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Other OT-Related Information OT a pretend job
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You could try the research aspect, one of the things I like about OT is the use of adaptive equipment. You could come up with ideas to make life easier or try home health where you are modifying the surroundings. I've shadowed in several locations and I have also thought at times what is the point of this even when I have received clarification or I thought I could do this as a home care aid with out the money or time spent on school. In some settings though, I have found OT to be great, such as adaptive innovations for driving, home health/modifications, research, neuro/stroke/tbi, ortho, and hand therapy (ortho and hand therapy, yes while it is easy to implement and follow a routine, the exercises were things that the average individual wouldn't know what to do or the precautions to use. The various muscles, tendons, and ligaments, how much and little to exercise when to ice/massage were all pretty interesting that you would need training for). I do agree though on how at times I question the validity. I am really interested in working in neuro/geriatrics and work, but in snf some of the things I have thought why are you getting paid so much for this? I work at the snf and do an exercise program and all of the strength/endurance exercises are all the same and that is mostly what I've seen while shadowing, so it is a bit discouraging.
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Thank you! I'm glad I'm not the only one who has felt this way. I am sue there are aspects of OT that are beneficial.. however I have not seen any patients truly benefit from OT services in the three years I have spent shadowing. I am discouraged, but am glad I have realized OT is not for me before it was too late.
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That's been my biggest concern too--that there's not necessarily a "Wow! This is really doing something!" kind of a moment when I go shadow. I have sometimes left feeling somewhat uninspired/unexcited. The two settings that I did find interesting were hand therapy and stroke rehab. The least interesting (thus far) has been pediatrics. But I'm certain that's mostly because I'm not crazy about children. The mission of OT is what is keeping me interested.. because I think people often take for granted their independence and being able to accomplish everyday tasks. My friends who do it for a living seem to really love it. And I've worked for a disability organization in the past and have really felt drawn to working with that population. But I do wish that observing OT would have felt more impactful. I'm going to try to check out a couple other settings.
But at least you know now what you would be getting into. And there are so many other things you could do instead of OT. The experience you've picked up through volunteer work could translate to other areas if you still want to stick with therapy or maybe something more medical. (And it sounds like you're young? College-age?) Good luck!
But at least you know now what you would be getting into. And there are so many other things you could do instead of OT. The experience you've picked up through volunteer work could translate to other areas if you still want to stick with therapy or maybe something more medical. (And it sounds like you're young? College-age?) Good luck!
Okay, well I totally disagree with your anaylsis of OT. And this is why: you say that you've seen geriatric OTs bath a client and CNA are fully capable of this... yes CNAs are capable of this and so are nurses so maybe CNAs job are pointless too, right?? But anyway, it's an OT job's to reteach geriatric patients to do these things on their own. A CNA's job is to just do it while an OT's job is to HELP them do it and help them relearn to do it without help at all! Yes, depending on the clients capability the OT in some sessions may be doing most of the work, but that's why OT isn't a quick fix (it takes time). Who do you think help stroke patients learn to hold a folk again, learn to write, learn to put their pants on again. Not a CNA, not a nurse, not a doctor. After you take off you arm cast who do you think help get your arm/hand back to working properly (and nope, most of the time it isn't a PT). If a child has texture issue, who can help them get over this problem... if they have little to no core strength, who helps them with this... if they are having trouble with writing, who can help them... if a child doesn't understand their strength and either exerts too much or too little, who helps them with this??? There is soooooo much that OTs do... Granted there are some things that OTs do that isn't rocket science, but some things just need to be done (i.e strength training with geriatric patients)... I can argue that some things PTs do isn't rocketscience either (I mean a child can tell someone to walk back and forth, right??), but the difference is I have NEVER heard one person say that PT is a pointless career!! I'm sorry that your shadowing hours turned you against OT as oppose to making you love the career more, but you are totally wrong in thinking that OT don't really help patients!!
To be honest, I think geriatric OTs sometimes can be the least "fun" cause it can get to be mundane often times, but I still see the value. I also don't like OT places that only have 30minute sessions, little can be done in 30minutes... I really fell in love with OT during my first OT shadowing at a place in CA... all their sessions were one hour and you could really see and understand the difference the OTs where making. You ever see a child spit out carrots? Maybe, but let me tell you why this was a major accomplishment... before going to OT this little boy would never even allow carrots at his family's kitchen table. He would freak out... but slowly the OT was able to help him be able to touch carrots, then to have carrots on his plate, then bring it up to his mouth, then bite, then chew and eventually he would be able to swallow them/eat it. Many children have trouble with foods, and it isn't the normal I just want chicken nuggets phase... this could be a real problem.
Sometimes doing silly things can actually be therapy... how on earth can swinging on a square swing while trying to pick up beads be therapy (oh but you have no idea how much that is helping a child (and they just think they are having fun)!! OTs help wounded vets, they help children, people with disabilities, people who had strokes, people who had heart surgery. OTs are so intergrated in our healthcare, but get very little recongnition... If it was such a pointless careers then why is it in so many fields... why have so many people benefited from it?? OT isn't for everyone, some people get burnt out, others like you find it pointless... but at the end of the day it is vital! I do hope you find a career that you think suits you well though... I also hope that one day you will again see why OT is important.
Like I said in my other post, I rarely walked out a thirty minute session feeling like OMG OT is great!! But in my research (and yes I actually did an independent research study... funded by my college... on OT) I found that the setting, the place, and the amount of time in a session can really make a difference. I've observed peds in thirty minute sessions, big OT clinics, small OT clinics, one hour session, and also on east coast vs. west coast... and I would say smaller facilities aren't as fun... they don't have as much equipment and space to do anything "big" so they have to work with other things (ipads have become popular). Also, I always stayed at a place for good period of time and made sure to try and shadow the same OT(s) so that I can witness the clients' progress. I think OT in hospitals is boring and if I based my decision off of that experience I would not be where I'm at right now... If you know that you like hand therapy and stroke rehab well then go into one of those fields... I mean, I'm pretty sure that a doctor didn't find all the areas in his/her rotations fun/interesting.
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I'm glad that you've learned that about yourself...but why did you feel the need to come onto an OT board to declare your feelings?
And I would add that if you shadowed OT's that were doing ADL's for a person, either they were bad OT's, or they weren't explaining their process well. OT is about thinking through occupation, which is extremely complex when you start to zoom in to the moving pieces involved. This is no offense to CNA's, but they don't have to think through the reasons that they're helping their patients. They don't have the responsibility of answering to insurance providers as to why they made a decision. They don't have to think through which assessments to administer, or to decipher the results. If you actually are interested in OT, I would see many settings to get a better picture of what they do (mental health, schools, hand therapy, hippotherapy, burns, NICU...none of these settings would emphasize having to assist with ADL's for people).
I really don't think she/he meant to come off as offensive, I didn't take it that way. I am not saying that OT is not beneficial, the concept of making someone self-reliant is extremely rewarding, but I can definitely say I favor some settings over others and from that bias I see OT intervention/rehab having a more influental effect in those settings. After three years of shadowing/volunteering, I think its good that she/he has definitely tested the waters and figured out that this may not be the field for her.
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I agree, I'm glad that she/he figured out OT wasn't for her/him... no need to waste money and regret the career later... but also even though not meant to be offensive I think many people will agree that saying, "a monkey can do it" is a little offensive... nonetheless, I just tried to explain why OT is important...
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hmm I'm just a little surprised about your claim that in the 3 years you shadowed you saw no one make improvements. I spent only one week in a SNF for FW 1 and clients would turn to me and rave about the progress their OT or OTA was helping them make--some of them going as far as saying they didn't want to leave because of the changes they were seeing in themselves. Going from being bedridden, debilitated and helpless to walking around a clinic and being able to have the dynamic balance to perform activities at the same time is not pointless and is what I consider progress.
In pediatrics I've witnessed children make breakthroughs right in front of me working with their therapist, like when a child was finally able to independently sit up on a swing. Having the trunk control to sit up is not a pointless endeavor--it pretty much affects every other occupation this child will perform in their life.
Or a guy I know who injured his hand and credits his healing to an OT. Yes there are certain interventions that make me think hmm this is pretty simple...but I guess you just need to find your niche in the OT world where you feel you're making a difference. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
In pediatrics I've witnessed children make breakthroughs right in front of me working with their therapist, like when a child was finally able to independently sit up on a swing. Having the trunk control to sit up is not a pointless endeavor--it pretty much affects every other occupation this child will perform in their life.
Or a guy I know who injured his hand and credits his healing to an OT. Yes there are certain interventions that make me think hmm this is pretty simple...but I guess you just need to find your niche in the OT world where you feel you're making a difference. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
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That's fair. I do think, partly, that I have felt so much excitement about getting into an OT program and checking out different schools. I really enjoy school now that I've found something that I've been interested in (whereas in undergrad, I certainly picked the wrong major, and thus the wrong career path). So it's quite possible that I might have a heightened expectation for each shadowing experience that I initially expect to match my excitement about school or learning more about OT on my own. It's totally possible I build up each experience way too much without acknowledging that I'm not going to love everything.
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I am very sorry if I have offended anyone, that was never my intention. Why did I come here? I felt discouraged and was very curious if anyone has ever felt this way after observing OTs. I was wondering if it was something other people feel, or if it was just me personally. Yes, I have done three years shadowing and accumulated over 350 hours. I am quite the overachiever. However, I think I continued to shadow because I was looking for the spark, I was in love with the idea of OT, but once I saw it in practice I gradually became uninterested and then a few weeks ago I had a sudden epiphany that this isn't something I should be doing. I just wanted to know if anyone else thought OT wasn't as beneficial after observing. Again I am very sorry to come off as offensive. I am glad that some of you are able to see the benefits of OT services and I am sure you all will be great OTs one day and hopefully be more productive than the many I have seen. As for the CNA comparison, es I do believe CNAs could teach someone to do their ADLs, I'm sorry but I have seen numerous hours of OT therapy and it really does not take much to teach someone how to pull up their pants and feed themselves. If more CNAs were available they would be able to spend more time with patients teaching this. I even had an OT tell me that she felt like going to grad school was completely unnecessary for OT. Of course I have seen people make improvements during my observations, however their improvements were ones I believe they could have made themselves *family help etc.) or with the assistance of a teacher, nurse or a PT. I have not shadowed an OT with stroke victims, however I can see how OT could benefit stroke victims. My friend is a stroke victim and he went through years of OT, however he informed me (while I was gung ho for OT) that he felt like the OT exercises were annoying and he absolutely hated OT. Of course I got offended and informed him that the tasks were important and that he likely would not be where he is today without the OT exercises, he denied that. However, I still feel as if OT was very beneficial to him. Either way I still believe a Master's or Doctorate degree is completely unnecessary in order to be an OT. I would also like to say that while shadowing in a SNF (which by far was the worst setting) the patients always asked the OT why they were doing the therapy and constantly told the OT how pointless it was. They seemed to love PT though. During my school based shadowing I witnessed and OT go into a classroom, work with kids by telling them to type or write etc. for 15-30 minutes and inform the teacher what to do to work with them. The teachers always did the majority of the work and I felt like the teachers were the ones making the difference in the children, the teachers always seemed puzzled as to why an OT was even there. In home health the OT went into homes and made home modifications that were (to me) common sense. At the end of the day OT should not be a graduate level of education and I'm sorry if this offends anyone. Also, the every OT I observed seemed to feel like they have to justify what they are doing to not only me, but everyone else (teachers, other health professionals) because everyone is confused by not only what OT is, but why they are doing it. I hope one day OT is more influential and more in-depth. I hope you all are able to become great OTs that actually make a difference. However, this career is simply not for me.
Sorry OT didn't work out for you. Hope you're able to find something more fulfilling.
At this point, there are a lot of career paths that require a certain level of education that is often times more of a formality than anything else. They are however a requirement, therefore I think that questioning these requirements is somewhat pointless.
I think that people take offense to your comments because they come off as very ignorant. You continuously bring but that you have 3 years of observation experience, yet your understanding of the profession appears to be very minimal. I don't doubt that you have a clear idea of what OTs do, I am just mentioning that you don't convey that understanding in your posts which might be why others take offense. You are also calling OT a "pretend job" saying a monkey can do it, so whether you meant it or not, it is not hard to see why people are taking offense. Also at times any health care worker's duties may overlap, but to say that one can do the other's job is very insensitive.
Insurance companies drive the health care field. There are various money saving methods that are implemented to cut costs. For example, I frequently see a nurse practitioner or a physicians assistant for medical appointments. When I need a tb test, an LPN administers it. All of this helps minimize costs. If a CNA could really do what an OT does, it would already be happening. Another thing to consider is the fact that insurance even reimburses for OT services. There are various forms of therapy (art, music, dance, etc.) that are effective for some patients but they are forced to pay out of pocket because insurance will not cover it. I strongly believe that if OT was totally useless and patients didn't make progress, health insurance wouldn't cover it.
At this point, there are a lot of career paths that require a certain level of education that is often times more of a formality than anything else. They are however a requirement, therefore I think that questioning these requirements is somewhat pointless.
I think that people take offense to your comments because they come off as very ignorant. You continuously bring but that you have 3 years of observation experience, yet your understanding of the profession appears to be very minimal. I don't doubt that you have a clear idea of what OTs do, I am just mentioning that you don't convey that understanding in your posts which might be why others take offense. You are also calling OT a "pretend job" saying a monkey can do it, so whether you meant it or not, it is not hard to see why people are taking offense. Also at times any health care worker's duties may overlap, but to say that one can do the other's job is very insensitive.
Insurance companies drive the health care field. There are various money saving methods that are implemented to cut costs. For example, I frequently see a nurse practitioner or a physicians assistant for medical appointments. When I need a tb test, an LPN administers it. All of this helps minimize costs. If a CNA could really do what an OT does, it would already be happening. Another thing to consider is the fact that insurance even reimburses for OT services. There are various forms of therapy (art, music, dance, etc.) that are effective for some patients but they are forced to pay out of pocket because insurance will not cover it. I strongly believe that if OT was totally useless and patients didn't make progress, health insurance wouldn't cover it.
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A lot of the people on this forum are either actively applying for schools or are in school for OT so there probably aren't enough who'd validate your assessment of this career being something monkeys can perform or they wouldn't be here. These people also probably wouldn't need a whole three years of shadowing before deciding whether a career is or isn't for them. However there's usually enough miserable people over at OT indeed forum who don't have the capacity to understand what occupational therapy entails and who probably shouldn't have gone into the field in the first place. Maybe you should take your shadowing woes over there--you'd be in good company. Also, I guarantee that whatever career you're now interested in could probably be performed by some other clinician, a family member or quite possibly a dog.
Prodigous, if anything people who have been in the field would be more knowledgeable about what the career entails than future students. Therefore your point is completely invalid. Also, I did not spend every single day of three years shadowing. It was maybe once a week in different settings. The reason I spent three years shadowing is because I kept convincing myself that I was observing "bad" OTs and was searching for an area that appealed to me. I came here because I wanted students opinions.. I wanted to know if any other future OT students had felt this way during their observation hours. I'm definitely not the only person who has felt this way. And peanut I actually have seen CNAs and teachers perform the exact same tasks OTs do, so yes it actually does already happen. I am VERY knowledgeable about what OT is and what they do. I have spent the last 3 years of my college life researching it and observing actual OTs. There are a lot of things I could say, however I won't be responding anymore. Because you are right. This is not the place to complain about the work of an OT and I do not want to discourage anyone from pursuing this specific career. Good luck to you all and I hope you find fulfillment in OT.
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I don't post often, but when I do it is to address misconceptions about our field.
So when observing the person going to the bathroom, what level of assist was provided? What was his baseline? Did he ambulate independently or with equipment? What did his transfer look like? Does he use adaptive equipment to undress? Does he have the fine motor control to zip up and button his pants? Can he externally rotate his shoulder enough to wipe himself? What is his upper extremity range of motion? Are his manual muscle tests within functional limits? What does his bathroom look like at home? How high is his toilet off the ground? Does he have Medicare? Does he have family support at home? Does he have or need durable medical equipment? Is he oriented and alert?
And the child in the school, what kind of grasp did he have? Static tripod? 4-point? Was he ulnarly deviating his wrist? How much pressure was he applying to the paper with the pencil? What kind of pencil was it? Was he stabilizing with his opposite hand? Was he writing on the lines? How was his visual perception? Did he demonstrate age-appropriate visual closure/figure ground? And concerning his posture, what kind of chair was it? Did he have anterior or posterior pelvic tilt? Did he have a lateral lean? How was his head positioned? Was his mouth closed? How was his breathing?
Task analysis is the foundation for a lot of what we do, so a CNA or teacher is not equipped to answer these questions (and the countless follow-up or clarifying questions) or do anything purposeful with the answers (I'd know, I used to be a special education teacher).
I did a lot of observing too and I can understand how an outsider would think anyone could do what an OT does. We are constantly advocating for the importance of OT. We can't satisfy everyone, but no profession does. Unfortunately, it seems like the OTs you observed did not convey all that goes on during therapy and may have just been bad practitioners. In reality, OT often goes unappreciated by by nurses, by doctors, by physical therapists, by pretty much everyone. OT is a skilled profession in every sense of the word and I hope you at least can come to acknowledge that even if you don't think it's the right job for you.
So when observing the person going to the bathroom, what level of assist was provided? What was his baseline? Did he ambulate independently or with equipment? What did his transfer look like? Does he use adaptive equipment to undress? Does he have the fine motor control to zip up and button his pants? Can he externally rotate his shoulder enough to wipe himself? What is his upper extremity range of motion? Are his manual muscle tests within functional limits? What does his bathroom look like at home? How high is his toilet off the ground? Does he have Medicare? Does he have family support at home? Does he have or need durable medical equipment? Is he oriented and alert?
And the child in the school, what kind of grasp did he have? Static tripod? 4-point? Was he ulnarly deviating his wrist? How much pressure was he applying to the paper with the pencil? What kind of pencil was it? Was he stabilizing with his opposite hand? Was he writing on the lines? How was his visual perception? Did he demonstrate age-appropriate visual closure/figure ground? And concerning his posture, what kind of chair was it? Did he have anterior or posterior pelvic tilt? Did he have a lateral lean? How was his head positioned? Was his mouth closed? How was his breathing?
Task analysis is the foundation for a lot of what we do, so a CNA or teacher is not equipped to answer these questions (and the countless follow-up or clarifying questions) or do anything purposeful with the answers (I'd know, I used to be a special education teacher).
I did a lot of observing too and I can understand how an outsider would think anyone could do what an OT does. We are constantly advocating for the importance of OT. We can't satisfy everyone, but no profession does. Unfortunately, it seems like the OTs you observed did not convey all that goes on during therapy and may have just been bad practitioners. In reality, OT often goes unappreciated by by nurses, by doctors, by physical therapists, by pretty much everyone. OT is a skilled profession in every sense of the word and I hope you at least can come to acknowledge that even if you don't think it's the right job for you.
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I think that some of the people who got upset about what she said read too much into it. She didn't mean to insult anyone's career decision - it is her perception/opinion of the field and she is allowed to have that. Think about when you first start dating someone - he or she is the most beautiful person ever, everything they have to say is interesting, their farts smell like cotton candy, and the sex is incredible. But after a while, those "rose-colored" glasses come off and the reality sets in. For some people, they see the person for who he or she is and they accept the flaws. For others, that person is annoying and dumb, and breaking up seems to be a recurring thought in their mind.
She has simply gotten to the point that the rose-colored glasses came off.
Occupational Therapy is not a perfect field. Some people are okay with accepting the flaws in order to be able to be involved in the field and make change so those flaws begin to go away. Others don't want to do that and want to find something that is fulfilling to them. I think that if OT isn't it, it is good that you are just letting it go. Give the opportunity to someone who truly desires it.
With that being said, I sort of understand where you're coming from. I wanted to be a psychologist so bad. But after talking to some psychologists (and doing some self-evaluation), I decided that it was not what I wanted to do anymore - I had my reasons and they are irrelevant right now. As long as you find something that makes you happy, it doesn't matter what anyone else has to say. Good luck!
She has simply gotten to the point that the rose-colored glasses came off.
Occupational Therapy is not a perfect field. Some people are okay with accepting the flaws in order to be able to be involved in the field and make change so those flaws begin to go away. Others don't want to do that and want to find something that is fulfilling to them. I think that if OT isn't it, it is good that you are just letting it go. Give the opportunity to someone who truly desires it.
With that being said, I sort of understand where you're coming from. I wanted to be a psychologist so bad. But after talking to some psychologists (and doing some self-evaluation), I decided that it was not what I wanted to do anymore - I had my reasons and they are irrelevant right now. As long as you find something that makes you happy, it doesn't matter what anyone else has to say. Good luck!
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Well Said about doing what truly makes you happy. No Job is perfect and Therapy jobs do involve lots of things that may sound too ' simplistic' in a way. But when you go to OT school and apply the knowledge to the field correctly, you realize its not really as simple as it sounds. Otherwise, there wont be a profession in this realm. There are many other healthcare fields but lets face it healthcare means direct human interaction and at some level you will have to do certain tasks that may look like 'nothing' if taken on their own. Please look at this profession holistically. Understand why OTs do what they do and how they work with their clients to get them back to feet. I feel we need more therapists especially in an ageing population amidst a rapidly changing socio health dynamic everywhere around the globe-Not just in USA. Nobody gets paid 3000 dollars plus every month just to make their clients go to bathroom everyday. This profession is in place for a reason. In my honest opinion, healthcare is a team effort in which all the allied and mainstream professions should take part in improving a patients life post injury of any sort. We need Doctors and Nurses and as much as we need them, we also need PTs and OTs . Doctors and Nurses are not trained to do PTs and OTs job and vice -versa. OT is not a pretend job. It is a real job that can make a huge impact on a person's life. I wish my grandfather had the help of OT to get him to be independent given his military lifestyle. He died of no big health cause but a sort of mental depression that hit him because he was not 'independent' anymore at the age of 90. Had their been OTs where he lived, may be he would have died happier and lived his last few days with dignity as he lived before when he was up and about.
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When you're going through a major transition period in life, it's natural to have intense feelings. I was pre-pharm for four years in college, volunteered in a pharmacy for years, was taking pre-pharm classes over the summer and preparing for the PCAT and then I realized...pharmacy wasn't for me! It was a difficult, confusing time, particularly because I had friends that were getting accepted to schools and I was back at home living with my parents.
Then I found OT. As someone set on working in healthcare, it had everything I wanted: good job prospects, one-on-one interaction with patients, good pay, autonomy, a variety of settings to work in, flexible hours and...it really seemed to make a difference. I was sold.
I immediately dropped pharmacy and lost touch with my former friends who were going on to pharm school. It was as if I had a terrible break-up with pharmacy, deleted all the cutesy pictures we took on Facebook and wanted to pretend like it never happened.
That being said, I kept any negative feelings about pharmacy to myself. I didn't feel that it was necessary to go online and mock people who were still applying to pharmacy schools.
Then I found OT. As someone set on working in healthcare, it had everything I wanted: good job prospects, one-on-one interaction with patients, good pay, autonomy, a variety of settings to work in, flexible hours and...it really seemed to make a difference. I was sold.
I immediately dropped pharmacy and lost touch with my former friends who were going on to pharm school. It was as if I had a terrible break-up with pharmacy, deleted all the cutesy pictures we took on Facebook and wanted to pretend like it never happened.
That being said, I kept any negative feelings about pharmacy to myself. I didn't feel that it was necessary to go online and mock people who were still applying to pharmacy schools.
That's like the cutest thing I ever read.
It's sounds like you've already decided this career isn't for you, which is fine, so I'm answering this for somebody that maybe is reading through this forum and suddenly terrified by what you have said above.
What you get out of shadowing is up to you.
If you don't know why your OT's were doing what they were doing, you weren't asking enough questions. I drove my reviewer insane with questions the first day, until she told me I'd have to write them down and leave them for the end of the day, which I did (and she was grateful, lol) and what I found was that even though I, personally, have spent years as a patient in physical therapy, and done a ton of research and taken OT specific classes--it turned out there was a specific reasoning or logic for every single thing she did, even if I didn't understand why or it wasn't obvious from the outside. She was constantly ruling out different assistive devices, alternate therapies, and checking to see whether something was a good idea for the patient or contra-indicated.
Since I love examples, I'll give you one. One day of my shadowing, we did a nursing home visit for a patient that had been in a motorcycle accident and had a fairly bad TBI and undetermined neurological damage, even two years later. He was unable to speak for the most part, and had no movement in his entire body except for his head and neck and one arm that had very limited movement. We were trying to figure out a good way for him to communicate with his caretakers so he could potentially go home. What would you recommend? A communication board? A laser eye tracking interface? Telepathy?
At one point, she looks at me, and mutters very quietly, "do you notice anything? Think head."
I take about a minute and just watch him, and then I realize that he seems to be angling his head at a very extreme angle when he's trying to see the interface we've set up. It dawns on me. "I think . . . maybe he can't see, except for out of that one area of his eye."
She states, "I've been tracking that. With brain injury, visual function can disappear or move field of vision on a daily basis due to swelling changes. So one thing we're trying to do here today is figure out if he can actually see the communicative devices we're setting up, or if we need to switch to something auditory only."
The nature of the problem he's dealing with is incredibly complicated. He might be able to see. He might not. He might understand what we're saying to him. He might not. He might be making purposeful half/vocalizations towards us, or they could be just groans of pain. And somehow, we need to figure out what is going on and find a way for this man to be able to communicate to the outside world again.
That is ABSOLUTELY outside of the realm of a CNA in my state, who does like a quick certificate program. This thought process is 100% OT. I am trying not to get pissed off at you right now, but think about this--if it wasn't a real profession, would there be a college of OT in almost every single country in the entire developed world? Would we be getting paid what we're getting paid? Would it be one of the 10 fastest growing professions in the United States (depending on your metric, of course). Would it be a recognized shortage profession in half of Europe? You're right; it's not "rocket science"--it's half science, half art, with a lot of creativity and empathy thrown into the mix.
I can across this article just yesterday: http://www.businessinsider.com/most-meaningful-jobs-in-america-2015-7
According to a recent survey of more than 2 million respondents and a ranking of 500 professions, being an Occupational Therapist was ranked as one of the most meaningful jobs in America (#11).
I understand that this profession is not for everybody. I'm also aware that not everyone can accurately understand what OTs do (even those who have gone through "extensive shadowing"). This is not just a profession that represents skill. It's one that requires heart. Like any profession that involves patient care, if your intentions are not in the right place then in the end the patient suffers. So let's be glad that others realize early on that this professional is not for them. It not only saves them wasted time, money and effort, but more importantly it frees an opportunity for someone else who really wants to be an OT. This individual will then be able to provide that high level of care that is required of this profession and, as a consequence, develop a true understanding of its meaningfulness. In the end, I see it as a win-win for everyone.
According to a recent survey of more than 2 million respondents and a ranking of 500 professions, being an Occupational Therapist was ranked as one of the most meaningful jobs in America (#11).
I understand that this profession is not for everybody. I'm also aware that not everyone can accurately understand what OTs do (even those who have gone through "extensive shadowing"). This is not just a profession that represents skill. It's one that requires heart. Like any profession that involves patient care, if your intentions are not in the right place then in the end the patient suffers. So let's be glad that others realize early on that this professional is not for them. It not only saves them wasted time, money and effort, but more importantly it frees an opportunity for someone else who really wants to be an OT. This individual will then be able to provide that high level of care that is required of this profession and, as a consequence, develop a true understanding of its meaningfulness. In the end, I see it as a win-win for everyone.
You guys realize hes trolling right? Clearly he has done little to no shadowing and has no understanding of what we as OT's do. Honestly, I had little to no understanding until I actually got into school where I realized how complex everything is. I'm sure I'm not the only one who felt that way after just a year of school. Don't feed him. He'll have more success trolling at the indeed forums mentioned above. There's plenty there already, and they can eat together.
By the way, this response is superb Peanut.
By the way, this response is superb Peanut.
I just finished observing in pediatric sensory integration and found it to be AMAZING. I left feeling excited that I could one day be helping ppl in the same way. I saw the kids make improvements in my time there. Some of the kids have been there for years and have made major improvements. If you don't see the value in the field, it's probably not for you. I had to ask a lot of questions and educate myself on therapeutic techniques to start to understand what was going on.
