{"id":43711,"date":"2016-05-10T09:57:01","date_gmt":"2016-05-10T16:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=43711"},"modified":"2016-05-10T10:51:29","modified_gmt":"2016-05-10T17:51:29","slug":"multi-disciplinary-healthcare-approach-benefits-naus-ot-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/multi-disciplinary-healthcare-approach-benefits-naus-ot-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Multi-disciplinary healthcare approach benefits NAU\u2019s OT students"},"content":{"rendered":"

Occupational therapy students at Northern Arizona University\u2019s Phoenix Biomedical Campus are learning from their peers and volunteer community health mentors in a new innovative program.<\/p>\n

The student teams learn firsthand from their mentors what it means to live with an illness or disability and to understand the mentor’s experience with the\u00a0healthcare system. In addition, the students learn how the mentors’ home and community environments support or create\u00a0barriers to their engagement with everyday activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery six weeks, students go out to the mentors’ homes and complete a focused assignment,\u201d said Oaklee Rogers<\/strong>, assistant clinical professor of occupational therapy. \u201cThey do things like comprehensive medical histories, occupational, home and community assessments.”<\/p>\n

Students said the most valuable part of the experience is working with students from other medical disciplines, including medical students, physical therapists, nutritionists and physician assistants. Teams of four or five are formed with students from NAU, Arizona State University and the University of Arizona.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my group we have two medical students and we learn about each other’s perspectives when we work with a client together,\u201d said occupational therapy student Jill Johnston<\/strong>. \u201cWe expand what we are learning in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OakleeRogers\"<\/a>
Oaklee Rogers, assistant clinical professor of occupational therapy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWithout this experience, I wouldn\u2019t have known how doctors make their decisions and go about their business,” said Tiffany Fought<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times, physicians are not aware of the benefits of occupational therapy,\u201d said Lindsey Helburg<\/strong>. \u201cBy having a better understanding of our different professions, we can work together to provide a more holistic plan for patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

NAU\u2019s occupational therapy and physician assistant students participate in the inter-professional program for one year.<\/p>\n

Organizers, including Rogers, are evaluating the program, which just finished its first year.<\/p>\n

The positive feedback has been unanimous as students learn to work with others, Rogers said. \u201cHealthcare is getting away from people working in silos and this program helps students learn the benefits of working together for the sake of the patients.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Occupational therapy students at Northern Arizona University\u2019s Phoenix Biomedical Campus are learning from their peers and volunteer community health mentors in a new innovative program. The student teams learn firsthand from their mentors what it means to live with an illness or disability and to understand the mentor’s experience with the\u00a0healthcare system. In addition, the…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":43712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1440,1437,1439,1193,1436,1438],"class_list":["post-43711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics","tag-community-health-mentors-program-nau","tag-jill-johnston","tag-lindsey-helberg","tag-nau-occupational-therapy","tag-oaklee-rogers","tag-tiffany-fought"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}