Macy Burr – OTD, OTR/L, ATP, CAS – OT Faculty Profiles, USAHS
Macy Burr, OTD, OTR/L, ATP, CAS, is an Assistant Professor of Occupational Therapy at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences (USAHS) at the San Marcos, California campus. Macy’s clinical focus is pediatrics, helping children build skills they will use for the rest of their lives.
A certified animal-assisted intervention professional, Macy brings her therapy dog, Hops, into outpatient pediatric and school-based practice. She finds that children tend to have more motivation to accomplish challenging tasks with a therapy dog in the room, and they often reach their goals faster. Macy has brought that experience to USAHS, specifically in the Health and Wellness and Assistive Technology courses.
Transcript
Macy Burr – OTD, OTR_L, ATP, CAS – OT Faculty Profiles, USAHS
[00:00:00] Macy Burr (OT Faculty): Occupational therapy helps people from all different ages and backgrounds and with difficulties in certain areas, and occupational therapy can help with those areas to help them be as independent as possible, either getting back to the things that they used to do or going forward in development. For example, like a young child, helping them to be able to acquire new skills to be as independent as possible. [00:00:22] What I enjoy most about working with students is helping students understand a concept that is challenging to understand but important for them to be able to understand it as they become occupational therapists. [00:00:32] I love working with the pediatric population because I really enjoy helping children establish skills that they’ll be able to use for the rest of their lives. [00:00:40] My favorite experience working as an occupational therapist has been incorporating animal-assisted therapy with my therapy dog, Hops, into practice in both clinic for pediatric, so outpatient pediatric clinic and school settings. So seeing how motivated children are to participate in therapy and engage in tasks that are challenging for them in the presence of a dog, a therapy dog, has been really rewarding, and I feel like they make progress towards their goals faster in the presence of a dog because they’re more motivated to participate in things that are challenging for them. [00:01:14] I’m a certified animal-assisted intervention professional, and so I’ve incorporated lessons related to animal-assisted therapy in, for example, the health and wellness course, talking about how animals can improve well-being, and I’ve also done a lesson on the different types of dogs that you might encounter in occupational therapy in the assistive technology class. [00:01:32] I think that USAHS offers a lot of simulation and also real-life experiences that will be really helpful for students as they go into fieldwork and then go into their jobs as occupational therapists.
Enrollment Services – The Journey to Clinical Excellence, USAHS Occupational Therapy Programs
Students and staff discuss the enrollment process and student services.
Center for Innovative Clinical Practice (CICP)—University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences
Students and faculty discuss learning in state-of-the-art simulation facilities.
Testimonial – Kaylee Saenz, Post-Professional OT Student
Hear from a student in the USAHS PPOTD program.