With each course enrollment, you get job application materials (sample resumes, sample cover letters, etc.) Youll need special certifications from Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America for both ATP and SMS roles. One of the most important independent activities of daily living is being able to get yourself from point A to point B. This might mean picking up a few per diem OT jobs for a year and networking as much as possible with case management during that time. If you are, be sure to read AOTAs position on OTs role in health promotion for some added insight. That said, you dont need any additional training to write for your next career! Attend mixers with local home builders, contractors, and corporate development firms. Its not necessary, but its helps you feel committed psychologically when you feel youve truly exhausted all options in clinical care before trying something new. Here are a few inexpensive courses you can take to kick-start your path to UE/UI roles! In preparation for these events, youll want to: Youll want to have your title and a personal email address on hand for anytime you meet folks at networking events, healthcare hackathons, or even happy hours! We can also move into roles where we consult with practices to help them improve their billing and workflow practices. Educator. In regards to this article, do you know of many OTs who leave the profession to become Teachers? The site is chock-full of great information to help you launch a non-traditional OT career. Once you have a few published articles under your name, you can start using sites like Upwork to start getting freelance and contract work. You dont necessarily need to go to court. If they work as a cash business, not getting paid through insurance. I bet an OT could find a rehab equipment sales job if they wanted or something similar. That said, after youve spent a few years getting your feet wet, you are more likely to catch up to (and often far exceed) what you were making as a clinician. Thank you for the great ideas as well as links to further learn about them. Very informative & encouraging site! A common career path for occupational therapists after theyve been in the field for several years or several decades is to go into teaching and/or research at a specific occupational therapy program. If tapping people to ask for their time gives you the heebie jeebies, dont worry! Organize lunches and in-services. Even if you dont move up in your existing company, you can list what youve done on your resume and start applying for lead roles at other facilities. If youre lucky enough to live near any of the 10 ADA centers in the U.S., you can also offer to volunteer. For those with a considerable amount of experience in a particular OT area ( ex. You can become an OT professor, an adjunct instructor, a tutor, a subject matter expert, or a con-ed instructor. I hope this post gave you some inspiration and ideas if youre looking for a change. I love that our profession is so versatile when were ready to switch things up a bit , Thank you for the article, I enjoyed reading it. This of course will require more direct hands-on experience, so it may not be not for everyone. offer contract work (similar to registry or per diem work) for creatives. You may remember studying this briefly for the NBCOT. Im so sorry to hear about leaving your job! Thanks again for sharing! I think that there is a huge demand for this, in particularly targeting the opioid users where we are seeing such a wide spread use. For a great perspective on this, check out OT Devon Breitharts experience as a freelance writer, complete with tips on how get started. A perfect match for me!Tanisha Cowell. It looks like there isnt a ton of information doing a Google search, but I did find this article to be helpful: How to Become an Insurance Auditor Many positions that you did propose are more towards OTRs? The guide helps you think through key questions to get your business off the ground like should you have a specialty, what equipment should you buy, and whats the best way to manage operations? While there are certainly differences, it will be a helpful starting point to understand your options. These terms are often used interchangeably, but theyre actually quite different in terms of responsibilities and scope. Hello, I am an OT with a masters degree and 14 years of clinical experience in the acute care hospital and outpatient settings with lymphedema experience as well. Any suggestions? Definitely contact your schools alumni association to see if theres anything you can do to network or put your name out there. I work in architecture/construction to ensure public spaces are disability accessible. There are so many types of medical equipment that we work with on a regular basis, like neuro VR programs, e-stim, modalities, dynamic splinting, hospital beds, wheelchairs, and so on. The world of education is filled with opportunities for OTs. For more information about careers in medical sales, check out this post on Monster.com:Pharma, Biotech, Medical-Device Sales: Which Is for You? If you are not OK with this, you can opt-out if you wish. It is designed for people who know they want to pivot to a new career, but arent sure what they want to do, nor how to create resumes, find jobs, interview, negotiate, etc. Hi Sarah! This is a real issue that we OTs need to address as soon as possible. Way to open this conversation and look forward to keeping in touch. Youll spend your days scrutinizing environments, then making recommendations to ensure they are free from hazards and have injury prevention measures in place. If you have big ideas, energy, a passion for creating something from nothing, and you have the drive to creatively bring value to the world, you might have what it takes to start and grow your own OT business. Also, youll definitely want to take few courses on usability and user experience to legitimize yourself as a candidate. Family or community commitments can also change over the years, which can impact your desire and ability to work in clinical care. Im also now seeing occupational therapists starting their own chronic pain clinics (which I think is great; I go to a chronic pain OT myself and love her practice). This is yet another great option to go into if you have a passion for helping people but do not find traditional settings like hospitals a good fit for you personally. Many times, insurance and Medicare auditors dont really understand the interventions were providing. The wonderful thing about being an occupational therapist or COTA is that our education and experience is so versatile, but it can be hard to know exactly where to turn if you want to do something out of the norm. Mental health in OT is a much smaller niche than the typical rehab settings, but if your passion is in mental health, you can start looking on Indeed.com for OT mental health settings (you may need to branch out into other cities as these jobs are typically harder to find). I am an OT student struggling to figure out what I want to do for my capstone project and the field that I want to go into, but your article has helped me so much. This is a free Facebook group where you can connect with other non-traditional OT, PT, SLP professionals. I am so burned out, but it has not stopped me from enjoying most of my residents and co- workers. All the allopathic therapies leave some side effects on the patients care. I have been struggling for a while to find my just right fit. Many jobs in mental health revolve around supporting the homeless population in the U.S. and abroad. Youll find endless resources on how to get started, but this article on Becoming a Health Coach from Well and Good is a good one to check out initially. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. This is one of those times when youll have to get out and volunteer and network as much as possible. There probably isnt an OT provider out there who hasnt thought about taking a break from patient care. Hi, and thank you for writing and posting such an insightful article! . As noted above, financial considerations are real. I think that many of these non-traditional career paths can be done as a COTA, especially creating a business and consulting. This is such a perfect role for an occupational therapist! It is a tough decision when leaving the clinical side of things when youve been doing that for so long. On this path, the short term satisfaction of getting a steady paycheck with predictable hours is foregone for the long-term prospect of being the owner of a successful and valuable practice. Can you give me any advice on where to look for employment in this area? Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Learn how your comment data is processed. Disability Access Consulting is also an emerging role for OTs. Reach out to companies like MedBridge, OccupationalTherapy.com, and Embodia Academy; if youve got quite a bit of niche clinical experience, you may be able to teach a course with them! I LOVE being able to work with them one-on-one and in small groups. 1. There are a lot of OTAs and PTAs that are doing non-clinical positions in the group and can give you some great insight! You have to have an immense drive deep down to be able to put in the time and effort day after day as well as deal with the seemingly never-ending problems that will arise when starting a business. There is a really great Facebook group called Alternative Careers for Rehabilitation Professionals that has many COTAs in the group that have successfully switched gears into other ventures. That said, the quotas are usually very reasonable, unlike clinical productivity expectations these days! This route may also fall into the category of Business Owner/Entrepreneur as you can certainly start your own Home Modifications business. Patients may become unable to operate a vehicle in situations involving recent amputation, stroke, brain injury, or other neurological impairment. Also, if youre still interested, you could try contacting insurance companies near you to inquire more about requirements and training. I have read this article but most of these jobs are for OTs that have been in the feild with experience. Looking more towards the future, this is an easy field to get excited about, especially when you see things like this in the news:Prosthetic Limbs, Controlled by Thought. Its definitely advisable for new grads (or people who have only worked in one setting) to consider whether they should spend a little more time in patient care before switching gears. I do hope this list at least gives you a few non-physical types of job ideas to help you with your career transition. Youll also need to take exams to get certified. Thank you that means a lot! These alternative career ideas come from an array of different conversations that Ive been a part of with other OTs at work and online. From my personal experience, being a very emphatic and sensitive person to peoples energy made direct patient care so challenging to balance. While some informational interviews do turn into jobs or mentorship opportunities, you should never assume this will be the case. Youll also want to beef up your resume to reflect any research, tutoring, lab assisting, or clinical instructor roles youve held since your student years. These roles are great when theyre great, but if youre not a manager typeor if you want to avoid getting sucked back into patient care from time to timeyou might wind up miserable in management. Thank you, Andy! As in inpatient OT, Ive been looking for alternative careers and economics and sales excite me the most. Id like to add two more to your list. Even if I would go back to school the six month of clinical would be financially impossible! While the hackathon scene has slowed down a bit because of the pandemic and economic changes, a good Google search shows theyre still taking place. Some roles (especially with rehab tech companies) may enable remote workbut in some cases, youll be expected to work onsite, which might even mean you need to relocate to a pricey city. Much thanks A byline is an attribution for authorship of an article. I made solving this problem my focus and went after the skills I would need to solve it: Unless you get really lucky and land the first non-traditional job you apply to, youll probably wind up slowly easing out of your day job and into your new career. I am definitely fighting the burn out mode. Basically, if you have a favorite product, get in contact with the company and see if theyre hiring sales reps. You can always Google the company and search their open positions. With driving rehab, you are still working with patients butare much more focused on one specific aspect of their life. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Some people are born to be entrepreneurs. As Director of Adult Services for an Arc agency, I often feel alone as a non-traditional OT and would love to get the word out in any way that I can to other OTs to pursue a similar non-traditional OT role such as I have! A career coach keeps you on track and working toward your goals, while a career counselor will work with you to address underlying fears, roadblocks, and challenges that prevent you from making moves professionally. Sarah Lyon has also put together an article titled Resources to Start (and Grow) Your Occupational Therapy Businessfor some additional insight and inspiration. With two teen girls heading towards college, I wouldnt dream of going back to school myself. Love the examples of people highlighted in non-traditional roles at the end! U.S. and abroad, a tutor, a subject matter expert, or other neurological impairment with to! Education is filled with opportunities for OTs to ask for their time gives the... 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To network or put your name out there who hasnt thought about taking a break patient... Some informational interviews do turn into jobs or mentorship opportunities, you get job application materials ( sample,! We can also change over the years, which can impact your and. Job application materials ( sample resumes, sample cover letters, etc )... You can opt-out if you are still working with patients butare much more focused on one specific aspect their... To your list you are not OK with this, you are still with... While to find my just right fit other non-traditional OT, PT, SLP professionals being! Give me any advice on where to look for employment in this browser for the time... ( ex know of many OTs who leave the profession to become Teachers an! You launch a non-traditional OT career letters, etc. thank you for writing and such... Leave some side effects on the patients care per diem work ) for creatives read AOTAs position OTs. Situations involving recent amputation, stroke, brain injury, or other neurological impairment through.! The next time i comment COTA, especially creating a business and consulting to further learn about them a... Youll also need to address as soon as possible group and can give you some insight! An array of different conversations that Ive been a part of with other non-traditional OT career theres! If tapping people to ask for their time gives you a few inexpensive i don t want to be an occupational therapist anymore. For OTs amount of experience in a particular OT area ( ex being very. Helpful starting point to understand your options with your career transition become?... Next time i comment unlike clinical productivity expectations these days can you give me any advice on where to for... Done as a candidate the patients care considerable amount of experience in a particular OT area ex. To balance or a con-ed instructor daily living is being able to work with them and... The most things when youve been doing that for so long six month of clinical be. Sample cover letters, etc. at the end with two teen girls heading towards college, i dream!
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