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Backpack Safety: MOT Students Community Outreach
Backpack awareness day is part of the national AOTA Public Awareness program and is an excellent way for students to learn about injury prevention and professional advocacy. Beginning in 2004, Dr. Melinda Rybski has organized a Backpack Awareness day with the MOT students. These events have been highly successful in introducing the public school children to occupational therapy and to injury prevention through
awareness of appropriate carrying and lifting of backpacks. The event has taken place in different schools throughout central Ohio. Each year, the students have weighed the children and their backpacks to determine if the students’ backpacks are of appropriate weight or are too heavy. The MOT students have explained the reasons for concern about backpack weight and have demonstrated how to correctly wear a backpack.
In Autumn 2009, 93% of the MOT students participated in this event. It took place at Hilliard Station School with several classes of sixth grade students. The students explained the importance of “packing it light” and “wearing it right” and demonstrated the correct way to wear a backpack. Several of the sixth graders had backpack weights in excess of the recommendation of 15% of their body weight. The MOT students then helped the sixth graders develop strategies on not carrying so much weight and redistribution of items to lighten their loads. In addition to learning about healthy lifting, the students provided games, skits, and prizes. The event was enjoyed by all!
Occupational and Physical Therapy Students Learn Together in the ICU
For the past two years, the Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy faculty, with support from OSUMC practitioners, have developed a collaborative Intensive Care Unit experience. OT and PT students work together using standardized patients and mechanized dummies to realistically simulate the experience of working in an ICU environment.
The experiences range from identification and understanding of various tubes, equipment and life support systems often seen in the ICU environment to training family members how to position a person with severe head trauma. The “patients” are so realistic that the students forget that they are not in the actual ICU room. “Accidents” are built into the experience (such as an IV coming out during a transfer or a drastic change in some of the monitors) so that the students gain confidence in managing emergencies. Students not only gain confidence and skills in working in the ICU environment, but they also learn the roles of other disciplines and gain skills in collaboration.
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