Master's in OT Program Questions! Please help!

[ProspOTstudent]

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I'm going to apply to MOT programs later on this year to start in fall 2012.

For those of you who are/were in a MOT program, how difficult/in-depth would you say all the science were (say, in comparison to the difficulty level of a DPT program)?

How intense/difficult were the non-science classes like OT theories and research? Did most of your classmates do well in those classes?

Honestly, I'm a little weak when it comes to anatomy/physiology/neurscience so I'm a bit nervous... I already took those classes (and finished all my prereqs for the schools I'm going to apply to) a while back and did well but it was 2 years ago so I forgot a lot of it. Luckily, I have a lot of time to review...

I volunteered in a rehab setting and one of the PT's told me that DPT school was extremely stressful and focused heavily on the hard sciences like med students, if not, MORE on topics like anatomy... 😱 You'll have almost 0 free time.

Thanks for your help!

 

[brisa2004]

Hello,
I am a 2009 MAOT graduate from St. Kate's in St. Paul, MN so I can tell you what my experience was attending that specific school. Before I attended OT school, I was more of an English/literature kind of person so that idea of taking physiology, kinesiology and neuroscience was also a little scary. However, I found that the classes were manageable especially since they were taught from an applied perspective. For example, we learned about the occipital lobe in the brain, how it controls vision and how certain parts become damaged after a stroke. One of the values of occupational therapy is something called "lifestyle balance" and our professors tried to be understanding about that in terms of understanding our stress levels, scheduling exams (we still worked hard and got things done!) and seeing if we were understanding things. I was married while I attended but some of my classmates worked full-time and others had families (we attended the weekend program which I'd highly recommend). My school focused a lot on integrating theory with science and seeing the whole person approach so it didn't feel like just a huge science lesson for three years and I really appreciated that. As a therapist, I feel like it was good preparation because a lot of my work isn't just measuring ROM and teaching patients new techniques for dressing after a stroke, it's also about understanding who they are and what things ("occupations") are important for them to do on a daily basis. If you are more of a holistic kind of person, OT is a good fit for you. Feel free to shoot some more question my way if you have more. Good luck! 🙂

 

[Whistle Pig]

A really nice,informative, insightful explanation! Thanks!!

 

[raquel]

Hello,
I am a 2009 MAOT graduate from St. Kate's in St. Paul, MN so I can tell you what my experience was attending that specific school. Before I attended OT school, I was more of an English/literature kind of person so that idea of taking physiology, kinesiology and neuroscience was also a little scary. However, I found that the classes were manageable especially since they were taught from an applied perspective. For example, we learned about the occipital lobe in the brain, how it controls vision and how certain parts become damaged after a stroke. One of the values of occupational therapy is something called "lifestyle balance" and our professors tried to be understanding about that in terms of understanding our stress levels, scheduling exams (we still worked hard and got things done!) and seeing if we were understanding things. I was married while I attended but some of my classmates worked full-time and others had families (we attended the weekend program which I'd highly recommend). My school focused a lot on integrating theory with science and seeing the whole person approach so it didn't feel like just a huge science lesson for three years and I really appreciated that. As a therapist, I feel like it was good preparation because a lot of my work isn't just measuring ROM and teaching patients new techniques for dressing after a stroke, it's also about understanding who they are and what things ("occupations") are important for them to do on a daily basis. If you are more of a holistic kind of person, OT is a good fit for you. Feel free to shoot some more question my way if you have more. Good luck! 🙂

You made me feel better. I am also more of a psych/english/history type person and have been a little worried about the biological sciences involved in OT. I did decently in A&P 1&2, but I know the program will be whole other kind of beast. I can only pray it will be manageable for me as well. As excited as I am to start this summer, I have also been worried about completely giving up my life for the next 2.5 years.

 

[Prime03]

You made me feel better. I am also more of a psych/english/history type person and have been a little worried about the biological sciences involved in OT. I did decently in A&P 1&2, but I know the program will be whole other kind of beast. I can only pray it will be manageable for me as well. As excited as I am to start this summer, I have also been worried about completely giving up my life for the next 2.5 years.

I agree! Thank you I feel a lot better too! My background is in Psychology so I was (still am a little) worried.. But I am taking it one class at a time. Now I have A and P II and Kinesiology , but I am sure with hard work I will be fine. I on the other hand, feel ready to dedicate myself to school because I have been off from school for the last 4 years, so I feel ready! It will all be worth it and 2.5 yrs later we will be MAOT! yeay

 

[Whistle Pig]

Worry is wasted. Focus and recognizing the ever-growing reality of OT grad programs, and specifically that they are vastly more competitive next year than they were in the past. The "perfect storm" of fixed (and actually diminished availability of spots due to the required graduate level programs and concurrent accreditation process) capacity with growing demand for both services and program admission driven by both need AND the government recognizing and broadcasting OT as a "hot" field. Well add these specific aspects to the concurrent ease of multiple applications via the AOTA common app process, and you've got an extremely dynamic, competitive game all of a sudden.

So not to either discourage or cheerlead. But this is a substantially different scenario than just a year or 2 back, and like many have discovered in PT programs and med school, the competition will be increasingly "stiff" requiring candidates to really be on their game to win.

 

[OTROX]

Maybe...but for those that have the various prerequisites (and GRE in some cases) and desire to re-locate and pay for many applications will have an advantage over anyone thinking about applying for OT. I think, WistleP, you may be on to something heading into the next 5 years but I wouldn't say it's a completely different ball game than two or even one year ago...

 

[brisa2004]

I'll post a response that I hope will be realistic as well as encouraging. I think that the field of occupational therapy is always changing like any other field but that the field is actually going back to its roots of being focused on actual occupation and reconnecting people to occupation. Originally when the field started, it was based on the arts and crafts movement which used those mediums as a way for people to become rebalanced in their routines of work, leisure, self-care etc. Perspectives on care were very holistic, taking the entire person into account. In the 1950s, however, OT became very reductionistic and exclusively based on just science--essentially treating the symptoms alone. Today, OT is reshifting back toward that original paradigm of looking at the whole person. It's a balance of looking at the whole person and using practice techniques that are evidence-based, i.e. reliable/valid based on a sizable research base. There is a lot more focus on prevention of decline (I work at a company with a 70/30 model where 70% of our care is on prevention of further decline in seniors and the other 30% is rehabilitative). That is the major difference with PT--OT is a discipline that looks at the whole person; it doesn't just break down the person into organic parts. While OTs offer exercise and strengthening like a PT would, we also offer applied retraining in areas like ADLs, cognitive testing, environmental adaptation and many other areas which reflects our broad scope of practice.

My point is that OT is both an art and a science--OT programs, no matter how competitive, are going to reflect that. Science, of course, is a major part of the foundation but as I said before, the focus is on application and how to use it in a real life context. Also, part of learning OT is the theory and understanding the entire person. AOTA has come out with a practice framework that a lot of programs use for completing case study papers and if you take a look at it, you'll see that it is no only very thorough but comprehensive in covering the aspects of a person in relation to their occupational profile. http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdesped/download/pdf/OT_PracticeFrameworkDomainProcess.pdf

I think that people may get competitive in OT school but I'd stay away from them, they are merely insecure about their own abilities. What worked for us in OT school was to work together--we formed study groups and helped each other out. A lot of program faculty encourage students to work together especially as it mimics the therapy teams that exist in a real-life work situation. For those of us who come from a non-science background, I would say not to underestimate your skills either. English and psychology majors tend to do well in OT because of the critical thinking and analytical skills that these majors hone. Again, it isn't all just science. When a patient walks into the clinic, I'm not just looking at decreased ROM, a diagnosis or diminished muscle strength, I'm looking at the entire person--what is the person's affect and motivation levels? Why does the patient believe he/she is receiving therapy? What kinds of things are they now unable to do? How does that affect them, i.e. more burden of care on family/caregivers, depression, etc? A big thing is how you interact with patients--that can't be taught with scientific principles. As simple as it sounds, that is really how you can connect with patients and having a whole person approach is helpful for that by including family etc.

So, if you're ready to work hard but are passionate about caring for the entire person therapeutically, you will find that you are adequately challenged but also enjoy OT school. And no matter what the economy demands make out there for competition, a good OT program will teach you how to be an OT that uses a combination of both science and art. Hope that helps. 🙂

 

[OT2Be2013]

I'll post a response that I hope will be realistic as well as encouraging. I think that the field of occupational therapy is always changing like any other field but that the field is actually going back to its roots of being focused on actual occupation and reconnecting people to occupation. Originally when the field started, it was based on the arts and crafts movement which used those mediums as a way for people to become rebalanced in their routines of work, leisure, self-care etc. Perspectives on care were very holistic, taking the entire person into account. In the 1950s, however, OT became very reductionistic and exclusively based on just science--essentially treating the symptoms alone. Today, OT is reshifting back toward that original paradigm of looking at the whole person. It's a balance of looking at the whole person and using practice techniques that are evidence-based, i.e. reliable/valid based on a sizable research base. There is a lot more focus on prevention of decline (I work at a company with a 70/30 model where 70% of our care is on prevention of further decline in seniors and the other 30% is rehabilitative). That is the major difference with PT--OT is a discipline that looks at the whole person; it doesn't just break down the person into organic parts. While OTs offer exercise and strengthening like a PT would, we also offer applied retraining in areas like ADLs, cognitive testing, environmental adaptation and many other areas which reflects our broad scope of practice.

My point is that OT is both an art and a science--OT programs, no matter how competitive, are going to reflect that. Science, of course, is a major part of the foundation but as I said before, the focus is on application and how to use it in a real life context. Also, part of learning OT is the theory and understanding the entire person. AOTA has come out with a practice framework that a lot of programs use for completing case study papers and if you take a look at it, you'll see that it is no only very thorough but comprehensive in covering the aspects of a person in relation to their occupational profile. http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdesped/download/pdf/OT_PracticeFrameworkDomainProcess.pdf

I think that people may get competitive in OT school but I'd stay away from them, they are merely insecure about their own abilities. What worked for us in OT school was to work together--we formed study groups and helped each other out. A lot of program faculty encourage students to work together especially as it mimics the therapy teams that exist in a real-life work situation. For those of us who come from a non-science background, I would say not to underestimate your skills either. English and psychology majors tend to do well in OT because of the critical thinking and analytical skills that these majors hone. Again, it isn't all just science. When a patient walks into the clinic, I'm not just looking at decreased ROM, a diagnosis or diminished muscle strength, I'm looking at the entire person--what is the person's affect and motivation levels? Why does the patient believe he/she is receiving therapy? What kinds of things are they now unable to do? How does that affect them, i.e. more burden of care on family/caregivers, depression, etc? A big thing is how you interact with patients--that can't be taught with scientific principles. As simple as it sounds, that is really how you can connect with patients and having a whole person approach is helpful for that by including family etc.

So, if you're ready to work hard but are passionate about caring for the entire person therapeutically, you will find that you are adequately challenged but also enjoy OT school. And no matter what the economy demands make out there for competition, a good OT program will teach you how to be an OT that uses a combination of both science and art. Hope that helps. 🙂

Very, very well said. Thank you for that.