Whats your why | Casey Blaesing, Occupational Therapy
Name: Casey Blaesing OTD, OTR/L, CHT
Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
NAU Program: Doctorate of Occupational Therapy
Year Graduated: 2020
What’s your why?
I wish I had one simple reason for “why” I chose to venture in this particular field of healthcare; however I believe my decision to “choose” OT was largely influenced by a variety of life experiences throughout my undergraduate collegiate career. I come from a family who all pursued careers in insurance and during my freshman year of undergrad, I realized I desired to forge my own path to embark on a career that allowed me to utilize my innate passion for helping others while holistically helping those in need.
Through volunteer work at the University of Iowa Hospital, I had the opportunity to directly interact with patients in the Pediatric Oncology Unit. During one visit, I spent time with an 8-year-old boy, who expressed his anger about hospital admittance each time a nurse came in. Yet, when the nurses left, his mood instantly lightened. I was able to remind him of his youth as we played games and confided in one another. Simultaneously, he helped me realize the importance of making treatment enjoyable and how this occupation promotes a reciprocal therapist-patient relationship. I concluded that as an OT, I would have the ability to use my personality to help shape and influence the effectiveness of client-centered interventions.
In addition, while job shadowing at a long-term care facility, I learned that details are vital; the style choices of a wheelchair are able to drastically minimize an individual’s neurological discomfort, increase independence and improve functional mobility. In addition to observing the geriatric population, I also observed therapy with burn, orthopedic, and hand-injured adults at the University of Iowa Hospital. Here, I gained experience in both inpatient and outpatients settings. This environment exposed me to the true flexibility of the occupational therapy profession. It also fueled my fascination with the smaller tasks of the field, such as designing personal hand splints for patients…. which I now do on a daily basis 🙂
What do you do now?
I currently work at Desert Hand and Physical Therapy, which is an outpatient orthopedic upper extremity clinic in the Phoenix Valley as a Certified Hand Therapist and clinic manager in the Laveen office. I work with a variety of ages ranging from infant to geriatric. I treat a variety of diagnoses including fractures to the upper extremity, tendonitis, carpal tunnel, rotator cuff dysfunction, polytrauma, arthritis, trigger finger, a variety of nerve injuries and more. On a daily basis, I provide individualized, client-centered treatment that addresses patients’ functional limitations through a variety of therapeutic exercises/activities, neuromuscular re-education techniques and manual treatment strategies. I also fabricate custom orthoses/splints for a variety of diagnoses that can be used to protect fractures/soft tissue repairs, aid in function and/or prevent deformities/contractures of the upper extremity. In addition, I assist with our company’s mentorship program for newly graduated occupational therapists aiming to obtain their certification in hand therapy.
Moreover, I continue to volunteer my time taking part in the NAU OTD program Practice Scholar Apprenticeship where I partner with another clinician in the community to lead a group of students in conducting a research project. Our current project is aiming to assess how injury in high school athletes affect habits, routines and occupational performance patterns. In addition, I accept both Level I and Level II OTD fieldwork students and for the past two years have served as adjunct faculty for NAU OTD in their upper extremity course in the fall semesters.
What should people who are considering a degree in OT know or consider/what advice do you have for others considering a degree in OT?
The best advice I could provide to a current or prospective OT student would be to BE FLEXIBLE and embrace the unknown. Graduate school can be very overwhelming, however if you can accept “drinking from the fire hose” and be a sponge to absorb as much information and clinical experience as possible, it will only pay off as you embark on your career. Once you’re out there practicing, things are constantly changing in medicine meaning so is our treatment. It’s necessary that we adjust our treatment to meet the needs of each patient, even as their needs change on a day to day basis.
