Occupational Therapy Career Analysis

Throughout my life diligence, motivation, and passion has always been some of the qualities instilled within me in order to succeed in life. Of all of these, passion was above them all --feeling passionate about your goals in life by knowing you are making a difference in the world. To feel this passion, the reward of helping others, I knew, would greatly achieve this for me. Finding a career in health care that I felt this passion for was very important for me.

In my freshman year of college, I was still unsure of what career in health care was a good fit for me. It was during this time that my sister entered the occupational therapy fast track program at UAB. I was curious what occupational therapy was and so she began to share her knowledge

She explained to me that occupational therapy was concerned with helping the patient in their daily activities and that the OT field was a very interpersonal job, which I loved to hear. Also, as my sister had alluded to before, the therapist told me in great detail how creativity plays a central role in the profession. I couldn’t help but become overjoyed to hear all of these details of an occupational therapist. I’ve always loved creativity and interacting with people even more. The biggest aspect I was elated over the most was the opportunity to not only help a patient physically but also mentally cheer them on and encourage them. One particular rehab session involved a young boy who was confined to a wheelchair. The therapist had him perform activities such as shooting a basketball, toss hacky sacks, and other various enjoyable games. While this, at the time seemed like all fun and games, after the session the OT informed me of what every exercise specifically helped the young boy with. She said all of the activities were concerned with improving the child’s depth perception and honing his reflexes – areas he struggled with. At this point in time, I knew I wished to truly pursue occupational

I observed an OT at RMC’s Tyler Center, which was an outpatient rehab facility. The therapist loved what he did and his passion was contagious--it stuck with me and increased my excitement for the OT field. During my time here, I witnessed the gratitude of the patients for his help. The reason seeing the patient’s gratitude was so important for me wasn’t because of getting praise or for glory, but rather it made me happy to see that this profession was actually making a difference in people’s