Other OT-Related Information Prospective student, new to all this...

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Hi all! I am a prospective OT student, just about to start shadowing a healthcare professional to see if this really is the profession for me. I have known about OT but never pursued it until a family member had a great experience with one (who's also a CHT). It got me to thinking...maybe this is a potential job where I can meld my passion for public health with my desire for more person-centered daily responsibilities. Am I being realistic in that assumption that I can meld public health with OT? Or should I be looking towards PT?

Regardless, I currently work in public health, have a passion for health promotion, and am specifically interested in serving the working class and elderly folks. I have very little interest in pediatrics (and in fact, after reading some of the FW stories here, am positively terrified of being placed in a pediatrics setting where I'd surely fail due to my awkwardness and non-fluency/facility with children). I have been lurking about and reading through the threads to learn more - I appreciate the lively community here and will continue to just read and learn.

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OT definitely fits into public health promotion, and that is an emerging area of practice that the profession hopes to push into, according to the goals of AOTA's Centennial Vision. PT does not have the market cornered on that front, so I wouldn't rule out OT based on that, however depending on what you want to do in terms of health promotion, you will probably not be making the same kind of cash a CHT would (really, few OT specialties do - CHT requires a lot of extra work and years of experience), and it might require the profession to start creating our own opportunities where there were none previously (again, not making tons of cash).

In terms of what you are interested in, geriatrics is already a huge part of where the OT jobs are, and will continue to be as the elderly population continues to grow, so no worries there. However, I wouldn't rule out working with a population until you experience it. I didn't think I had ANY interest in geriatrics until I did a pre-fieldwork course requirement this past year (my first year of OT school) at retirement community in their Memory Care Unit and loved it. I still think my destiny is pediatrics, but I requested a geriatrics setting for one of my Level I fieldwork placements, something I never thought I'd do! Additionally, you may not HAVE to do a fieldwork in peds, in that ACOTE does not have specific requirements for which populations you do your fieldwork in, except that the second Level I placement must have a mental health focus; even if you are not at a mental health facility, where OT jobs are rare, you would be focusing on the mental health of your clients. (This is also part of the goals of the Centennial Vision - to get OT back to its roots in mental health and hopefully reopen those jobs, which is clearly needed right now in this country - the state of mental health services is pretty poor). Some schools may have their own requirements, but not all do - at my school, we are strongly encouraged to experience four different settings/populations during our fieldwork, but there is no requirement that we MUST do a peds placement, etc.

Anyway, I know that was really specific, but I hope that helps! I'm just halfway into my program (starting Year 2 this fall of an MSOT), so I'm sure more seasoned OT students here who can elaborate more.

 

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Thank you for responding! Interestingly that you write about not knocking something until you try it. Today at work, while working with a pediatrician, I conflated pediatrics with kids and she said "no, it's anyone under the age of 18, not just children. Be careful with that." I thought, of course! So I was mistaking pediatrics for always working with children, whereas I think I would be quite comfortable with teens and adolescents. Everyday is a learning experience!

How do you like your MSOT program? What inspired you to go into OT?