Speaker: Amanda Drobot, Assistant Clinic Director - OT, Ivy Rehab for Kids - Doylestown
Amanda Drobot: Hi, my name is Amanda Drobot and I am an occupational therapist at the Doylestown Ivy Rehab for Kids location. I am also currently the assistant Clinic Director at the Doylestown Ivy Rehab for Kids location and I am working towards opening a new Ivy Rehab for Kids location in Ottsville, Pennsylvania. I have been a part of the Ivy for kids team for the last just about three years as a team member. And prior to that, I was actually a student with Ivy Rehab at our theraplay location in Limerick. And so I've been here roughly, I would say four years. Um and counting if you include my student um placement as well.
Take us through a day in the life of a new graduate/student at Ivy.
Amanda Drobot: So a little bit about what the day in the life of a student at Ivy Rehab for Kids is you know, it's a quick paced environment, but there's so much to learn. Every hour of your day is a little bit different, especially as an occupational therapist, which is one of my favorite parts of outpatient therapy. But for the beginning rotation, the beginning couple weeks of your rotation, you do a lot of observing of your clinical instructor. really getting to know how the clinic works, getting to know some of their patients and learning some of those strategies that they use with their patients. And as you progress towards your through your rotation, you will slowly begin to take over that case load. Starting by treating, you know, small parts of a session to treating the whole thing and documenting the session as well with the supervision of your clinical instructor. I had a wonderful clinical instructor in Sandy Sutton at the Limerick location. and I learned so much throughout my my placement and I still utilize a lot of the things that I learned from her in my day to day practice right now.
What is something you get to do at Ivy that you might not be able to do anywhere else?
Amanda Drobot: I think there's a lot of unique things about Ivy Rehab for Kids. My, one of my favorite things about outpatient is the variety in patients that you get to see you get a variety of diagnoses, a variety of different areas so that you can keep all of your occupational therapy skills sharp. And in doing so at Ivy, they have a great continuing education program where, you know, you get a stipend every year to complete continuing education in areas that are important to you as an occupational therapist. And then you're able to use that to climb the clinical ladder and become a more experienced clinician to better serve your patients. And then, you know, the other unique thing about Ivy is their De Novo partnership. So being able to become a partner and open a new clinic like I'm doing currently is something that I don't think you can get anywhere else right now.
What advice would you give to someone considering Ivy’s student programs?
Amanda Drobot: Some advice that I would give someone who's considering starting a student program with Ivy is number one. Do it, take it if you if you have that opportunity. It's 100% worth it. And you will not regret that opportunity. The other is to go in with an open mind. And really soak in every moment that you have with that clinical instructor, Our team members have so much to offer and they have such unique perspectives on the kids that they see, and the patients that they see the families of the patients that they see. And I think it's really, really important to, you know, soak that all in learn so you can learn so much from them.
In your words, what makes Ivy such a special place to work?
Amanda Drobot: I think there are a ton of things that make Ivy a special place to work. One of my favorites is the collaborative nature between the disciplines within each clinic. So, as an occupational therapist, I get such great perspective and I learned so much from my other team members, speech therapy and physical therapy. And when we're able to do those co-treats for patients, I feel like I learn so, so much from those team members and I think that makes a really big difference. And, you know, I can call those team members my friends, not just my coworkers. And I think that's a really important in, you know, fostering a great place to work.
