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 

Hi everyone!

That’s a wrap on our Orthotic Management of the Spine class! I can’t believe how fast this semester is going. We want to extend a big thank you to all of our guest speakers throughout this class. We have learned a ton of valuable information that we will carry with us throughout the rest of our time here at IIOP and in our future careers. This week we had guest lectures on Scoliosis and the Boston brace, as well as a HALO lecture and demonstration! We also finished our custom bivalved TLSOs, and other skill sets learned along the way. For many of us, this was our first time using the ovens to thermoform plastic, and I’m sure I’m not the first person to say that it is not easy! A few groups had to pull their plastic multiple times; however, we worked as a team and had the constant support of our instructors, so we could all pull our plastic successfully to create the brace. We have a few days off to relax and gear up for our next class of the semester, Prosthetic Management of the Lower Limb I! Check back soon, and thank you for reading!

Sam Bousman

Hi Everyone! 

We are halfway through Orthotic Management of the Spine and here are some things we’ve been up to! First, we would like to extend a HUGE thank you to Kristian from The National Scoliosis Center for coming in and talking with us about scoliosis. He gave a very informative and interactive lecture, and we had the chance to go over some case studies with him at the end of the day as well. Another thank you goes out to the American Heart Association for coming in and giving us our Basic Life Support Training! We are currently working on our custom TLSO’s, it has been so fun to cast each other, fill our plaster molds, and really see our work come to life in the lab. Our class works so well together as a team, and it is obvious that everyone is enjoying what we’re doing! At the end of the week, we will fit and deliver our TLSO’s, so check back to see how they turn out, we can’t wait! 

Thanks for reading, 

Sam Bousman 

Hi everyone!

We have been up to a lot lately here at IIOP. Last weekend was the Gasparilla parade which was so much fun! IIOP provided us with a front-row tent to the parade, and we all caught so many beads and had a wonderful time together; we can’t wait for Gasparilla 2024!

The sophomore class also finished up our second course of the semester, Clinical Evaluation Tools. This class provided us with patient interaction skills such as the patient interview and SOAP note writing, range of motion testing, and manual muscle testing. We had our final exam and practical on the last day of the course, and we were definitely nervous, but everyone did great. Next week we will begin our third class of the semester, Orthotic Management of The Spine, so check back soon to see what we’re working on!

Thanks for reading,

Sam Bousman

Hi everyone!

Reflecting on an amazing week for the Sophomore cohort! We finished up our first class of the semester with plaster casting! It was such a great experience and I loved looking around the room and seeing how excited and proud all of us were. We also received our White Coats on Friday! This is a huge step in our journey to becoming CPO’s and we could not be more thrilled to enter into this next phase and start working with patient models in a few months. This cohort is truly starting to feel like a family, and to be experiencing all of these milestones together is amazing! The ceremony was wonderful, and it was so special to have our families and friends in town to cheer us on. Next week we are moving into our Clinical Evaluation Tools class, and we have the Gasparilla parade, so check back soon for more updates. Thank you all for reading!

Sam Bousman 

Hi everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. We are back at IIOP and have officially started our lab classes! It has been so exciting getting to know the machinery and the different techniques to go along with them. We are in our Introduction to Laboratory Skills and Materials in Orthotics and Prosthetics class. This class gives us a great introduction to all the tools and machines we will be using for the rest of our time here at IIOP and in our future careers! We have also been able to interact with the senior class who recently got back from their clinical rotations! It has been great getting to know them and asking them for tips in the lab. This week, we had our back-to-school BBQ, which was given to us by Grace Prosthetics! We were so appreciative, and the food was amazing, as always. That’s all for this week but check back next week for more lab projects as well as our White Coat Ceremony!

Thanks for reading,

Sam Bousman