Doctor of Occupational Therapy

...To the dexterity that it takes.. oh yeah.. and like cognitive..

 

Elizabeth Murphy

Doctor of Occupational Therapy Student

Jacksonville University

“Individuals with disabilities can experience a wide array of barriers. As a future occupational therapist, I want to ensure individuals with disabilities have the same opportunities that I do.”

 

Selena Harris

Doctor of Occupational Therapy Student

Jacksonville University

“I consider occupational therapy a field that helps a person do whatever it is, they need or want to do; and those things may have been limited by injury illness or disability and we overcome that. We don't see the person as being ill or disabled, we see them as having some challenges, that we help them overcome and we make sure that the way that we overcome those challenges are centered on that person.”

 

[background voices]

Find a little strength in that…

Dr. Murphy:

“So many experience a stroke or maybe a spinal cord injury or perhaps they just break their hand. So much of what we do as human beings and how we interact with our environment comes from our hands. What happens if they no longer have that ability? What happens if they can't brush their teeth or brush their hair or put on their socks and shoes? That's going to keep them from going out into the community and participating in things that they would otherwise.”

 

Testimonial by Bob Kuhn

Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) Patient

“I'm Bob Kuhn from Ocala Florida. Back on June 6, 2018, I went to sleep happy and healthy and woke up a few hours later paralyzed. It was sudden onset Guillain-Barre syndrome or GBS. The only body part I could move was my right eyelid. With GBS the hands are usually the last thing to come back and for me that's certainly the case. I've been working to strengthen my hands my arms and my shoulders; we've also been working on activities of daily living like dressing, grooming, and eating meals. So, I've been working toward more Independence and toward getting my life back.”

 

Megan Bewernitz

Assistant Professor of Occupational Therapy

Jacksonville University

“When we treat people, when we work with people, we want them to be successful in their own homes. And a big drop for students is where we're sitting right now the [Nelson] Occupational Therapy House. It's a living laboratory, provides our students with the opportunity to be creative and get to practice in a real-world environment. One of my favorite classes is in the kitchen and teaching adaptive cooking and educating the students about the many, many adaptations that we can use in occupational therapy and educate patients on so they can be successful in doing their own meal prep in their own meal planning.”

 

Serena Harris

“I chose JU because I wanted a well-rounded experience; having small class sizes we could get a lot of one-on-one training a lot of personal mentoring and that was a big deal for me. The unique equipment we have. So, we have a Dynavision, we have a VTE, we have an atomage table and most schools do not have those things. So, being trained on something that we can see in the field that we can use in our studies to make us more prepared in the future was probably one of my top goals. Being as prepared as possible in a very comfortable setting getting to know my peers and my faculty on a personal level and making these lifelong connections.”

 

Megan Bewernitz

“Here at JU, we have lots of opportunities for our students to be part of the community and understand that aspect of service that's so important to be an occupational therapist. We serve as part of our profession.”

Elizabeth Murphy

“I was a first-year occupational therapy student whenever I first helped out with our Go Baby Go event which is an incredible event for kids who have disabilities who want to be able to sit in a little adapted car and do things that their peers would do.  Being able to provide these opportunities for people with disabilities whether they're adults or their kiddos anywhere in between it makes it worth it!”