Kerry Palmer-Green
Kerry is currently in her final year of the BSc (Hons) Occupational Therapy course, and shares her experiences of being on placement with Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust
I feel ready now to face the world as an occupational therapist.
”Kerry Palmer-Green, current student
I have been lucky enough to have two placements within the trust - one in the Early intervention in Psychosis team (EiP) and one with nottingham City asperger service (nCas).
Without a doubt what makes the placement is the educator. If they want the student to flourish and succeed then this really does come across in the way they engage and mentor us. On both occasions I have been most fortunate to have amazing trust educators. Without their commitment to my learning and their amazing support and guidance I wouldn't be entering my final few months of training.
At EiP my educator worked in a generic role which gave me a great insight into how occupational therapists (OTs) in generic roles work. She was a real ball of positive energy and great fun to work alongside. Due to my previous work experience, they trusted me very early on with clients and enabled me (amongst other things) to develop and facilitate community groups. I left feeling extremely confident about OT, my abilities and future placements and training.
My final placement was the asperger service. My educator was more purist OT in her working and opened my eyes to a service and client group that I knew very little about before this placement. From day one her passion and belief in her work encouraged me to be the best student I could and her belief in my abilities as a therapist gave me great confidence to grow. As before I was trusted with clients yet my educator was always available and offered an amazing level of support and encouragement.
A big thank you to Nottinghamshire Healthcare for two of the best experiences I could have had. I feel ready now to face the world as an occupational therapist.
