Day 10 - Trainer

My last day of internship was sad because I realized I had to go back to school then rather going to college and per suing what I have just learned, but this helps a lot to know what I want to do with the rest of my life. Today I did a Zumba class for the third time. I did a lot better then the first day. I did see in the eyes of the client for this experience. I was in their shoes and saw that I wasn't easy the first couple of days but you have to push through it and continue the class. There was a new person today and I thought to myself that was me on Monday so I knew what she was going through. I was there today from 9 to 10am.

Day 9 - Trainer

Today I went in at 8:30 to see a personal training session with a nice lady. I got to see them use a new machine and how they used it. I compared their machine to ours and they had some of them like ours and some were different. As I was telling her what machines we have in our weight room and she continued to say to me not to use the leg machine that we have. It is bad for your knees. That is something that is very useful for me when I go weight lifting. Later that day I saw another personal training session and took another class called Boot Camp. This was an intense class that hit many muscle groups all in an hour. It surprised me who all took that class because their was a wide range of clients. I was there from 8:30 to 10 then from 11 to 1.

Day 8 - Trainer

Today I went into the fitness and health center and participated in another Zumba class. Stacy, the manager, said it should get easier after the first four days. Today was my second day and I was still laughing at myself, but I got a little better. Being in this class made me realize that you can burn off a lot of calories just by dancing. I also realized just by talking to stacy that she participates in a lot of classes a day. This helps when your in the class because she is there watching you and giving you advice. Not to mention she is pregnant while doing all this, that takes dedication. Today I started at 8:30 and went to 11.

Day 7 - Trainer

Today I started the morning at 8:30 and saw two personal training sessions. I actually learned a lot from one of them because it was an inspirational story. There was a women that started a year ago with training and eating healthy. She has lost 50 pounds throughout the past year and still going strong. She said the biggest advice is to learn how to eat right when your young because once you get set pin your ways it is hard to break them. I also took another class call Body Pump. She said this is kinda like a bootcamp so in other words its harder the other classes. While taking this class I knew I would like it because it involves stuff I already do but its a better routine. I was there today from 8:30 to 10 and 12 to 1 for Body Pump.

Day 6 - Trainer

Today was my first day at the heath and fitness center in Storm Lake. I followed Stacey, a trainer at the fitness center. I started out my day by taking a Zumba class. This was very interesting because I have never taking it. I didn't know what I was walking into but I am always willing to take challenges. When I was taking this class I was watching Stacy and thinking she has to have hard taken this class before because she was really good! The experience I am getting out of this is knowing what a new client is thinking when they are starting a new fitness class. I was there from 9 to 12 today.

Day 5 - Occupational Therapy

Today was my last day shadowing occupational therapy. This was an awesome experience for me to have. It really did show me that I might choose o go this direction in college. It helped that I had awesome people to work with. Nobody was ever in a bad mood and their patients really enjoyed talking to them. My favorite part of today was when we saw a patient that had a crack in his scalp and he was deaf in both hears and blind in one eye. This was sad to see but it don't seem to phase him. In this appointment it was very essential to show him how to do a certain motion. For my project I am going to create a device that works on motor skills ,stroke patients for example, to strengthen there small muscles in their hands. This will involve nut and bolts that you screw into a board with their hands. I arrived there at 8 and left at 8:40. Next week ill be at BVRMC health and fitness center to shadow a trainer.

Day 4 - Occupational Therapy

Today was interesting since I wasn't able to meet up with Katie, but I had some other awesome people to follow around. I followed Julia around in the morning and got the scoop about hand therapy. Occupational therapists tend to do a lot of hand therapy so that is a big area that I would need to study to be good at this profession. Next Julia sent me in with a physical therapist to observe a middle aged man doing strength tests for a job at Meridian. Since his job required a lot of physical work he had to reach a certain standard with all his tests. So he went on a machine and it tested his strengths of the wrist, arm, and legs. He also had to test his grip, pinch, breathing, and how many push up and sit ups he could do. He had to end up with a level four on all of his tests, and at the end he ended up with a level four. That way he could be hired for the job. One thing I didn't know was that the occupational therapists actually go out on the job site and put these levels on certain jobs. For example a welding job would be a level 4 since it requires so much motion and lifting. The highest rating is a level 5 but that is rarely used and is hard to obtain. After lunch I followed around another OT and I observed him getting a shoulder back into normal range and we also went and saw outpatients. Today I went in at 8:15 and stayed until 2:30.

Day 3 - Occupational Therapy

Day three turned out to be a good day. I saw patients that I have seen before and they were always happy to see the occupational therapists. I also observed the changes on these patients day to day. One of the patients was there every day I was there and I could see she had some after effects of a stroke. There was much improvements from day to day in this patient. This is one great example in why therapists in general is a good occupation to be in. It has a big reward in the end, a happy patient. Today I was there from eight fifteen to two-thirty.

Day 2 - Occupational Therapy

Today was day two of my internship at the rehab center in BVRMC and I very well enjoyed it. Things were a bit crazy with scheduling and getting together with Katie but we made it work. Katie was out at a safety fair in the morning so I got to follow another OT. She did a lot of the same things but their was new experiences with different injuries. Then when Katie got back I followed her around for the remainder of the morning until lunch. After lunch I got to experience some physical therapy work since Katie now had an AEA meeting that would take the remainder of my day there. The physical therapy work was done with patients that had gotten either a hip or knee replacement. They helped the patients get mobilized after just having surgery. One thing that I thought was special to this experience was seeing that the patients were so happy to see the physical therapist because they were able to get out of bed and walk after being in bed all day. Today showed me that nobody's day goes the same as the day before. For this work experience I arrived at the hospital at 8:15 and was there until 2:30.

Day 1 - Occupational Therapy

Today was the first day of my internship at the hospital in Storm Lake. I followed Katie Brastad, a OT at BVRMC. At the beginning I was a little nervous going in. I had no idea what was ahead of me, but then I started to feel more comfortable in the workplace. I learned a lot of skills that an OT must have and what they do everyday. One thing I learned that I didn't know about an OT is that they go and treat patients that just had surgery. This sometimes consists with working with a physical therapist as well. I started at eight-thirty and finished around two-thirty. Overall it was a very productive day. I met new people and got to see how they operate during their day. Tomorrow is a new day with different experiences that I am willing to take on.

Background

Hello my name is Andrea Christensen. I will be doing an internship with Katie Brostad, an occupational therapist who works at BVRMC. I will learn the skills in conducting this occupation. In doing this I hope to learn about the occupation and see if I want to pursue it in my future plans. This will help me decide in choosing a great career in life. I will also hopefully get to see how a trainer works and where they work. What I am hoping to get out of this internship is the skills that I need to conduct myself in a workplace. I have two options to pursue in college and this will help me pick which one I want to do and will also help me understand what the occupation all includes.