Hi Jenny,Unfortunately OTs are just as weird as everyone else. AT my first rehab placement I was told by my supervisor that I was a therapist now and to act like one. She didn't care what I did as long as I did the paperwork correctly. At this placement most of the OTS were in their 20s and was in my 40s. At lunch I drove to a fast food place most days to get a break from the stress. She complained to my fieldwork supervisor at school that I was too quiet and didn't eat lunch with them. They basically ignored me as they talked about their lovelives and drinking escapades anyway. My fieldwork supervisor told me that extroverts don't trust quiet people because they don't know how to read you, or if you like them. As a result they tend to take much longer to accept you. While it seemed crazy then I have learned it pays to be more talkative in general.At my psych placement in a large teaching hospital with a psych ER unit there was one COTA who did all the groups and an OT who had been there for 20 years. She was at war with four or five rec therapists who also staffed the department since the hospital couldn't fine enough OTs. They constantly complained about everything I did. Why she took students I don't know. My mother in law died and she told me to take whatever time I needed. I got back to town after 3 work days and a weekend away for services, etc. I was a wreck so I took the last two days off. When I got back she threatened to flunk me because when her daughter's grand father died at the beginning of my fieldwork she didn't take anytime off. She said I wasn't professional because of this. Well I had known this woman for almost 30 years and at this point my family was far more important than this placement.So I learned nothing in my placements other than playing the game is more important than pt. care. Guess I was naive.
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