As my classmates and I approached the end of OT school, professors were encouraging us to create resource binders and reference sheets so that we could easily access to answer questions or inspire ideas as we completed clinical rotations, studied for our boards exams, or started our first jobs as OTs. I did as they suggested: I had a filing cabinet filled with folders of class notes that were organized by course number; I made binders of assessment tools with tab dividers for easy access; and I used the laminated cheat-sheet pages and preprinted clipboards they gave us in each clinical rotation. I also kept every textbook from class and even purchased used copies of other textbooks when I found them in thrift stores or online! But I quickly noticed that each of these references had its limitations—the filing cabinet was too big to carry with me, the reference binders wouldn’t fit on my desk, the clipboards and cheat-sheets never seemed to have the information I needed, and the textbooks rode around in the truck of my car, unsure of where they could be most readily available. Instead of all these bulky resources, I wanted something small and portable, organized and easily searchable, and yet also comprehensive and thorough. I also needed to be able to access this resource from anywhere—home, work, school, even the hospital hallway!
And that is how All Things OT was born. What started out as a personal resource and reference for clinical rotations and a self study tool for the OT licensure exam soon began to grow into a resource that could also be shared with and accessed by others. I purchased a domain name, paid for hosting services, added social media pages, and increased the depth and quantity of material available. When I moved into a smaller apartment after getting married, I even threw out my old class notes because I had already summarized all the content from them and didn’t need to continue lugging them around!
Today, over five years of professional experience working in a variety of occupational therapy settings from acute care to hospice, outpatient care to skilled nursing, and mental health to home health and across a variety of entities including non-profit healthcare, for-profit healthcare, and government healthcare, have helped this site and its body of information to continue to expand and grow. It is my hope that it will prove to be a valuable resource for you, too, as you seek to learn more about the world of occupational therapy.
~Kathleen Ponce, MOT, OTR/L