Seating and Positing from manufacturing to delivery

Time is going so slowly on this residency. I actually hate that it isn’t like a typical medical residency where you spend time having your own patients in the specialty area of your choice. We already did our typical rotations but now we’re on to our “residency” we have to complete 640 hours of specialty area research and or program design.. basically we have to come up with something that we can present rather that’s another research project, CEU program or even connect multiple organization. Basically, it’s miserable. I love being with patients and clients, I enjoy helping and empowering people. I don’t love sitting at a computer all day. My residency is a bit different than some of my classmates because I have a location and I’ve worked out a way to get some clinic time in my residency.


I named my residency “Seating and Positing from manufacturing to delivery". Yeah, I had to name it for a grant one of our professors got. So what am I doing? Well I’m spending most of my time at a power chair manufacturer. I’m doing research for a national CEU program that they put on and I’m making changes and updating it. I’m also learning how the manufacturing work, all the different teams (sales, marketing, r &d, etc). I’m getting to experience how a new product launch happens and am doing some HCPCS coding for them. Past that some of my main responsibilities lie within a non-profit organization (Users First) which is an organization that was developed to empower end users and clinicians. I’m working on a decision tree that will help with that and I’m keeping a blog of my experiences. Insurance can be a nightmare to navigate so I’m trying to help simplify the process. I’ve definitely found some great resources and figured out that if you want a wheelchair you are pretty much going to have to fight for it. I’m also working on recruitment. Lastly, I’m getting to go into the clinic once a week and have hands on experience with evaluations and wrench on chairs. I absolutely love that part of my week. So as you can see I’m really getting to see how it works for R&D to manufacturing the product to coding the product to evaluating the client, placing the order, fitting the product and lastly adjusting and rebuilding. It’s great over all but thewhol 640 hours is too much.

I’m not sure what Belmont was thinking when they imposed their decision as to what they wanted our residency to be. Our residency coordinator continued to blame the ACOTE standards for us not being able to go on a more specialized and in-depth “fieldwork” but I read the standards. They are below and there is nothing that says we can’t be in the clinic the WHOLE 640 hours. As a matter of fact I’m pretty sure the only way to get clinical practice skills is to be in the clinic. Please see the standards below and let me know what you think. I’m thinking I’ll be making a large reflection about this in my portfolio and perhaps even during my presentation to the faculty. Don’t get me wrong. I’m learning all kinds of things but I’m hearing that I’ll still be considered entry level and won’t be able to work in the specialized area of seating an positioning which isn’t Belmont’s fault but they’ve continued to see this idea to me and everyone that the doctorate level will push us beyond the generalist level. That’s not what the “real world” has to say.

B.11.0. DOCTORAL-LEVEL EXPERIENTIAL COMPONENT


The student must successfully complete all coursework and Level II fieldwork and pass a competency requirement prior to commencement of the doctoral experiential component. The goal of the doctoral experiential component is to develop occupational therapists with advanced skills (those that are beyond a generalist level). The doctoral experiential component shall be an integral part of the program’s curriculum design and shall include an in-depth experience in one or more of the following: clinical practice skills, research skills, administration, leadership, program and policy development, advocacy, education, or theory development. The program will


B.11.1. Ensure that the doctoral experiential component is provided in a setting consistent with the program’s curriculum design, including individualized specific objectives and plans for supervision.


B.11.2. Require that the length of this doctoral experiential component be a minimum of 16 weeks (640 hours). This may be completed on a part-time basis and must be consistent with the individualized specific objectives and culminating project.


B.11.3. Ensure that the student is mentored by an individual with expertise consistent with the student’s area of focus.


B.11.4. Document a formal evaluation mechanism for objective assessment of the student’s performance during and at the completion of the doctoral experiential component.



Okay so I haven’t been expressing too much about my residency so many have thought I’m really happy about my residency. The truth is, it has it does have its moments…but mostly I’m struggling with completing 640 hours, living in multiple places, doing HCPCS coding (I hate it) and dealing with multiple people having authority over me, conflict of interests and basically too many cooks in the kitchen causing lots of drama. I can’t wait to be done with residency. I'm pushing it and trying to complete at least 50 hours a week so I'll be done before April.

This isn’t actually what I got on here to blog about but it’s done now and we’ve got to take our recyclables before noon so I guess the rest will have to wait.