Hi thanks for viewing our blog!
At the time that this blog was written and put together, we were students at the University of Brighton, coming to the end of our first year studying a masters in Occupational therapy (2019-2021).
In 2020, COVID-19 meant that we had to continue with our course online. We have been doing lectures, study groups and assignments virtually which also extended to our intermediate placement.
Whilst the rest of our cohort opted for practical placements, we three were chosen to take part in an exciting new virtual placement experience with the Midwifery team at the university.
A little bit about us….
Beth comes from a creative background, studying media and performance for her undergraduate degree. She has travelled around the world for 3 years and started this masters degree after working as an activities coordinator at a care home in Australia. Beth has always been curious about ante-natal and post-natal mental health especially how as an occupational therapist she could work with birthing mothers and people. Her sister-in-law is a midwife and inspired Beth to apply for this placement that was going to be a unique experience and require her to use her creativity and occupational therapy knowledge.
Beth has learnt so much from this placement for which she is grateful for; from working in an interdisciplinary team, learning about areas of midwifery that are not often spoken about to developing an interactive, person-centered tool for midwives and getting creative by designing images for this website.
Zoe’s background is in specialised law practice. Zoe is retraining as an Occupational Therapist as she wants a career where she feels she could make a profound and lasting change in people’s lives. The holistic nature of occupational therapy offers a multitude of ways to bring about positive change, and the landscape of the profession is constantly innovating and evolving which makes the profession exciting and engaging. As a single mother to two small children, Zoe is looking forward to working in a profession that has an excellent track record of work-life balance so she can fit a rewarding career around her family life.
This placement demonstrated the breadth and depth of the occupational therapy profession, and of the skills an occupational therapist can bring to bear in many situations. Zoe was proud to be part of such an innovative project and hopes this demonstrates what can be achieved by occupational therapists collaborating in diverse settings.
Raquel is originally from Portugal and came over to the UK in 2014. She has an adventurous and spirited nature and loves working with children. She has been working at an SEN school in West London as an Occupational therapy assistant and wanted to register as an occupational therapist. As her first degree in Psychomotor Rehabilitation was not registered in the UK, she had to re-train and chose the Occupational Therapy masters degree at the University of Brighton due to similarities from both courses. Raquel is hoping to work in educational settings after graduating, helping SEN children but this placement has definitely left a very passionate interest and curiosity in ante-natal, birth and post-natal care for future possibilities as an occupational therapist in maternity care.
We hope that you find this website useful, feel free to comment on our posts!
Happy learning!
Beth, Zoe and Raquel
(Written by Beth Hart August 2020)
