If you attend O&P trade shows or conferences throughout the country throughout the year, you’re likely to meet and talk to Vaughan DeBarr. She has worked at Martin Bionics for eight years and has been the company’s clinical network manager since 2023. Having had her amputations early in her life, she is well versed on the dos and don’ts.
She wanted to know from others what they are better at now than before they had their amputations. 67 percent said they know how to self-advocate. The rest were split between learning to navigate insurance, and researching the proper medical care.
Last week’s poll focused on cursive handwriting, which the National Education Association (NEA) says is making a comeback in schools. The NEA cites research suggesting that learning cursive writing improves cognitive development, fine motor skills, and memory, while enabling students to read historical documents.
We asked our followers, do you think cursive handwriting is worth bringing back? Of those who responded, 74 percent said yes, it is well overdue; 13 percent said no, it is not necessary, and another 13 percent said yes, but they wondered how it would be taught in schools. One of our followers commented, “I saw a story about this and wondered how many teachers might be young enough that they will have to learn cursive so they can teach it.”
This week’s poll highlights an article in the March issue of The O&P EDGE, which focusses on the difficult encounters that clinicians can have with their patients. Our question: When it comes to providing care to hard-to-treat patients, what’s the best protocol? So far, the majority of those responding said the best way to handle difficult patients is to actively listen to them. Tell us what you think. We’d love to hear from you.
