Student Blog

Hi everyone!

It has been a busy summer for the Fall’22 Cohort! Last week we finished our 4th class of the semester, Orthotic Management of The Upper Limb. This class went by so fast, but we completed two custom projects and two prefabricated fittings. Our first project was a custom thermoplastic wrist hand orthosis (WHO), and the second project was a custom thermoplastic elbow orthosis (EO). Both of these projects were so fun to make, and they were great projects to practice more fabrication and patient interaction skills. Everyone got really creative with transfer paper and designs on these projects as well which is always fun to see! Our prefabricated fittings included a humeral fracture orthosis and a shoulder elbow wrist hand orthosis (SEWHO). At the end of the week, we took our final exam and are now getting ready to start our last official class on campus, Contemporary Practice and Synthesis. It is so hard to believe that we have made it to this point in the summer, but everyone is getting excited to get started with our clinical rotation sites this fall. That’s all for now but check back soon for more updates!

Thanks for reading,

Sam Bousman

Hi everyone! 

We have finished Prosthetic Management of the Upper Limb! We accomplished a lot during this course and had a great experience. Our first project was a mock transradial prosthesis. This was a really cool project because we had the opportunity to cast our partner and then fabricate the device for ourselves! Creating a device for ourselves taught us a lot about the comfort of a device, making proper modifications, and learning how to use a terminal device for grasping objects! We had a lot of fun learning how to operate a hook, and this will be great knowledge to share with our future patients. We also had the opportunity to cast a limb sim and fabricate two check sockets, one for a transradial limb and the other for a transhumeral limb. These projects gave us the opportunity to prescribe a socket style based on the length of the limb we were casting and fabricate the device accordingly. 

Last week we were excited to have COAPT come to IIOP to do a myoelectric hand presentation! There was a didactic portion of the session and then we had the opportunity to try out the technology for ourselves! It was so cool to learn how this technology works and the benefits it has for the patients that use it! Thank you to COAPT for taking the time to teach us what their company is all about! This week we are starting Orthotic Management of the Upper Limb, so check back soon for more updates!

Thanks for reading, 

Sam Bousman 

Hi everyone! 

That’s a wrap on Prosthetic Management of the Lower Limb 2! Last week we finished up our second ischial containment sockets and our fittings went so well. We made modifications based on the fit of our first sockets and pulled a flexible inner liner which made the sockets a lot more comfortable for our patient models. We owe a big thank you to our patient models for dedicating so much of their time to help us improve our fabrication and patient interaction skills! 

This week we had C-Leg training with Ottobock. Certified Prosthetist Cale Konetchy and Sales representative Eric Fregger spent the day teaching us all about the C-Leg, and we were fortunate enough to have our patient models Lynn and Dave come in to try on the knee so that we could make adjustments and see how their gait was affected! This was a fun and interactive session, and we thank Cale and Eric for their time! On Thursday we are starting our third class of the semester, Prosthetic Management of the Upper Limb, so check back soon for more updates! 

Thanks for reading, 

Sam Bousman 

Hi everyone! 

We are about halfway through our second class of the semester, Prosthetic Management of the Lower Limb 2! Right now, we are working on our first Ischial Containment socket! We casted our patient models last week and are set to deliver the sockets on Wednesday. This has been a challenging project, so we are all excited to see how our sockets fit on delivery day. It is so hard to believe how fast this summer semester is going by, everyone is working so hard, and we are all looking forward to applying all of our knowledge and skills when we start our clinical rotations in a few months. Coming up we have our midterm exam for PML2, and a second Ischial Containment socket, so check back soon for more updates!

Thanks for reading, 

Sam Bousman 

Hi everyone! 

Summer session is in full swing, and we are just about done with our first class of the semester, Orthotic Management of the Lower Limb 2. Last week, we completed our Knee-Ankle-Foot Orthosis (KAFO) project, and this was definitely the most difficult project that we have done so far here at IIOP. This project took us a week to complete, and we were all so happy and proud to have accomplished it. I asked some of my classmates what their advice would be when navigating through a project such as the KAFO, and here’s what Brooke Perry had to say; “Trust your measurements and placements. It is tempting to overthink the modifications which can make the process miserable. While you’re learning, trust what you’re doing and see how it turns out, because it might work better than you think!”. 

Last weekend, a group of us went to Orlando and had the opportunity to volunteer with Fit Feet at the Special Olympics, and we had a great time! We were involved in taking measurements, giving foot examinations, and discussing proper foot care techniques with hundreds of athletes. This was an amazing opportunity and gave us so much exposure to patient care and interaction. Coming up we have our final exam for OML2, and we are starting our next class, Prosthetic Management of the Lower Limb 2. Check back soon!

Sam Bousman 

Hi everyone! 

We are back for the start of our summer semester. This week, the SGA executive board (Reagan, myself, Care, and Katherine) had the opportunity to travel to Washington DC and attend the American Orthotics and Prosthetics Association (AOPA) 2023 Policy Forum! Day 1 of the forum was all about educating the attendees on the bill we are advocating for, which is called the Medicare Orthotics and Prosthetics Care Act. We listened in on panel discussions that were moderated by experts in the field of O&P and had the opportunity to listen to a keynote speech given by Kyle Stepp, a true advocate and inspiration in the field of O&P. We also met with students from other O&P programs, it was so cool to talk with the other students and come together as one voice! On day 2 of the forum, we took all of our knowledge and lobbying skills learned on day 1 to Capitol Hill! We met with state Senators and Representatives from all over the country and advocated for equitable O&P care. This was a wonderful experience, and we were thrilled to represent IIOP at this event. We can’t wait for the conference next year. Back on campus we are approaching our midterm for Orthotic Management of the Lower Limb 2, so check back soon for more updates! 

Thanks for reading, 

Sam Bousman 

Hi everyone! 

We are wrapping up our final class of the semester, Orthotic Management of the Lower Limb 1! We completed 5 projects during this class including a solid-ankle AFO, an articulated AFO, accommodative foot orthotics, a UCBL, and a rocker bottom sole! Everyone has been working so hard and we cannot believe we are entering our last semester here on campus! This week we are also congratulating the senior class (Navy 9) on their graduation from IIOP. It has been great getting to know them at school and we wish them the best of luck in starting their residencies! This week we also had the pleasure of having a lunch and learn session with Renee Vanveld from Residency Network. Renee gave us an informative and interactive presentation along with pizza and answered any questions that we had regarding the residency process, thank you Renee! After our final exam we have a nice break before heading into summer session, so check back soon for more updates. 

Thanks for reading! 

Sam Bousman 

Hi everyone!

We hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. It is hard to believe we are almost done with our second semester here at IIOP! Orthotic Management of the Lower Limb 1 is going well! We are just about halfway through and have already completed 2 projects with 3 more to go. Last week we finished up our accommodative foot orthotics and it was so cool to walk in our partners foot inserts! Being able to give each other feedback on these projects is really helping us work on our fabrication and patient interaction skills. We also finished up our UCBL project and it was really cool to compare the first project to this one as the UCBL is more rigid and can apply more corrective forces to the patient’s foot. This week we have our midterm exam, and we are starting our non-articulating AFO project, so check back soon for more updates.

Thanks for reading,

Sam Bousman

Hi everyone!

The Sophomore Cohort is officially onto our last class of the semester, which is Orthotic Management of the Lower Limb 1. We just finished Prosthetic Management of the Lower Limb 1 and we all really enjoyed it! We delivered our second prosthesis last week which was a Total Surface Bearing socket and everyone had a great fit. It was a great experience getting to work with a different patient model this time around and we were able to apply the skills we learned from our first sockets to the new ones which taught us so much. On our last day of PML1, we had some guest speakers from Blatchford who gave us information on different types of Hydraulic feet, which we were able to test out with our patient models to see how it affected their gait. Thank you to Blatchford and our patient models for making that day possible! 

This week was also the first week that Lauren hosted her adaptive dance class! She did a great job putting this together and we can’t wait to see how the class grows in the weeks to come! That’s all for this week, so check back soon to see how our last class of the semester is going! 

Thanks for reading, 

Sam Bousman 

Hi everyone! 

What a week it has been for the Sophomore cohort! We delivered our first Patellar Tendon Bearing prosthesis for a transtibial amputee on Tuesday, and it went so well! This was a huge first step for all of us as we had not yet completed a socket from start to finish, so to see how great everyone did on this project was awesome. A huge thank you goes out to our patient models for being so gracious towards us during this process, we could not have completed this project or the ones to come without them. On another note, some of the members of SGA took a trip up to Tallahassee on Wednesday to speak with state representatives and Senator Jay Collins about the field of O&P and what IIOP is all about. It was really cool to hear about the process of getting a bill passed here in the state of Florida and we are so appreciative that they took the time out of their busy schedules to talk to us and learn about what we do! That’s all for this week but check back next week to hear about our next project!

Thanks for reading, 

Sam Bousman