YouTube; the marvelous world of YouTube! Oh how glorious and magnificant it is! But how marvelous is it? What does it offer the world that it did not already have?
Karch (n.d.) describes YouTube as a "popular video hosting and sharing service". It allows users to upload and view videos, and is accessible to people all over the world. Users can also comment and rate the videos and subscribe to specific user channels, so they will be notified when another video is posted by that person.
Since being founded in 2005, YouTube has just exploded on an international scale! In May 2010 YouTube exceeded 2 billion views a day. Amazing! Who needs to pay for advertising when you have that level of traffic?
What does YouTube have to do with this post? Everything. Today I would like to paint you a mental picture using different online videos in order to demonstrate a topic of interest from one of my fieldwork placements. So allow me to start with the background.
It was my first ever Occupational Therapy placement; I was stationed in community intellectual disability. In terms of my personal knowledge and experience at that point, it was extremely limited in regards to both Occupational Therapy and intellectual disability. As my time on fieldwork progressed many new areas of knowledge were presented to me; one in particular was pressure areas (that develop into pressure sores or pressure ulcers) and pressure risk assessments. In fact I was so interested that I accepted the opportunity to complete a project comparing pressure risk assessments and their relevance to our client group and present it to a number of OTs. You could say I felt a little bit of pressure, however this pressure wasn't physical, but psychological. This is how I developed an interest in pressure areas.
As mentioned our client group was made up of individuals that had some form of an intellectual disability, however many of them also had accompanying physical disabilities as well, and were wheelchair bound.
Due to the fact that many of the clients were non verbal they were unable to tell carer's and family when they were in pain or uncomfortable and they were unable to move themselves to relieve that pressure; some clients were also unable to feel pain. Thus it became the duty of the carer's and family to be diligent in providing the necessary cares to prevent pressure areas. My supervisors job was to educate carer's on pressure areas and also identify the pressure risks that an individual client may have through assessments, the possible causes of developing pressure areas and apply appropriate solutions either in the form of skills training or the application of equipment.
As mentioned our client group was made up of individuals that had some form of an intellectual disability, however many of them also had accompanying physical disabilities as well, and were wheelchair bound.
Due to the fact that many of the clients were non verbal they were unable to tell carer's and family when they were in pain or uncomfortable and they were unable to move themselves to relieve that pressure; some clients were also unable to feel pain. Thus it became the duty of the carer's and family to be diligent in providing the necessary cares to prevent pressure areas. My supervisors job was to educate carer's on pressure areas and also identify the pressure risks that an individual client may have through assessments, the possible causes of developing pressure areas and apply appropriate solutions either in the form of skills training or the application of equipment.
The following are videos that are extremely relevant to this topic:
This is a great video that provides an overview of what pressure ulcers are, how they develop and how to prevent them through various types of equipment. This is the type of information that I witnessed my supervising OT sharing with client's, carer's and family members as a way to help them understand what to look out for and why.
This is a video made by two nursing students who are doing a teaching project on pressure ulcers. In this video (part one of two) the students explain to a patient a brief description of pressure ulcers - what they are and the four stages in which they develop. Information that is also relevant for an OT to use during education sessions.
In part two, these same students show and explain simple tips in how to prevent pressure ulcers. This information is helpful for Occupational Therapists, as it will give you extra insight in to what patients are susceptible to pressure areas and the ways in which they may be prevented. This information may also help during any education sessions for carers or family to help improve patients cares.
This video gives an insight to the type of mattress that an Occupational Therapist may prescribe for a client who is at high risk of developing pressure areas. It provides a great diagram as to how the mattress works to prevent pressure areas by using alternating air to shift the distribution of weight to different cells in the mattress and to help circulate blood flow. I was fortunate enough to see a number of alternating air mattresses during my fieldwork placement and to hear the benefits that they have had for the client's.
And last but not least, here is a video of a Physical Therapist explaining the important steps to go through when selecting a pressure relieving wheelchair cushion for a client. Personally I think this information is extremely relevant to Occupational Therapy, as this is one of the areas that an OT can come across often, depending on the setting.
As the first video explained that equipment to prevent pressure areas is needed in all areas of life; wheelchair cushioning is one of those important areas to address as it is where a client will spend a great deal of their day sitting; just as a mattress is where a client spends a great deal of the night sleeping. This video explains the important features to look out for and why.
During fieldwork, I meet with a client that had had a lot of difficulty finding the right cushion, and had to trial a number of them to get it right, as they were extremely susceptible to pressure areas. My supervising OT explained the difficulty they had had and the physical and emotion relief they experienced when they had finally found the one that worked best.
REFERENCES:
Karch, M. (n.d.). Youtube explained - overview of the google video sharing tool. Retrieved April 28, 2011, from http://google.about.com/od/moreaboutgoogleaps/p/youtubeprofile.htm
YouTube (n.d.). Retrieved April 28, 2011, from youtube.com
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