Knowledge Check

Today, Professor Flick spoke about health and how it relates to occupational therapists. I found many of the points she spoke about to be very interesting but one of the things that left me speechless was a video she showed our class. The video was interviews of clients, or patients, at doctor's offices who had lower reading levels. The interviewers asked them questions about their experiences, medicines they may be taking, or their understanding of their own diagnosis. I was in shock by their responses, about how much they did not know and understand and how uninvolved they are in their medical process. I was also in disbelief to think that health professionals go about their daily routine like this. Professor Flick made me much more aware of this problem and how important it is for me as an OT student to advocate this. Along with advocating, I am now much more prepared and aware of this problem for when I am an OT practitioner and able to change this in my own practice. Another topic Professor Flick talked about today was the preventative techniques health professionals can utilize, such as the interventions that aim to reduce risk/threats to health. These include primary, secondary, and tertiary interventions which all vary based off the specific situation and stage of diagnosis/injury/disease etc. Although these are all different, each intervention strives toward the same goal of prevention and improving an individual's quality of life.