For Rachel Riley’s first day in occupational therapy, is was definitely the latter. 

“The first university placement that I got to go and see a client by myself, was a man who had a stroke and was also blind,” Ms Riley said.

“I had to go and do a shower assessment on him and I found the experience really confronting. I was about 18 and I’d never seen a naked man before and I was having to go and stand in a room and watch a man shower.

“I was really pleased that he was blind in the end so he couldn’t see how embarrassed I was. It made me more worried about occupational therapy because I thought, ‘Am I just going to be doing shower assessments my whole life?’ because I really didn’t like that.”

This can be true for a lot of university students going on their first work placement. You learn a lot of theory in class, but having to put it into use in a real world environment can be quite overwhelming. While first days can be exciting, they can also be very stressful experiences.