CTC Health Science students, along with Mrs. Jones welcomed guest speaker, Dr. Jennifer Garner, who is an occupational therapist and professor at UT Tyler. She discussed her education, career, and life experiences. Dr. Garner explained what it takes to be an occupational therapist and how much it affects her life by working with patients. Students heard about specific examples and real scenarios that could be challenging in working in the medical field. Her lecture challenged my students emotionally by posing the question "How would you feel if you can't be YOU tomorrow? How would you feel if you can't take a shower, put pants on, or eat on your own?"
Then, Dr. Garner demonstrated how to take care of patients with disabilities and help them to make great progress in regaining their independence. In example, for the first six to 12 weeks after hip surgery, you shouldn't bend your hip more than 60 to 90 degrees. You can't put pants on your own. This is where an occupational therapist helps a patient to be independent by using a tool called "reacher' (shown in the picture below; student trying to put a pants on). Dr. Garner showed us how to use a "reacher" to pull the pants up without bending. Another example was if you had a stroke, you may continue paralysis (inability to move some parts of the body), weakness, or both or one side of the body. Dr. Garner showed students how to button up a shirt without assistance. She also showed students the Special Adaptive Utensils (for people with disabilities such as Parkinson's disease, arthritis, post-stoke recovery, physical disabilities, poor fine-motor skills, or grasping difficulties), sponge with a long handle, cards with big letters, and etc.
We really enjoyed having Dr. Garner. It was not only a great day but also a challenging day for us. The visit gave students a very different perspective!
