WATN: Kristin Kaplewicz, MSOT ‘20

In those times where she’s not working as an occupational therapist, Kristin Kaplewicz, MSOT ‘20, likes to hang out with her dog, a yellow Labrador named Syrah. And, yes, the dog is named after a dark-skinned grape variety used to make red wine.

Even then, Kaplewicz isn’t far from her job because Syrah is a therapy dog and two days a week visits places like Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania, for patients who request therapy visits.

“That’s nicely worked into my career,” said Kaplewicz.

Originally from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, Kaplewicz graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Rehabilitation and Human Services. She wasn’t initially sold on a career in Occupational Therapy (OT), but two things influenced her decision: She had firsthand experience with OTs who worked with her grandmother (the OTs were Grandma’s favorites); and she had some shadowing experiences that sealed the deal.

“I knew I wanted to do something in healthcare, and I was definitely interested in OT when I went to Penn State,” she said. “But I wasn’t totally sold on it until I shadowed a few OTs and that confirmed that it was definitely what I wanted to do.”

Although she wasn’t familiar with Salus University, she had some friends who told her about it and recommended she check it out for grad school. As soon as she completed her interview on the University’s Elkins Park, Pennsylvania campus, she left knowing that it was the place for her.

“I like the smaller environment and Penn State had some distractions,” said Kaplewicz. “Grad school was a nice change of pace.”

Both the classroom and field work at Salus — particularly during the pandemic — helped prepare Kaplewicz for the real world. Although there was some virtual training, the Salus OT department was aggressive in trying to keep its students in the field as much as possible.

“Our fieldwork coordinator really pushed to get us into fieldwork sites in the areas that we wanted to be in, which I think was one of the best opportunities being out in the field,” she said.

And, when she wasn’t in the field, Kaplewicz was hanging out in the Activities of Daily Living (ADL) lab, picking the collective brains of the faculty.

“Whenever the professors would come in, they’d say how are you doing, is there anything you need help with? And, we’d practice any skills you needed help with. It definitely prepared me to go out into the real world,” she said.

Although the pandemic did push her graduation date of spring 2020 back to fall 2020, Kaplewicz secured a full-time job at Penn State Health Hampden Medical Center, which had just opened back in her hometown of Mechanicsburg.

That first job can be challenging under normal circumstances, but with the pandemic still prevalent, Kaplewicz believes she was well equipped for those challenges.

The initial shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) in the early stages of the pandemic and the evolution of COVID treatments kept OTs on their toes. Strategies for maintaining proper oxygen levels in COVID patients, for example, was an area where Kaplewicz had to continue to learn and make adjustments.

“We still have a lot of COVID patients and that’s probably our main diagnosis,” she said. “I’m just in a regular hospital, so whatever the needs of the patients are — people with strokes, orthopedic injuries, and surgeries. We get a good bit of dementia patients. Whatever comes into the hospital we will treat.”

Kaplewicz added that acute care is more short-term care, so her duties include discharge planning and figuring out if it is safe for the patient to go home and do they need some home health staff coming into their house. Or do they need to possibly look at a nursing facility or assisted living for a safe discharge plan.

“I’m pretty content where I am for now. I just want to build my clinical knowledge,” she said. “But I think long-term, I would like to get my PhD and eventually be a professor and teach OT. But that’s definitely further down the road.”