FEATURE STUDENT EDUCATION
Embracing new opportunities
Senior lecturer Joanne Donbavand and students Kelly Adair and Edward Nye , reflect on providing occupational therapy input within a community respiratory team , in response to the COVID-19 pandemic
The newly-established critical care
pulmonary rehab pathway , in response to COVID-19 within Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust , included nursing , physiotherapy and dietetics follow up for individuals leaving the acute hospital and returning home .
Within the wider community team , occupational therapists were having conversations with colleagues in the pulmonary rehabilitation team ; these conversations revealed the complexity of functional problems being experienced by people recovering from COVID-19 . The impact of the virus on individuals attempting to resume everyday occupations was significant , calling for an immediate response by occupational therapy services and revealing an opportunity for student involvement .
Setting up the placement When approached by the University of Huddersfield with the offer of two occupational therapy students to support the COVID-19 pandemic , the initial thoughts within the service were of trepidation .
Bethan Wallis , an occupational therapist , says : ‘ We were already challenged by having to significantly change the way we worked in community rehabilitation , due to the pandemic , and the thought of then supporting students in this new way of working and offering them a positive placement experience was overwhelming .’
Similarly , mixed emotions about this opportunity were reported by the students . Edward Nye says : ‘ I was excited , apprehensive and relieved to be considered for the placement . It was a second chance , after our original placements got cancelled due to COVID-19 .
‘ After it had sunk in , I began to get nervous because I hadn ’ t been given any details about what the role involved and we didn ’ t have the usual six weeks ’ notice to prepare .’
Kelly Adair adds : ‘ I jumped at the opportunity to work in the community . I had really enjoyed my previous community placements and , if I ’ m honest , the idea of working in a hospital in the middle of a pandemic made me uneasy .’
Responding to the identified need for people recovering from COVID-19 to receive occupational therapy input , this was a perfect opportunity to demonstrate the power of occupational therapy within the multidisciplinary team , while also being able to offer the students a really valuable learning experience .
It was agreed that shared responsibility for support and supervision for students between the university tutor and occupational therapist in the long-term conditions team was necessary , due to the workload pressures in practice and the nature of this new opportunity .
Establishing the occupational therapy role In the first two weeks of the placement , the students worked hard researching COVID-19 symptoms , available resources , both locally and nationally , and exploring appropriate outcome measures with which to evaluate the interventions .
46 OTnews February 2021
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