FOXcast OT: Overseeing An OT Fellowship Program

They should be doing it for their clients in order to better their practice and not just to have some fancy letters on the end of their name. Because if you’re striving for clinical excellence because this program is exactly that.

This is FOXcast OT, a podcast for clinicians made by clinicians. It’s brought to you by FOX Rehabilitation. Find out more at foxrehab.org.

Jimmy McKay, PT, DPT: Welcome to FOXcast OT. I’m your host Jimmy McKay. On the program today we bring another FOX colleague, occupational therapist Jamie Stark. Jamie, welcome to the show.

Jamie Stark, OTR/L: Thanks, Jimmy.

Jimmy: You’re in the OT geriatric fellowship program within the practice of FOX rehabilitation. Want to bring you in because it’s kind of revolutionary right? It’s one of just a few programs out there in the world right now.

Jamie: Right. So we’re the second fellowship in geriatrics and the only one in private practice.

Jimmy: So saying that it’s one of only two programs out there. You got to describe it since it’s pretty rare. How does it work? What does it demand on someone who’s actually in it?

Jamie: Our fellow Carlie. She does a lot of didactic learnings partner with Thomas Jefferson University and some of our colleagues at FOX also teach courses. She works together with the PT residency program as well as a capstone project. And then there is a lot of learning on medbridge for her about various topics and diagnoses related to geriatrics. And then she gets mentoring on a weekly basis so she gets about seven hours worth of mentoring weekly between myself Denise Crowley and Jen Ruoff.

Jimmy: So she’s the first fellow that you have in the program right?

Jamie: She’s the first. She’s a pioneer.

Jimmy: Why would someone decide to launch a Fellowship Program an organization like Fox rehabilitation? Why start one of these?

Jamie: Anyone who works for FOX knows that we invest so heavily in our clinicians and we strive to be clinically excellent. So this program is just that it’s just a whole new level of clinical excellence in occupational therapy.

Jimmy: So why would someone who’s out there who’s listening who maybe has heard of a fellowship program has maybe of her maybe heard of this program. Why should they decide to do a fellowship? Why would you want to get involved with this you’ve done a lot of school work already. You’ve been out in the in the real world working with clients. Why jump into something like this?

Jamie: I feel like a lot of you just want to better ourselves, better ourselves for our clients who want to take it to the next level. We come out of school knowing a little bit about everything and this is just a fantastic way to refine and develop clinical skills and just become more excellent. This program will definitely do that. It guides you in developing the clinical reasoning skills that you need to be evidence based and provide clinically excellent care to every client and especially those really complex clients. We focus a lot on the complexity component on these various diagnoses so we’re able to teach them about all of these diagnoses and then have them kind of synthesize all of this information in order to apply it to their clients.

Jimmy: So what do you like about it so far? Carlie being the first fellow in the program for FOX rehabilitation. Being a pioneer as you mentioned. What do you like about it so far?

Jamie: I love it because I, I was just itching for a new opportunity not only to grow within the profession but within FOX. And I enjoy mentoring students so much and helping shape their love for what I get to do every day. So facilitating Carlie become an expert in geriatrics was the perfect opportunity. I really love collaborating with the other mentors and we all kind of synthesize all these different experiences and our personalities in order to help Carlie grow. Which is such a cool thing to watch happening.

Jimmy: What advice would you give to OT’s out there thinking about going into a program like this?

Jamie: I would tell them to make sure they’re doing it for the right reasons. They should be doing it for their clients in order to better their practice and not just have some fancy letters on the end of their name. Because if you’re striving for Clinical Excellence this program is exactly that.

Jimmy: What are some other right reasons to go into something like this. I’m sure you’ve got to take a self-assessment and ask yourself if you have the time and energy to devote to something like this. But what are some of the other right reasons to really want to do something like this?

Jamie: You kind of hit the nail on the head it does take a lot of dedication. The right reasons are just to want to refine your knowledge base. I mean we come out of school with this enormous scope of practice. We’re like jack of all trades and master of none. And they don’t teach you everything you need to know to address our scope of practice with excellence. So this program does that if it helps you develop your clinical reasoning skills and really refine and expand all of that knowledge that you kinda have the base for when you leave ot school. But we definitely need so much more in order to grow as nations and and treat our patients excellently.

Jimmy: What things can potential applicants expect in the program? Listen you don’t need to sell. You can give a real and honest warning label if you will because I feel like a program like this is already sorting out people who do or don’t belong in something as rigorous as a fellowship program. So what things can people expect in the program?

Jamie: Well they can expect to be challenged because they need to be organized, and manage their time well and be really more flexible than ever. You know in our line of work we always have to be flexible in terms of treatment and scheduling. But this is taking that to a whole other level because you know the more hats that you’re wearing the more challenging it is to be organized and kind of schedule your life. You can expect to learn a lot about different diagnoses that we see cardiopulmonary, Parkinson’s, dementia and how to properly dose those clients with interventions and exercise as well as how to manage someone’s care when you have those multiple diagnoses involved. You’ll also being overwhelmed in a good way with this sea of information to sort through and apply to your treatments daily in order to develop refine clinical reasoning skills. So you know not only being to address the typical case but being able to kind of think outside the box and synthesize all that information and address those more complex client’s needs efficiently and effectively.

Jimmy: Yeah being the second fellowship program ever in OT and the first and private practice. Where do you see this going? How is this going to expand? What might this look like in five years? Can this thing possibly get larger since FOX is also expanding?

Jamie: Right. I mean it definitely has the potential as Fox expands. There’s so much potential as we expand into different territories to expand the fellowship program.

Jimmy: What are some of the typical things that that come up when you meet for a mentorship time?

Jamie: So usually when we meet Carlie has prepared this forum prior to acts like a mentor for him prior to our sessions she kind of preps us regarding the clients that we’re going to see. And then she comes up with discussion points different techniques she’s looking for how can we help her address certain deficits whatever she is looking to get from us during that session. We can respond not only during the session and during our conversations. After that we have a nice forum that we fill out where we kind of send the take home points of the session so she just so much information all the time so you know she has it kind of to take with her and look back on.

Jimmy: Last thing we do on the show is your FOXtale are you ready for that? I suppose. Why did you decide to work with older adults and make that your focus and your OT career? What About that patient population really grabbed you?

Jamie: You know I can’t even say that I remember exactly what about the patient population. It wasn’t necessarily what I set out to do. From the beginning I knew that I loved this practice model. I love nothing more than it honestly doesn’t make sense any other way to me than to be immersed in someone’s life and their home in order to do OT. So FOX was like the only fit for that. As a student in school that’s where I said I have to do I have to do my afiliation there and I just made sure it worked. So I completed my last affiliation here so I could be a student and then I could be a new grad here. And it was more the company than necessarily the I came to love the population more afterwards.

Jimmy: Appreciate that. Jamie Stark occupational therapist with FOX rehabilitation giving an inside look at the OT geriatric fellowship program. Second right now in existence part of FOX rehabilitation. Jamie appreciate you taking some time out to give us a little bit of an insight into this program and hopefully we’ll check in later on as this thing grows.

Jamie: You’ve got it thanks for having me.

Thanks for listening to FOXcast OT. A clinically excellent podcast brought to you by FOX rehabilitation. Fox clinician’s work hard love their work and get the respect they deserve. Sound good? Then you’ll love the autonomy to work in your own style and the support you get to achieve excellence. Plus freedom and flexibility to have a personal life. Whether it’s your first day or you’ve been around for a while. Your contribution is acknowledged and rewarded. That’s what makes FOX a success. Happy well-trained clinicians make great health care. Are you a fit for FOX? Find out now at foxrehab.org.