Jack D. Murphy

Background

About Jack D. Murphy

My name is Jack, I am currently working as a Primary Care Occupational Therapist in Cork. I graduated from University College Cork's Occupational Therapy degree program (2:1 BSc Hons) in 2020. I am currently undertaking a Research Masters in the area of seating with the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy in University College Cork, for which I was awarded on scholarship. My role in Primary Care is to enable people to live as independently as possible in their own homes. My caseload primarily consists of Neurological conditions, such as Parkinsons Disease, Multiple Scerosis, Motor Nueron Disease and more. As such, this involves a heavy seating caseload. I have been able to effectively utilise my experience from University and my Masters research project in my current role. I investigated how the HSE's wheelchair contract is utilised from the perspectives of clinicians and service users, yielding very interesting results. Throughout my University experience, I have been fortunate to have met and worked with a number of amazing people using assistive technologies everyday for their engagement in daily life. I have seen first-hand assistive technology's positive potential to enable engagement in everyday life. This is what led me to pursue the Master's degree. I have a particularly strong interest in the area of seating. I have had many different clinical experiences in University (palliative care, high physical disabilities, autism and stroke) which have led me to develop a keen interest in assistive technology, seating and medical devices. I aim everyday to make a difference in many people's lives by showing people the positive potential of assistive technology. My career goals are to contineously develop my knowlegde base in the area of seating, and someday to design my own medical devices to positively impact in people's lives this way.