Ergotherapy

Hello, I'm Emine Sağlamoğlu. I am a student of the Department of Occupational Therapy at the University of Health Sciences. Occupational therapy is an undergraduate program that ensures the feasibility of each individual's life-long roles and the tasks and activities that these roles bring, and, thus, increases the health and social participation of the individual. In the first year of the Occupational Therapy program, basic health sciences courses are taken together with the introductory occupational therapy courses. In the 2nd and 3rd years, field-specific courses are taken in line with the practice and intervention principles of the Department of Occupational Therapy. Among these, we have field-specific courses such as Vocational Rehabilitation, Geriatric Rehabilitation, Performance Areas, Sensory, Motor, Cognitive, Psycho-Social, and Geriatric Rehabilitation. These courses are covered practically and theoretically in our application laboratories. In the last year of the Occupational Therapy program, most of the term is spent with clinical training. In addition to these, additional courses such as Evidence-Based Practices and Research Methods are given to help us in our graduate education. In the occupational therapy application unit of the Department of Occupational Therapy there are measurement and evaluation tools, intervention equipment and materials required for this intervention specific to our field such as Sensory Integration, Occupational Rehabilitation, and Cognitive Rehabilitation. We spend most of our courses practicing in this unit. The internship opportunities provided by the University of Health Sciences for the Department of Occupational Therapy are very wide. The fact that there are 50 or more state hospitals affiliated with our university and that our students can choose internship places depending on the employment of occupational therapists in their cities is a great opportunity for us. In addition to these, the graduation project of our university proceeds as follows: When we come to the graduation stage, we prepare our graduation thesis together with our professors and we graduate from our university by preparing a presentation. After graduating from the Occupational Therapy Department, occupational therapists can work in private hospitals, public hospitals, special education and rehabilitation centers, nursing homes, and community mental health centers. In addition to these, occupational therapists can serve by opening their own private clinics after graduation. My reason for choosing the department is to enable people to do activities that add meaning and purpose to their lives. Because people are defined together with what they do, and for this reason, I think that it is bad for people to be left behind in any of their activities, which will limit their independence. For this reason, when I learned that occupational therapy is a profession that adds meaning and purpose to people's lives, I wanted to choose this department. The University of Health Sciences is the only state university in Istanbul that offers the Occupational Therapy program. That's why I chose the University of Health Sciences. My post-graduation goal as an occupational therapist is to increase the social participation, health and well-being of all people who are in need of assistance and support. For this reason, I want to turn to the field of pediatric rehabilitation, which is my field of interest, to get my master's degree and to become an expert in this field. Afterwards, I want to continue my academic life. My suggestion to the candidates who will prefer the Occupational Therapy Department is that they should be strong communicators, smiling and tolerant, since the occupational therapy profession consist of one-to-one interaction with people. In addition, I recommend that candidates who will prefer Health Sciences University to consider the accessibility of the campus location and the strength of its academic staff. I wish success to all candidates who took the exam. We would be very happy to see you among us.