It is now February, and although many lectures have ended, students seem to be visiting the university every day and working hard.The second-year students, who recently took their practical examinations, will begin their short-term “Community Occupational Therapy Practicum” in mid-February, and the first-year students are preparing for their first “field trip,” which will be their first off-campus training. 

The third-year students are preparing for their long-term “comprehensive clinical training,” which will begin in the new school year, and are also working very hard to collect data for their graduation research!The photo shows a scene from an experiment being conducted in the Osaka seminar, in which the movement of arm muscles when cutting food with a knife is measured using an electromyogram device.Occupational therapists are required to think about and suggest how to enable the subject to perform the movements that he or she wishes to be able to perform.

Cutting food with a knife is one such movement, and knowing “how the muscles are moving” is an important finding when intervening with the subject.Although there were times when the participants struggled with unfamiliar equipment operations, I was impressed by the fact that they seemed to be enjoying their work.I hope that they will continue to work hard at this level.