An Iowa occupational therapist devotes her life to facilitating the recuperation of people who suffer from brain trauma, according to the Des Moines Register.
Stephanie Schmid with On With Life helps her patients prepare for the day in the morning, ready meals, function in the workplace and with additional tasks. The work breaks down as home management, parenting and returning to work. Oftentimes the patients have just emerged from a coma or are minimally responsive.
"Rehabilitation is obviously very different, with our focus on providing sensory stimulation, looking for consistent responses, managing spasticity, maintaining range of motion, wheelchair positioning, and increasing their ability to participate in meaningful activities as they emerge from the coma," she told the news source.
Though many of the patients will have to contend with damages for a long time if not forever, Schmid said she genuinely enjoys the occupational therapy job she holds, the challenge of the position and she is heartened by seeing improvement.
In the 10-year period through 2020, jobs for occupational therapists are projected to increase 33 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.