PTs taking over OT??

[jess818]

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Hello All!

Sorry to hi-jack your threads but I am looking for opinions. I have just been accepted to PT school and am super excited. My younger sister, however, had recently been interested in speech therapy but had a change of heart and was considering becoming a special education teacher. I suggested that she look into becoming an occupational therapist as they often work with people with special needs. I have even shadowed at a place like that in the past where they saw patients and also ran a classroom for children with autism.

Anyways, my boyfriend is seeing a PT right now for his back and was telling him about my sister and I. The PT told my boyfriend that he should tell my sister to really re-consider the field of OT as PTs are becoming certified to do many of the same things OTs are certified to do. He also said it is hard for OTs to find jobs and they often get stuck doing the "dirty" work.

In my own personal, and admittedly, limited experience, there seems to be a TON of OT jobs and they do many of the same things as the PTs do. I could see how PTs could then take over some of those jobs but what about working with special needs children?? I'm just looking for some other people's opinion-she really wants to go that route and is having negative feedback. Thanks for an input 🙂

 

[caduceus27]

NOPE that is not correct and it is quite the contrary. PT cant and will not take over what OTs do. Because PTs simply are not trained to do what OTs do.IN school PTs think about muscle strength and ROM while OT consider what are he underlying factors that are preventing the patient from performing a particular task. There is a very high demand for OT. In peds there is actually a lower demand for PTs because they is so much of them. So I dont know where your PT is getting his/her facts and statistically there are more PTs than OTs ill let you decide which one is in higher demand.

 

[jess818]

Thanks for the response! I was personally offeneded that that individual would make what I took to be such an ignorant statement but I figured I would ask others. I will pass the word on to my sister 🙂

 

[superCOTA]

For starters, PT's aren't taught compensatory training. You could tell them this, they will disagree, and just make the patient do more reps with a blown out joint which will 'compensate' for the weakness (?), while we help the patient find another way to accomplish a functional task with the abilities they have. They just don't get it.

PT IS trying to add ADL's to thier practice acts, which is a state defined definition as to what they can do, and be reimbursed for. It's part of PT's grand agenda. They will keep trying until one state accepts it into law. All the while, they aren't taught ADL's in school. But they are also fighting to write their own scripts, and largely acheived this... so their plan to start therapy w/o a dr's referral and work on everything - alone- isn't something to ignore.

It's a battle, but we will be fine. If we renamed outselves something simpler, we would be rememberd in a clearer context.... but that is another story.

 

[beans&flowers]

It's a battle, but we will be fine. If we renamed outselves something simpler, we would be rememberd in a clearer context.... but that is another story.

please share the story