There are a lot of OTAs and PTAs that are doing non-clinical positions in the group and can give you some great insight! Thank you that means a lot! You might want to check with your states individual regulations just to be sure. Jouyin Teoh, an Occupational Therapist in Malaysia, ran a private practice working with clients to help them start a weight loss journey and understand good habits and strategies that benefit their health. Figured this might help some of you looking for something different. Meredith Castin, PT, DPT Meredith struggled to make the switch out of direct patient care, but she finally made it happen in 2015. 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. Their goals are to promote occupational therapists as leaders in the field of home modifications, develop a lucrative business model for home modification occupational therapists, and increase home modification occupational therapists expertise in home modification techniques, technology, equipment and design.. I would like to help people with mental illness gain and retain employment. This post was originally published May 30th, 2017 and updated on February 29, 2020. This article walks you through the self assessment of your situation and showcases OTs who work in non-traditional jobs. Sarah Lyon, OTR/L Sarah wasnt looking to leave patient care, but about five years into her career,realized that she could potentially help more patients by serving occupational therapists through her website, OT Potential. I am working as a paraprofessional in the school but I feel I can find something that uses my knowledge and skills closer to what I went to school for. Aurora, NE 68818, OT Potential Occupational Therapy Resources. These cookies do not store any personal information. Hi Karen! SMS professionals are actually specialized ATPs! You can read more about my own non-traditional journey, including how I built OT Potential, in my spotlight on The Non-Clinical PT! Love the examples of people highlighted in non-traditional roles at the end! There are many avenues your non-traditional OT career could take, but here we highlight nine of the most common. While written for a physical therapy clinic, their model can certainly be followed for starting any type of therapy clinic. I came to the conclusion that Occupational Therapy most closely aligned with my personality. Some people think they want to leave patient care, but they really want to escape bad managers, shady corporations, or unrealistic productivity expectations. Workstation ergonomics involves a deep understanding of many different facets of a variety of workplace environments. offer contract work (similar to registry or per diem work) for creatives. Theres something rewarding and fulfilling about building something from nothing and seeing all that hard work pay off over a long period of time. The next two years showed her that others wanted guidance on doing the same. Thank you so much for this specific post I think as creative as we OTs are its so hard to envision a career outside of direct patient care with the fear of judgment and let down (from others and ourselves). What would be most helpful for you? Definitely check out the Facebook group Alternative Healthcare Careers for Rehabilitation Professionals. , mentioned above, is open to all rehab professionals and run by The Non-Clinical PT. Its not just young, tech-savvy OTs going into usability design, eithercheck out this inspiring story about a 90-year-old occupational therapist whos helping design products for older adults at IDEO. I know that this pretty much eliminates most of the jobs available. 1109 12th Street Ste 3 She has since moved on to academia, but her business helped companiescome up with strategies to coach individuals on setting up their life and environment in a way that is conducive to healthy living. It might take a bit of applying to a variety of positions but explaining to the prospective employers about your experience will be really beneficial. 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. Glad I found you at the perfect time in my career. While there are certainly differences, it will be a helpful starting point to understand your options. Martin. Gives me some hope of finding the just right fit as an OT. Employers are beginning to be incentivized by health insurance companies to utilize health improvement programs like the ones Jouyin developed. Getting back to driving under these circumstances is not always straightforward and requires the intervention of an OT specialist. Ive been in the field about 16 years and ticked off a few of these myself: administration, education and medical device sales, so I am proof that these are all really possible. There are so many occupational therapy schools that need solid OTs to educate future clinicians. Hi I graduated last year and have been looking non stop for a position Ive applied to countless places and some respond back while others do not and I have had only 1 live interview and 4 phone call interviews. This is one of those times when youll have to get out and volunteer and network as much as possible. It is such a privilege to be able to gather this kind of information for fellow OTs! This is not always the case, though; sales roles often pay much more than clinical roles do from day one! From my personal experience, being a very emphatic and sensitive person to peoples energy made direct patient care so challenging to balance. As noted above, financial considerations are real. Id like to add two more to your list. Here are some sites that sometimes accept high-quality guest posts from occupational therapists. Be sure to also check out Indeed.com as well for additional ideas to help you with a new income source. Non-Clinical 101 gives lifetime access to a proven four-step system that helps you identify which roles are best suited for you, then walks you through the process of getting there. I have been struggling for a while to find my just right fit. The rules of thumb are to keep these calls quick, only ask questions about people youre interviewing, and send a thank-you note afterward. However, many programs do require their professors having an OTD or PhD, so if this is something youre really interested in, keep that in mind. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Address Occupational injustices present an exciting non-traditional/non-clinical community based setting in which to do holistic OT treatment. In 2011, AOTA identified the low vision specialty as an emerging niche. A big part of the reason for this focus area growing is the fact that the U.S. and many other developed nations are facing a large aging population in the coming decades. You can work with job accommodations, computer accessibility, vehicle modifications, architectural modifications, learning modifications, environmental controls, and more. These websites are typically created and run by people that arent in the medical/healthcare field, so they contract healthcare professionals to write their blog content for them. The first thing youll need as a writer is to get published online. There will certainly be a bit of paperwork involved (as there is with everything in healthcare these days), but youll get to see patients progress from start to finish and be there with them and the family the whole way. Director of Rehab and OT Supervisor probably sound familiar to you. If tapping people to ask for their time gives you the heebie jeebies, dont worry! There may be some small businesses in your area that focus on this specialty which you may be interested in working for or partnering with. Way to open this conversation and look forward to keeping in touch. As an OT, you could be part of the system of checks and balances that makes sure treatments are necessary, effective, and billed properly. Youll spend your days seeking out and/or addressing patient referrals, then meeting, interviewing, and running insurance on the cases that come your way. There is more to it than you might think, and if youre interested, Id recommend checking out The Association for Driver Rehabilitation Specialists. Wikipedias definition says Case management is a managed care technique within the health care coverage system of the United States.. Youre so welcome and Im glad the article gave you some ideas! Also, note any experience you have with running insurance or auditing charts. Definitely contact your schools alumni association to see if theres anything you can do to network or put your name out there. There are some clinics that focus solely on occupational therapy, and these are typically in the pediatric and hand-therapy disciplines. I love the article but Im still lost. I am attempting to research other careers I may fit into but not much success. According to AOTAs article about low vision: Many older adults experience age-related vision changes that cant be corrected with eyeglasses, contact lenses, or surgery. If you are, be sure to read AOTAs position on OTs role in health promotion for some added insight. Learn how your comment data is processed. This includes cost of flying you out and hotel stay as well as your chosen rate for the actual consultation time and time to complete your report. This is such an important aspect to occupational therapy overall and in keeping our profession accountable and responsible now and into the future. My favorite part about my job was being creative, whether it was planned or on the fly, working one-on-one or in small groups, and discerning the level of assistance I should use so as to empower the student rather than inhibit he or she from progressing toward a goal. Another great option would be to work in vocational rehab in a community-based setting. This year has been an extremely difficult year of landing a job. 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. I do hope this list at least gives you a few non-physical types of job ideas to help you with your career transition. When you show that you can stay calm under pressure, youll stand out as a logical successor for managerial roles that open. I also have fibromyalgia and joint hypermobility syndrome. Offer to cover the scheduling board or take point on busy days. There are several different popular avenues that OTs fit well into. Your first byline is most difficult to attain. Your email address will not be published. Interesting that UX/UI is highlighted as that was one of my "backup" plans in case I didnt get accepted into OT school. For more on ergonomics, visit AOTAs ergonomics site here. 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! Sometimes its accompanied by a picture and short bio. A byline is an attribution for authorship of an article. Here are a few resources offered by The Non-Clinical PT: Networking has a new meaning since the pandemic struck, but there are plenty of ways you can make connections. Because of this, treatments that really are necessary may get denied by auditors that dont understand working on deficits. If so how/ where shall I begin..? With each course enrollment, you get job application materials (sample resumes, sample cover letters, etc.) Is there anything stopping a COTA from going into business or private practice on their own? Also, youll definitely want to take few courses on usability and user experience to legitimize yourself as a candidate. Thank you for the great ideas as well as links to further learn about them. Cash-based OT, early intervention, nature-based OT and other types of niche roles are not considered non-traditional for the purposes of this article. If you are not OK with this, you can opt-out if you wish. It can be a strange feeling to start to self-identify as something other than an OT. The issue Ive had is finding a company that will give me a chance since I do not have extensive experience in these fields. You would set your own hourly rates. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Youll also need to take exams to get certified. 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! Meredith offers a great Non-Clinical Crash Course on Academia on her site, too. I have read this article but most of these jobs are for OTs that have been in the feild with experience. There is also a website with great information on home modifications related to OT from the Home Modification Occupational Therapy Alliance (HMOTA). Even if I would go back to school the six month of clinical would be financially impossible! AOTA offers a Low Vision certification that you can learn more about here. Meredith, one of the authors of this article, is the founder of The Non-Clinical PT. Im definitely going to be on the lookout for those courses at AOTA about being an expert witness. The Alternative Careers for Rehabilitation Professionals Facebook group is an active and growing group of over 18,000 members, created for people looking for non-clinical OT career options. Loved this article. This list of is certainly not exhaustive (as there are SO many options in this realm), but it should at least get the wheels turning! So many interesting ideas here! If youre lucky enough to live near any of the 10 ADA centers in the U.S., you can also offer to volunteer. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Hope this helps! AOTA defines the role as someone who coordinates services, analyzes fiscal benefits, advocates for essential services, advises the client, family or caregiver, and monitors the use of resources.. Some require that you take a steep pay cut to enter the field. Thank you! Writing is one of the easiest switches you can make, but you have to be willing to put in lots of time, and you might take a pretty steep pay cut at the beginning. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. Any experience you have with running insurance or auditing charts for OTs that have been struggling a. Alternative Healthcare Careers for Rehabilitation Professionals have with running insurance or auditing.... 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Health insurance companies to utilize health improvement programs like the ones Jouyin developed non-physical of... Was originally published may 30th, 2017 and updated on February 29, 2020 assessment of your and. And user experience to legitimize yourself as a logical successor for managerial roles that.. Journey, including how i built OT Potential, in my spotlight the! Types of job ideas to help you with your states individual regulations just to be to. Roles at the end to volunteer website with great information on home modifications to! Home modifications related to OT from the home Modification occupational therapy schools that need solid OTs to future... Work ) for creatives this conversation and look forward to keeping in touch the and!