Thunder Bay! Northern Studies Stream :D

I'm a terrible blogger, I know. What can I say... I've been busy! I also confess to struggling with the fact that people who know me read this blog... so I'm always censoring myself to not talk about people when I haven't gotten their permission and also I'm reluctant to share my more personal thoughts and reflections. I'm trying to get over it.
But then, there's still the time issue.
Failing a proper post, I thought the least I could do is post some photos from my time up here thus far! I'll be in Thunder Bay for one more week, then I'm moving to Geraldton Ontario for my clinical placement. It will be my first 2-to-1 placement (two students, one preceptor), which I'm a little nervous about but I'm also told is a great learning experience. We'll see how it goes!
We had our practical exam for the term last week. Not really sure how it went. We are given a client scenario (like a referral) 24 hours before the exam to research about the condition and develop an assessment and intervention strategy (which always includes theoretical approach). Then the first hour of the exam is an interview with our client, played by an actor as a "standardized patient." Just like in a real client interview, you have to budget your time to do all the assessments you want to. Then we have two hours to write it up... including theoretical approach, what we did in our one hour with the client, reporting our findings, analyzing them to identify the occupational issues, then writing treatment goals, objectives and a plan... plus a session plan for one particular session. And finally we tell them what our outcome measures would be, when we would assess them and how we would determine when discharge would occur. Phew! So, I don't think it went horribly. The interview was good. But time was short for the write-up and I ended up having to rush the last half. In talking to my classmates it seems that this was a common problem, with some people handing in late (and taking grade penalties) or not finishing. Nothing to do now but wait and see. I did my best and that's all you can do. :)
I will say, however, that there is some concern that the students in the northern studies stream we placed at a disadvantage. We've heard from some students at the McMaster site that the specific details of the exam grading criteria were discussed with them during their small group learning sessions. We didn't get that here in the north. But again, nothing to do but wait and see.
Now I'm writing the final paper for the term, which is worth 50% of my grade in one course. No pressure... right!
And on that note, I really have to get back to the writing!
Good luck to all my classmates...
And congrats to all those who will be joining us next year as the Class of 2012!!
Cheers,
SweetPea

UPDATE: There was no advantage to being at McMaster vs Lakehead. We all had the same challenges with this exam and they tell us that an analysis comparing the North and South showed there was no significant difference between the groups on grades. Yay!

A nice view from a trail

Terry Fox Monument

That's my gnome-away-from-home, Cedric

The Sleeping Giant