Wendy,
I completely agree with you! I love your doctor
analogy. It is so very true. In fact, one of the
main things that drew me to OT was the fact that there
are sooooo many different areas in which to work, just
like with doctors. However, the difference between us
and doctors is that docs have specific credentials and
degrees behind their names that qualify them to
practice in their specialty area. For example, a
dermotolgist very well could not perform brian
surgery. Am I correct?
I think this is where we fall short as OTs. For
example, those of us who have worked in Pediactrics
for our entire OT career could move to a geriatric
setting without being required to obtained additional
training. Of course there are those who would attend
CEU courses and self-train in preparation for a job in
a new-to-them setting. However, there are many who
would not and that is when it becomes dangerous.
With all of our talk about people not knowing what OT
is at all, can you ever imagine the day when people
say, "Oh you are an OT? What kind of OT?" as they do
with doctors?! Wouldn't that be wonderful? :)
Sheila
--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> A couple points on this... first of all in defining
> ourselves/our profession
> we shouldn't have to give an example of what every
> OT does in every setting.
> That is information overload. When was the last
> time you heard a doctor say,
>
> " I am a doctor, I practice medicine to help people
> get healthy. I work in a
> hospital with patients who have heart problems, but
> some doctors work with
> children in an office, other doctors work in the
> military and do surgery,
> some do surgery on the brain but other doctors do
> surgery on bones, still
> others work only with skin... blah blah blah."
>
> See where I'm going? We are allowed to work with
> different clientele in
> different settings without feeling like we have to
> give an "OT101 Intro to
> OT" lecture in 15 minutes. It is much more
> effective to give broad statement
> defining OT as a health profession that helps people
> be independent in their
> daily lives by focusing on what is important and
> meaningful to each person.
> Our title comes from the word occupation- activities
> that are personally
> meaningful to the client. THEN you can briefly
> state your specialty area, or
> better yet, make it meaningful to the audience. If
> you are talking to a
> teacher, explain how OTs work with children to help
> them participate in
> classroom occupations.
>
> The second point is that we can enlist the help of
> others but educating key
> people like other disciplines on the team. My
> brother is a PT and the head
> of a rehab department. He fully understands
> occupation and how occupations
> define our work. He is able to identify who is
> practicing OT and who is not
> and provides supervision accordingly thus reducing
> duplication of services
> and protecting the integrity of OUR profession. He
> even strongly suggests
> key OT articles to be read and incorporated into
> practice by the time the
> next review comes.
> Wendy
>
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