finish a pomodoro and also note the number of times you had the impulse to procrastinate or switch gears to work on another task for each 25-minute chunk of time.

The process is very simple, right? Not to mention that all you need is a timer. Best regards!

Violet wroteHi all. It's Violet from Salford University in UK.

I am in my second year of studying occupational therapy. Since starting the course last year, I have noticed that whenever we have a break from uni, for example, Easter or summer break, I always stress that I should be doing extra work and in my head everyone else is always studying hard and I struggle to get motivated and organised. I often felt overwhelmed as I wanted to get some extra reading done or research a topic that is of interest to me but somehow I was finding it difficult to organise my time when all of a sudden I had plenty of time. This was making me feel like I was wasting lots of valuable time and trying to convince myself that I needed rest wasn't working.

At the end of August this year when I realised I will be starting my second year soon, I knew I had to start revising so that I feel prepared. I have created a daily timetable in Excel and started scheduling my learning objectives, for example, I would wake up at 6am exercise,breakfast then revise MOHO for 2hrs followed by reading a journal article then reading a chapter in a book I wanted to read over the summer.. by doing this I often found that by 10-11am I had completed many tasks, learned a lot and also did things I enjoy doing (reading books, exercise good for my health). I still carry on with my timetable now we are 3 weeks into the second year of the program and it helps me a lot to feel organised therefore my mind is clearer and I don't panic anymore. It helps me to keep myself balanced and prevents me from unnecessary stress and mood swings. It teaches me self-discipline and determination too. I believe that good self-management skills save us a lot of time,hassle and nerves, therefore I would recommend to other students to spend some time on planning their day as it is possible to study and do other things. Hope this helps other students who often feel overwhelmed by the amount of work that is required from them and the lack of time to do things they enjoy doing.

RichardIrvin

Hi!

I guess one challenge that I encountered is that occupational therapy is kind of subjective. When I was in high school, I'm used to taking objective type exams, knowing a right and wrong answer. In OT, it becomes a bit trickier. Since OTs work with people, people are different from each other. No two people are the same. So doing assessments and the data collected while observing them aren't necessarily wrong. My professors say that there is what therapists call "normal range." From them, I learned that two people can be completely different, but can both be normal.

Noel Nicanor

spvillarama@up.edu.ph wroteHere in the Philippines, occupational therapy is not yet a well-known profession that you can expect people to often mistake it for physical therapy or even massage therapy. Whenever I try to explain what occupational therapy is, what I never fail to mention is that we help people to do the things that are meaningful and important to them through the therapeutic use of everyday activities. Usually, a few examples follow this explanation so that they can really understand what I want to say, but trying to compare and contrast it with physical therapy is very helpful in clarifying questions that they may have about the practice.

Hi Sophie! I couldn't agree with you more! I don't really have any problems discussing what Occupational Therapy is to my family members because most of them graduated with courses related to providing quality healthcare and services. The problem now is to explain it to those who are yet to know and understand what OT is. We also face the same problems in them immediately associating OT to massage therapy; much so that my batchmates in high school seriously asked me whether I learn how to provide a good massage in this course. This kind of ignorance towards our future profession can only serve as fuel to further promote OT as another integral piece in providing for proper healthcare. I also never forget to mention that we always aim for the reintegration of our patients back to society because I believe this is what OT really is about.

spvillarama@up.edu.ph wroteFor someone like me who was forced to take a degree that does not really suit my interests, everyday is a serious challenge. Since the start of the semester, all I ever did was to contemplate every morning whether I should get up and attend class or just binge watch K-drama for the rest of my life. During examinations, my motivation to study is absolutely non-existent that I end up sleeping the whole night before the exam without even browsing my notes.

I wasn't really forced into it, but it was just suggested to me by my mom when I felt lost finishing the college application forms. What I can suggest for you though is too try and chase after what really makes your heart beat with excitement when you engage in that occupation. It's never too late, I guess. But if for some reason you can't leave, try to look for something appealing in OT for you and then make that as your source of motivation to finish this course. It's never easy, but it might be worth the try. 🙂 Good luck to you!

dbamparado

Hello! I'm from the Philippines. As an OT student here, we find our selves levelled with the misconception that we are masseuses instead of actual medical practitioners. People also find a hard time differentiating us from PTs.

When I was in the US, I was pleasantly surprised that a lot of people knew exactly what occupational therapists do. In the Philippines, however, we don't have quite the same setting. I think the problem lies with our advertising. I do concede to the fact that the OT practice here is fairly young but it's a greater reason for us to educate people and use social media as a tool to make our profession known widely. Should this be done on a large scale, I think OT students here would be able to explore more opportunities for intervention and be appreciated by and aid to a larger population.

How is your OT practice blooming in your country?

Noel Nicanor

Hi! Noel here again. Aside from the common problem that us students here in the Philippines experience, that being OT is easily mistook for massage therapy or even physical therapy, another challenge that I see here is how occupational therapy in the Philippines is still leaning towards a more westernized approach and as a student, it becomes harder to look for researches that are Philippine based. We were taught this semester that in developing intervention plans, context must be heavily considered so it would be very helpful and important for the Philippines to develop its own definition and perception of what counts as an occupation in a filipino context. Despite the Philippines being one of the first in Asia to include OT in the healthcare services being provided, the profession is yet to find its strong foothold in the medical field here. There are still a lot of misconceptions and a general lack of knowledge among the people.

Other asian countries have already placed OT in higher regard as an integral part in providing care for those who need its services. An example would be Japan with their highly advanced Geriatric Rehabilitation. I guess the root cause of this problem is the ongoing trend of Filipino graduates to migrate to other countries who present arguably better job opportunities. This in turn only hinders the growth of the profession here in our country.

How about you guys? What other challenges are you experiencing as an OT student?

NDYOWAAWE

Good evening everybody here!
I hope you're doing well! Apologies that ive been away for sometime!
However my time in school we experienced a wide range of challenges as OT students especially from our medical care system which dominates here!
One is that it was hard for me as a student to apply all the OT perspectives because some patients were discharged without other multidisciplinary team members awareness even in the planning process OT is rarely recognized
2. The clinicial and placement hours were reduced due to limited funding from our government. So students have to go for self organized placement in holidays
3. It is very hard apply OT as its in western concept but weve adapted to make it more applicable in African settings

Ivanna Co

Felix Isaac Tiburcio wroteHi there! I'm Felix Tiburcio and I'm an OT student from the University of the Philippines Manila (UPM)

Throughout my two years of OT education, I've learned that the OT profession and the allied medical professions in general are supposed to uphold a client's quality of life, which is why I found it shocking when one of our professors told us that the majority of student appointments at the Psychiatric Department from our internship hospital (The Philippine General Hospital) come from the College of Allied Medical Professions, where anxiety and depression are common among these students.

It makes you wonder if the course is too challenging and demanding for the students to take or if the program is too condensed for us students to follow. You see, our course was supposed to be a five-year course but our college insisted on condensing it to a four-year course; thus we immediately studied human cadavers in our second year without any prior knowledge of comparative anatomy during our first year. In my opinion, the biggest challenge for us OT students is the somewhat "disjointed" transition from juvenile freshmen immediately to a sophomore who is expected to carry a rather heavy load that our first year wasn't able to prepare us for.

Going back, the weight of the curriculum's demands sometimes get the better of me. Sometimes, the heavy workload makes you question your very position as an OT student, and you just get stuck thinking about it. I'm not saying that I'm depressed or anxious, it's just that sometimes you need time to breathe. Whenever that happens, I just tell myself why I fell in love with OT in the first place. And breathe.

Hi Felix!

It is disheartening to hear that the very advocates of occupational balance are also those who are struggling with it. However, the fact that these students make appointments in the hospital means that they also value their holistic beings and are willing to address their problems.

While the 4-year OT curriculum in UPM is considerably heavy compared to the other universities' 5-year curriculum, this just means that we can also start working a year earlier. An additional year to contribute more to the people who are in need of an OT. That is what I tell myself when I start complaining about the heavy workload we have to endure. Also, play, leisure, and rest are occupations as well, so take some time to do these and refresh yourself 🙂 We can do this!

GeNaldoza

Hello! I'm Geraldine 🙂

Pursuing a college a college degree is really challenging. You have to have the courage to continue despite all the boulders you're facing and the heart to do whatever it takes to excel at what you. Personally, I had a hard time balancing out my academics and org. I also took my health for granted: slept late and woke up early. It is really challenging to be a functional human being while being sick with colds or even a fever. Really we should be productive and have time management but whenever you feel tired, it is okay to rest but never quit! 😉

myungderp kiddo

NDYOWAAWE wroteGood evening everybody here!
I hope you're doing well! Apologies that ive been away for sometime!
However my time in school we experienced a wide range of challenges as OT students especially from our medical care system which dominates here!
One is that it was hard for me as a student to apply all the OT perspectives because some patients were discharged without other multidisciplinary team members awareness even in the planning process OT is rarely recognized
2. The clinicial and placement hours were reduced due to limited funding from our government. So students have to go for self organized placement in holidays
3. It is very hard apply OT as its in western concept but weve adapted to make it more applicable in African settings

Good day, @NDYOWAAWE!

(^____^)/

It must have been hard to experience these altogether. Here in the Philippines, OT barely reaches those in the provinces that is why only a limited number of people get to acquire OT services and interventions. Also, OTs are somehow treated as inferior to doctors in such a way that we cannot facilitate OT to a client without a doctor's prescription.

😢

I guess OTs are quite underrated here as well ; many people do not know what OT actually is.

🙁

Looking on the bright side, it is great to hear that you have adapted OT to fit Africa's setting. I greatly admire that initiative, and I do hope that someday, we could make our own concepts as well without having to rely so much on the Western side.

😃

What concepts have you altered and how were you able to do these?

actan7

NDYOWAAWE wroteGood evening everybody here!
I hope you're doing well! Apologies that ive been away for sometime!
However my time in school we experienced a wide range of challenges as OT students especially from our medical care system which dominates here!
One is that it was hard for me as a student to apply all the OT perspectives because some patients were discharged without other multidisciplinary team members awareness even in the planning process OT is rarely recognized
2. The clinicial and placement hours were reduced due to limited funding from our government. So students have to go for self organized placement in holidays
3. It is very hard apply OT as its in western concept but weve adapted to make it more applicable in African settings

Hi! It's very interesting to note that some of the challenges that the OT profession faces in our country is also similar to what you guys face in yours. It can be disheartening that sometimes we aren't recognized by the health professionals community. Some professionals do a double take when we tell them we are OTs and have to ask us what we do. Sometimes they compare us to PTs and leave it at that.

I find it sad that you're having such a hard time with your clinical and placement hours. It's very discouraging that your own government is limiting your capacity to serve your clients. I have to commend you guys for taking initiative and doing something about your situation however.

Same here in the Philippines. Since most OT/OS studies are Western based, we have to adapt them as well to fit the Filipino setting. I hope that in the future more studies from different countries will be published so that the profession will grow more.

Felix Isaac Tiburcio

KawJemilyn wroteHello there! It's me, Jem!

I remember when I was young, my parents let me go to bed at 9:30PM; at that time, I must finish all my assignments and reviewed my subjects for tomorrow's classes. As time passes by, 9:30PM became later and later, until now, 1:30AM seems normal to me. I thought it was just me alone because I need to balance academics and extracurricular activities, but I then discovered, most of my classmates are the same with me. The challenge for me is not getting to sleep when I feel sleepy already; I get to struggle opening my eyes wide in the middle of the night, reviewing or preparing notes for the next day. I also blame myself for getting distracted with social media, yes! I tend to scroll through my Facebook news feed when I rest in between study time (sometimes, I forgot to time myself and tada! Time wasted). Still, I try my best in controlling myself and balance my time.

I used to play piano and attend piano class during Saturdays since I was in kindergarten, it never stopped; but, as soon as I started college, especially during majors this year, I didn't get the chance to visit our music room anymore (it is located in my old school) because I need to catch up with academics, other extracurricular activities and part time job. To my friends who really know me, I am really clingy to music. Not having a chance to touch the piano makes me sad and depressed and what I do to compensate is to at least hum or sing songs everyday so that music won't feel like a stranger to me.

Although I'm deprived of some occupations that I love, I still cheer myself up because I am enjoying the subjects that we're taking for BS Occupational Therapy. Yes, the subjects are hardcore, make us lose our occupational balance, but I still believe that these will really be worth it. I'm kinda thankful for having OTion discussion room as our activity for an subject because conversing with different people makes me happy too! (Yay! You make me happy!)

Do you have some feels with what I have mentioned? Feel free to share them with me! 🙂

- Jem

Hi Jemilyn! I feel occupationally deprived most of the time too! I oftentimes place such emphasis on my studies and academic life that I often neglect other basic life necessities such as eating. I know this isn't healthy but I end up doing it for the sake of what I think is right. I hope that one day, I'll achieve the Occupational balance that I'm yearning so hard to achieve though 🙂

dbamparado

Noel Nicanor wroteHi! Noel here again. Aside from the common problem that us students here in the Philippines experience, that being OT is easily mistook for massage therapy or even physical therapy, another challenge that I see here is how occupational therapy in the Philippines is still leaning towards a more westernized approach and as a student, it becomes harder to look for researches that are Philippine based. We were taught this semester that in developing intervention plans, context must be heavily considered so it would be very helpful and important for the Philippines to develop its own definition and perception of what counts as an occupation in a filipino context. Despite the Philippines being one of the first in Asia to include OT in the healthcare services being provided, the profession is yet to find its strong foothold in the medical field here. There are still a lot of misconceptions and a general lack of knowledge among the people.

Other asian countries have already placed OT in higher regard as an integral part in providing care for those who need its services. An example would be Japan with their highly advanced Geriatric Rehabilitation. I guess the root cause of this problem is the ongoing trend of Filipino graduates to migrate to other countries who present arguably better job opportunities. This in turn only hinders the growth of the profession here in our country.

How about you guys? What other challenges are you experiencing as an OT student?

Hi Noel! I see that you've mentioned geriatric rehab. Just out of curiosity, what OT field are you most interested in?

Joana Akrofi

Hi! I'm Joana. I live in Ghana, Africa. Occupational therapy is very new here. When i started the course there were no practicing clinicians but fortunately the first batch of undergraduate students just graduated and are practicing as interns.
However I still feel handicapped as an OT student because my theoritical knowledge surpasses my practical knowledge. There are few people to look up to.
The OT department in my school is also understaffed with just two OTs lecturing. It's really a trying and crippling experience as I always wonder if I can rub shoulders with colleague OTs around the world.
To make matters worse, occupational therapy here is being threatened by physical therapy which is more established in the country as the professional demarcations are blurrer by the day.

Meg

Wow. I'm super late to this thread. But I hope it's still active!

I'm currently undergoing my 3rd Level 2 rotation in Mental Health. I start at a new site tomorrow, so I'm both nervous and excited. One of the things I find difficult is overall time management. I find it particularly difficult to keep up with the paperwork and doing homework assigned by my clinical instructor, but I make sure to get them done on time. I would love to partake in my leisure activities (I have a lot of hobbies. Haha), but I just don't really have the time. I mostly spend my free time watching youtube videos now.

I definitely have some funny and interesting stories from fieldwork though. During a rotation at a school-based setting, my previous clinical instructor wanted me to define OT to a student (which I find more challenging than explaining OT to an adult. Still working on it though!). So I was discussing it with one of the 4th grade students on my caseload when he defined OT as "helping kids learn skills and things so they can do better in school." I just looked at my clinical instructor and told her, "He defined OT in a school-based setting better than I did." I definitely learn new things from them! Haha.

Anyway, hope everyone is doing well! Looking forward to reading more.

- Meg

Meg

Joana Akrofi wroteHi! I'm Joana. I live in Ghana, Africa. Occupational therapy is very new here. When i started the course there were no practicing clinicians but fortunately the first batch of undergraduate students just graduated and are practicing as interns.
However I still feel handicapped as an OT student because my theoritical knowledge surpasses my practical knowledge. There are few people to look up to.
The OT department in my school is also understaffed with just two OTs lecturing. It's really a trying and crippling experience as I always wonder if I can rub shoulders with colleague OTs around the world.
To make matters worse, occupational therapy here is being threatened by physical therapy which is more established in the country as the professional demarcations are blurrer by the day.

Hi, Joana. It's nice to meet you!

It sounds very frustrating, especially with limited resources and staff. But I'm glad that OT is being established in your country. You and your classmates are like the pioneers of OT there.

If it makes you feel better, in the US, we're still explaining OT to patients/clients and how we differ from PT. It's getting better, but it's still a work in progress. I find that it helps to have a solid definition of OT in different settings and what we contribute to the team. And the beauty of living in this generation is that you have a lot of resources online and can easily get in touch with other OTs, OTAs, and OTSs. Feel free to reach out to us for any questions! 🙂

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