OT Job Description

[jturpin4]

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Hey everyone, I am a pre-ot student at the moment. I have a question. I was recently reading some threads on another message board about some stuff that OT's have to do. I read something on toilet transfers and tub transfers. Do OT's help patients do this while they are nude or fully clothed??? I really hope I didn't get in to something that I regret!

 

[aishel]

Hey everyone, I am a pre-ot student at the moment. I have a question. I was recently reading some threads on another message board about some stuff that OT's have to do. I read something on toilet transfers and tub transfers. Do OT's help patients do this while they are nude or fully clothed??? I really hope I didn't get in to something that I regret!

Honestly, the answer is both. I'm also a student, and I'm rotating in an acute inpatient setting, where the patients aren't nude, but wearing hospital gowns. They may need help moving their gowns once on the toilet itself, so all you're really going to see are some buttocks. If you're working on another unit such as Traumatic Brain Injury, you tend to work more on things like dressing, so you might see something then.

But honestly, you don't see much, and if you do, you get used to it real quick and you don't even give it a second thought anymore!

Good luck with your decision!

 

[jturpin4]

Honestly, the answer is both. I'm also a student, and I'm rotating in an acute inpatient setting, where the patients aren't nude, but wearing hospital gowns. They may need help moving their gowns once on the toilet itself, so all you're really going to see are some buttocks. If you're working on another unit such as Traumatic Brain Injury, you tend to work more on things like dressing, so you might see something then.

But honestly, you don't see much, and if you do, you get used to it real quick and you don't even give it a second thought anymore!

Good luck with your decision!

Aishel,

When the patient is on the toilet, you don't have to help them wipe do you? I didn't know if that is part of the OT stuff doing "daily things" or if the Nurse actually does that part. Also, in the tub transfers, do you help them take a bath? I know in Nursing School you give baths. Thank you for answering my questions!

 

[Sublux7]

Aishel,

When the patient is on the toilet, you don't have to help them wipe do you? I didn't know if that is part of the OT stuff doing "daily things" or if the Nurse actually does that part. Also, in the tub transfers, do you help them take a bath? I know in Nursing School you give baths. Thank you for answering my questions!

I have been an OT for 6 years in acute care....and yes, you do have to help wipe. It is part of helping them manage toileting, and its the biggest thing in the hospital, let me tell you. The nurse is so busy anyway, youd be waiting forever! 😉

As far as tub/shower txfers, the patients are high level that actually get to that point, so I have them practice clothed. The only ones I usually help get into the shower are trauma patients that usually need to hose off the dried blood and glass stuck on them; but they transfer into the shower with gowns on, and then I help them shower if needed.

 

[delightx81]

Hey everyone, I am a pre-ot student at the moment. I have a question. I was recently reading some threads on another message board about some stuff that OT's have to do. I read something on toilet transfers and tub transfers. Do OT's help patients do this while they are nude or fully clothed??? I really hope I didn't get in to something that I regret!

Hey jturpin, what do you want to specialize in? There are areas of practice in which you will not have to do tub transfers/wiping, such as pediatrics and mental health. I volunteered 81 hours at a pediatric therapy clinic, and whenever the kids wet themselves, the therapists called the parents to come take care of it. You may have to do tub transfers/wiping during your fieldworks in school, but you could choose a specialty afterwards where you won't encounter those tasks.

 

[JimmyG]

JTurpin,

I don't want to put a damper on this thread, but yes, there are many days that you could interchange my OTR/L with CNA behind my name. I have changed jobs multiple times because I have had to spend at least 40-50% (no exaggeration) doing CNA work at most of the facilities I have worked at, but it is the same everywhere I went. I have worked in acute care, rehabilitaion hospitals, sub-acute, SNFs and home health. I prefer to work with adults and, as the other posters stated, peds may be much better in this aspect. The unfortunate thing is that OT school and clinical fieldworks vs "the real world" of health care do not mesh well. I tried, when I was a new grad, to stay away from doing a lot of the wiping, or taking a patient to the bathroom during treatment but what you learn is that the nurses are so busy and, really, to keep good relations with them, it is better to just do it yourself, since it is an ADL opportunity. In rehab, we spend the first 3 hours of our day doing actual showers with our patients--it is the policy of our hospital and it is what CMS/reimbursement requires of OTs as part of the ADL FIMS they look for. Improving a patient's independence in ADL is such a large aspect of our job and I enjoy helping a patient gain that independence; however, the way the system is structured to emphasize productivity, I, personally, never feel that I have ample time to help educate a patient, who has an impairment or disability in someway, to complete a full morning of ADLS (showering, grooming, dressing, transferring!) in the 30 minute time span we are allotted. So my advice to you is to know, yes, what you are getting into. I am only telling you this because this is a large part of me choosing to go back to medical school because I might have thought twice if I had known the whole picture. I am not trying to be negative by any means. Just honest. Just find a job when you get out of school that emphasizes patient care and not productivity 🙂 Good luck!! Being an OT is an awesome career despite all that I have just said.

 

[aishel]

I'd also like to add that it also depends ont he setting regarding wiping other people's butts. If you're treating someone who just came out of orthopedic surgery (which is the unit I was on), they know how to wipe their butts already. It's when you get to lower level units, such as TBI or Neuro that you have to do that stuff, because you're re-educating them in how to wipe.

But like someone said above, many settings don't require anything that has to do with wiping, such as pediatrics in the school system, home modifications, etc.

 

[topconlacj]

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[TheEarDoc]

Ummmm it's part of healthcare. I'm an audiologist and also an RN. I've wiped plenty of butts, noses, etc as both an audiology doctor and RN. It's just part of the job. You get used to it really quick. You won't survive in a hospital setting if you're going to be the kind of OT that thinks that transfers and ADL's assistance are jobs for just nurses. I've witnessed a few of our hospitalists even help wipe patients and emptying bed pans. It's called patient care. If this bothers you then maybe you should either go to medical school or leave medicine all together. I'm not being a jerk I'm just being completely honest.