At Granite Farms Estates in Media, Pennsylvania, Olivia Gorski, MSOT ‘21, is affectionately known as “Millie’s mom.” And, that’s just fine - Millie, her golden retriever, often steals the spotlight as she undergoes on-the-job training as a therapy dog at the continuing care retirement community.
Gorski, an occupational therapist at the facility for the past two-and-a-half years, has been bringing her dog Millie to work with her since the dog was eight weeks old. Millie feels right at home since she has practically grown up in the environment.
And, Gorski and Millie have had several success stories working with the patients. According to Gorski, Millie is always so gentle with the residents and the joy she brings them is amazing to witness. In one instance, Gorski had a patient with progressed dementia who was non-verbal. She had never heard the patient speak full sentences until he was introduced to Millie.
“He’d say, ‘There she is! There’s my dog! She’s so beautiful!’ The way he lights up when he sees her is just amazing,” said Gorski.
That’s one of the many reasons she decided to go into OT as a profession — being able to be creative with her interventions and making a difference in the quality of life for her patients.
And, it’s been a perfect fit. Originally from North Jersey, Gorski completed her undergraduate studies in health and exercise science with a minor in psychology from The College of New Jersey. Gorski knew she wanted a career in the health professions and was looking for something that combined the medical side with science, the arts and creativity.
Salus University’s Occupational Therapy (OT) program provided her with the perfect opportunity.
“As soon as I got there, I felt very comfortable, I felt like I fit in right away,” she said. “And, it was a comprehensive OT program. We worked our way up the life span — pediatrics, adults and then geriatrics — and got a variety of clinical experiences.”
That training and those experiences in the Salus OT program has served her well in her role at Granite Farms Estates. As a continuing care retirement community, Gorski gets to work with patients in skilled nursing, assisted living, memory care and independent living — all the different levels of care in what she calls “one beautiful community.”
“With all the different levels of care here and all the different populations, it has made me a very diverse clinician because there are so many different things we can potentially be working with,” she said.
In addition, Gorski said that OT is not just working with physical deficits or impairments, but also with mental impairments of the patients.
“Improving someone’s mood does help with therapy as well. If they’re in a better mood, they have better buy-in and participation,” she said.
And, Gorski hasn’t lost track of her alma mater’s OT program. For the second year, she’s serving as an adjunct instructor for the program in the anatomy lab.
“I love being able to take what I do in practice and teach it to future OTs,” said Gorski. “It’s nice being not that far out of school myself. I can still very much relate to the students and what they’re going through and use that to tailor things better for them and make it more understandable.”
Although she said she could see herself moving fully into academia in the future, Gorski is quite content doing what she’s doing now.
“For right now, I like being able to do both. And, I think doing both is beneficial to me as well,” she said. “I use my clinical experience when I’m teaching, and I use the stuff that I’m teaching to sharpen up my clinical skills as well. I think it’s mutually beneficial.”
