Volunteer Society Nepal : The best experience for volunteers, the best value for Nepal.
One of our volunteers recently graduated from University. She is an occupational therapist. To gain work experience, she worked with VSN in an orthopaedic hospital in Kathmandu. Volunteering after your degree is a great way to combine a post-graduation travel with opportunity to build your resume.
“Times can be hard as a recently graduated occupational therapist going abroad to volunteer in a country where occupational therapy isn’t well known. Yet, I was determined to do it.
Through Volunteer Society Nepal I am doing voluntary work at an orthopaedic hospital in Kathmandu. Here, I work in the physiotherapy department. Occupational therapist work is not well known in Nepal. I recently graduated and therefore don’t have that much work experience yet. It is quite a challenge to implement my occupational therapist views and skills. I want to share them with my physiotherapist colleagues. This is a challenge due to the language barrier.
Yesterday I informed a patient about his chronic back pain. We spoke about pacing his days and the effect of relaxation on tensed muscles. We also spoke about having good posture and doing his exercises. Following this, I gave him the advice to help him getting into and staying asleep. This patient then told the physiotherapist that if the doctors would have explained this to him and to other chronic pain patients in the same way as I did and with the same information, that 50% of patients would be able to cope better with their pain! This really made my day and I felt really happy that I was able to use my occupational therapy knowledge!
Therefore, you should always stay positive and look for openings to implement your occupational therapist skills!”
Overall, this volunteer had a great volunteer experience. This volunteer dedicated a lot of time to help improve our health standards. VSN is extremely thankful. As a result, patients and staff members were able to learn and improve our health education! At VSN, we have many projects to choose from and we look forward to hearing from more undergraduates and recent graduates.
For more information on volunteering as an occupational therapist or physiotherapist please click here.