Tell me about your observation experience

Tip

Most of your interviewers do not expect you to conduct therapy. They just expect you to observe. Therefore, if I were you, I would change the question to "What do you do to actively participate in your volunteering experience?" I know this is a risky strategy, but I used it in my actual interview with Professor Tyszka from Salus University.
When Professor Tyszka, asked me “What do you see your OTs doing?” I realized that I have not prepared this question all along! All I did for practice was describing how I actively participate in my OT shadowing! I stumbled on the answer, saying that “I see my therapist training their patients on dynamic standing.” This answer sounds passive and weak. Then I just erupted and said “I conduct therapy.” My answer seems to surprise her, so she asked me to elaborate more about me conducting therapy. Looking back, I am glad that I changed the topic because I now can have the opportunity to show my depth of OT knowledge to her.

Answer

Considering that I changed the question into "What do you do to actively participate in your volunteering experience?" Here is how I answered the question:
Once my OT from my rehabilitation center asked me to conduct a peg board session with one of her patients, so her patients can do both dynamic seating and shoulder strengthening. However, instead of asking the patient to put as much pegs into the pegboard as possible, I asked the patient to make a picture out of the pegs because from our previous conversaion, I noticed that he likes art. Furthermore, not only did I ask the patient to practice dynaic seating and shoulder strengthing, but I also challenged the patient to do dynamic reaching and bilateral coordination, meaning crossing the midline. Maybe because I made the activity more fun and functional, the patient became engaged into the activity, and did the activity more than the required amount of time that my OT asked him to.

Here is the picture of our hardwork. I showed this picture to Professor Tyszka! She likes the picture a lot: She is amazed!

The patient's peg board art work

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