{"id":13247,"date":"2022-11-18T10:16:47","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T15:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/?p=13247"},"modified":"2022-11-21T09:25:31","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T14:25:31","slug":"elizabethtown-college-occupational-therapy-program-enhances-academic-experiences-through-theatre-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2022\/11\/18\/elizabethtown-college-occupational-therapy-program-enhances-academic-experiences-through-theatre-partnership\/","title":{"rendered":"Elizabethtown College Occupational Therapy Program Enhances Academic Experiences Through Theatre Partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Elizabethtown College Occupational Therapy (OT) program partnered with the Greater Reading Alliance of Community Theatres<\/a> (GRACT) this fall to offer OT students and faculty a unique hands-on learning and teaching experience. Three GRACT members volunteered their time to act as patients to provide students with a dynamic opportunity to practice and observe skills from a completely new standpoint.<\/p>\n

Occupational Therapy major Jillian Benedetti \u201922, M\u201923 said this collaboration created a deeply impactful experience and was a beneficial addition to the class.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHaving actors come in from GRACT helped to enrich my learning experience and helped to make it feel more like a real-life setting with a client,\u201d Benedetti said. \u201cThe simulations were a challenging yet fun way to encourage problem-solving and strengthen my clinical reasoning skills. I think the partnership was a great idea, and I think collaborating with others outside of the College is always a great idea for a richer and more real learning experience!”<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On several occasions this fall, GRACT actors met with students in Associate Professor and Program Director for the Post-Professional OTD Kerri Hample\u2019s Medical Narratives course. Hample supplied the GRACT actors with case studies to inform character development, which included information like name, age, family backstory, and medical condition.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A GRACT actor simulating daily patient activity with two Etown OT students.<\/p><\/div>\n

Each week, OT students engaged patients in conversation about their conditions, fears and concerns, and family members. They also supported patients in daily activities, including hair or teeth brushing or using fine motor skills to do crafts. Often, the patients required wheelchairs or bathroom assistance, which were provided by the students.<\/p>\n

The three patient actors \u2013 Chairwoman of GRACT Patricia Perfect, Debra Silas, and Denise Darrah \u2013 dedicated time not only to acting in these roles but also to researching their characters\u2019 conditions and illnesses in order to present a believable experience to the students. Perfect said she greatly enjoyed working with Hample and her students as an actor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we all are grateful for this opportunity and hope to encourage more of the ‘actors’ in our membership to learn about the therapeutic aspects of using theater for purposes beyond the stage aspect,\u201d Perfect said. \u201cThis partnership with Elizabethtown College represents an educational component for meeting our mission statement. It has been a wonderful experience and I hope that the students benefitted.\u201d<\/p>\n

This unique partnership came to fruition through Etown\u2019s expansive alumni network. In 2021, GRACT received grant funding from the Berks County Community Foundation to map out the strategic direction for its future. To help them create this plan, they hired Etown English\/Communication Arts alumna and current Public Relations Strategist from The Right Angle Strategic Storytelling Lori Donofrio-Galley \u201983.<\/p>\n

After Donofrio-Galley promoted GRACT on LinkedIn, Jesse Waters, Director of the Bowers Writers House and Community Impact at Etown, saw the post and suggested exploring a strategic partnership between Etown\u2019s OT Department and the GRACT actors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re hoping that the relationship and exchanges that we have with GRACT are something that we can continue to grow,\u201d Waters said. \u201cThis relationship supports the College\u2019s general mission, and we’re really very excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Elizabethtown College Occupational Therapy (OT) program partnered with the Greater Reading Alliance of Community Theatres (GRACT) this fall to offer OT students and faculty a unique hands-on learning and teaching experience. Three GRACT members volunteered their time to act as patients to provide students with a dynamic opportunity to practice and observe skills from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":13248,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[775,3],"tags":[294,426,1054],"class_list":["post-13247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-real-world-learning","tag-occupational-therapy","tag-theatre","tag-theatre-department","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13247"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13269,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13247\/revisions\/13269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}