OTs in Nursing Homes

Hi Readers:

Last week, I discussed occupational therapy in a school setting and this week I want to inform you on occupational therapy in a nursing home or skilled nursing facility. In a skilled nursing facility there are adults in the aging community of all different ages and functional levels. Some clients may be permanent residents of the facility or they may just but staying for a short time for rehabilitation after an accident or injury.

The role of the OT in the nursing facility is to work with the client and their family to create a treatment process plan, train the client with the assistive devices, adapt them to new environments, and finally with any mental and behavioral issues. When working with short term clients, main roles include environment modifications, reintegration to normal living, leisure skills/participation and more. When working with long term clients, the OT is involved with functional mobility activities such as bathing or cooking, working on cognitive skills, educating caregivers and more.

The occupational therapists also play a big role in prevention and development programs. Some of these programs include fall prevention, dementia management therapeutic groups and so on. OTs contribute a lot to the aging community and have helped in the process of teaching them to live more independently and how they want as they become older. I hope the information I delivered to you has been beneficial and provided you with what you wanted to know!

Thanks for reading,

Megan

References:

American Occupational Therapy Association. (2015). "Occupational Therapy's Role in Skilled Nursing Facilities." www.aota.org/~/media/Corporate/Files/AboutOT/Professionals/WhatIsOT/RDP/Facts/FactSheet_SkilledNursingFacilities.pdf?la=en

School Occupational Therapist

Hi Readers:

Now that you have a better understand of what occupational therapy is, I would like to go more in depth about the different types of occupational therapy jobs one could have! The first one I want to talk about is a school occupational therapist. An OT in the school setting could work with all ages, kindergarten to high school, and even college students!

A school occupational therapist has many roles and duties within their jobs. The central purpose of their jobs is to “support a student’s ability to participate in desired daily school activities” (AOTA). The OT has the opportunity to work with a variety of students. Any regular student may see the OT just because they struggle with waking up in the morning, so they would see the OT before class to do some exercises to wake up! But, the main population of students that see the OT are in the school’s special education program. These students may only have learning disabilities such as Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Dyslexia, but see the OT to help their performance in both school activities and outside of school. Other students in this type of program may be students have mental disabilities such as Autism or Asperger Syndrome, who need more one on one attention to be able to learn everyday skills. The OTs help these students with behavioral and self-help skills, and vocational preparations.  The vocational preparation is more in the high school age range, as the OT tries to teach these students skills that they may use for future jobs. The occupational therapist works collaboratively with the school’s educators, administration and parents. Other faculty members the OT works closely with could be the school’s speech therapist, psychologist, and physical therapist.

As you can see, school occupational therapists have a big role in a student’s success both in school and in life. They help all different age groups and a broad spectrum of students. Hopefully this inform you of what a school OT does or can do!

Thanks for reading,
Megan

References:
American Occupational Therapy Association. (2016). "Occupational Therapy School Setting Fact Sheet." https://www.aota.org/~/media/Corporate/Files/AboutOT/Professionals/WhatIsOT/CY/Fact-Sheets/School%20Settings%20fact%20sheet.pdf?la=en

What is Occupational Therapy??

Hi readers:

To start, occupational therapy is profession more and more popular, but some people still do not know what it is! Occupational therapists are certified professionals that "help people across the lifespan participate in the things they want and need to do through the therapeutic use of everyday activities" (AOTA). These skills they could help a patient learn to do could be as simple as getting dressed or eating if they have some form of a restriction. Occupational therapists work with the fine motor skills while physical therapists work with gross motor skills. Occupational therapists work a variety of patients and in a variety of settings, in which I hope to go into more deatails in other posts.

To become an occupational therapist, one has to obtain a masters degree in occupational therapy. Obviously before that, one has to have a Bachelors degree. Many people receive a general Bachelors of Science degree or a health sciences degree, then go on to graduate school to receives their Masters. However, there are some universities that have a combined undergraduate and graduate program for occupational therapy. Saint Louis University is one of the schools. You spend 4 years as an undergrad and 1 year as a graduate student. After 5 years you would have your Master of Occupational Therapy. Once you have received your degree from an accredited program, you have to pass the NBCOT, National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy. After passing the NBCOT you have to apply and pay for a license. OT licenses are per state, so if you wish to practice in more than one state, you need to have more than one license.

Hopefully this information about what occupational therapy is and how to obtain the degrees and license was helpful!

Thanks for reading!
Megan

Work Cited
American Occupational Therapy Association. (2015). "About Occupational Therapy." https://www.aota.org/About-Occupational-Therapy.aspx

Why Create a Blog?

Hi readers:

My name is Megan Cussen and I am a sophomore in the occupational therapy program at Saint Louis University. I am here, creating this blog for a few reasons. The main reason for my blog is because many people have not heard of occupational therapy before or do not know what it entails. It even gets confused for physical therapy sometimes. Another reason I want to create this blog, is to help those who are interested in this particular field of work, learn more about it. Specifically, I will talk about the different types of jobs one could have with a degree in occupational therapy. With the different job areas, comes different work environments which I will discuss along with the particular job. Occupational therapy is a field of work that is on the rise, therefore more people should be aware about what it is! I am someone who is interested in this topic and have the resources to provide you with the information you may want to know! Hopefully you as a reader will learn more about this topic and it guides you towards the right path, whether that is occupation therapy or not. For my next post, I am hoping to talk about what occupational therapy is and the educational background it requires.

Thanks for reading!
Megan