Pro Bono Clinics – OT Programs, University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences
Occupational Therapy students at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences (USAHS) work with real pediatric and adult clients through the university’s community-based pro bono clinic. The clinic provides free care to families who are underinsured or may have difficulty accessing affordable services. With faculty supervision, students put what they’ve learned in the classroom into practice during real evaluation and treatment sessions, giving them hands-on experience they can carry into fieldwork and their future careers.
For families, the clinic can make a meaningful difference. Alexis Fromm brought her son, Bennett, to the clinic for help with developmental delays. When he first started working with OT students and faculty, he had difficulty holding himself up and feeding himself. Over time, he progressed to sitting independently, feeding himself, and interacting more with others.
Students also say the experience goes beyond developing their clinical skills. Working with clients over time allows them to build relationships and see the progress their patients make firsthand. Those connections can make the experience especially meaningful as students learn what it means to work with patients and their families.
The pro bono clinic gives OT students the opportunity to gain real-world experience while providing free occupational therapy services to families in the community.
Transcript
Pro Bono Clinics – OT Programs, University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences
[00:00:00] Nicole Capell (USAHS): Pro Bono is designed to allow our students to have the opportunity to work with real patients under the close supervision of our faculty and staff. [00:00:14] Maureen Fischer (OT Faculty): So we’re trying to help our students get the experience of seeing what we would do as OTs, but then also giving them the opportunity to really have that hands-on experience with supervision with children in the community that actually have a need for OT. [00:00:29] Christian Guarino: So all our patients are obtained through the community. We serve those that are underserved, under-insured. It could be patients that do not have, uh, insurance or their copays are too high. [00:00:38] Alexis Fromm (Client): We started coming to occupational therapy because Bennett had been diagnosed with developmental delays. We worked with the students and with Dr. Maureen Fisher on working on catching him up a little bit. We’ve noticed just a really big change in his development. [00:00:56] Raquel Guarino (OT Faculty): It’s always patient first. It’s what their needs are, and we’re just there to kind of be their cheerleader and guide them through it. [00:01:02] Sereniti F. (OT Student): I think that it creates a very safe facilitation for learning. [00:01:05] Keke F. (OT Student): Having the immediate feedback from the professors that are there with you guiding you throughout the session, I think it was great. I loved every second of it. [00:01:15] Alex N. (OT Student): It’s the hands-on learning that’ll just kinda help it feel more natural when you go off to field work or become, you know, an occupational therapist in a pediatric setting. [00:01:23] Sereniti F. (OT Student): It was kind of exciting to kind of, like, take the reins. [00:01:26] Raquel Guarino (OT Faculty): And this gives them the opportunity to be able to practice their evaluation processes and everything that they have learned in class. But what we’ve found is that the more we have interacted with these patients, the more we also realize how much they mean to us as well. [00:01:42] Keke F. (OT Student): How he’s progressed from when we started initially to now is, is so amazing and, like, so joyful to see. [00:01:49] Alexis Fromm (Client): He wasn’t holding himself up. He wasn’t feeding himself. And over the time, uh, he’s starting to sit up independently on his own. He’s feeding himself. He’s socializing. [00:02:00] Brenda Thompson (Client): Each time I come, I go home, and I work more, and it energizes me mentally and physically. [00:02:07] Sereniti F. (OT Student): And I’ve definitely seen myself this term, the gears turning, and I’m like, “Oh, my goodness, I am going to be a real OT,” and just, yeah, seeing it all come together. [00:02:16] Christian Guarino: They walk out as mature occupational therapists, and they feel confident in their skills, which will then help them apply to their clinicals and graduate, and they can become tomorrow’s leaders. [00:02:26] Alexis Fromm (Client): We’re grateful for the University of St. Augustine. I’m glad that we got introduced to this opportunity.
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