Why I Want To Be An Occupational Therapist

It was June 9, 1997. I was one month and five days away from my sweet 16. Instead of feeling excitement, I was drenched with sadness. My dad lay in a hospital bed in the living room of our home, dying of cancer. He was diagnosed on May 8th and died one month and one day later on June 9th. I had experienced pure evil up close and personal and I vowed at this time to fight cancer and take care of its victims. Now, fast-forward 20 years later and I am working toward a nursing degree so I can fulfill my promise. I’m still unsure if I want to be an LPN or an RN. While it’s true that both are nurses, their duties, education and salary are quite different.

Occupational Therapy is a profession primarily centred around client-therapist interactions. The main objective of an occupational therapist (OT) is to empower and assist their clients in their return to everyday life and activities. Occupational therapists work with their clients for extended periods of time in order to ensure that they are able to participate in their normal daily routines with some degree of ease. OT's achieve this goal through building trust and rapport with their clients by representing themselves with the highest degree of professional identity and following the codes of conduct, to which ensures safety to all involved in the achievement of this goal. As occupational therapists work closely with a number of different

Occupational therapy is a health profession dedicated to supporting people in living their lives with meaning

I have always had the intense desire to care and look after people from a very young age. I firmly believe that everyone deserves the best quality of life possible and this is what had drawn me to occupational therapy as a career path in the first place. It is so easy to take for granted all the everyday tasks we can do and we seldom consider the effect of not being able to complete them. As an occupational therapist I would be able to make a positive impact on someone’s life and make it possible for them to enjoy their life. I want the opportunity to provide support to people, help them gain independence and watch them grow more confident in their own ability. I want to be part of such a rewarding career.

For the past three years, I have spent a substantial amount of time observing this field from various perspectives. If I had to choose a particular instance that helped me gain knowledge and a more intense drive for the occupational therapy field the most, it would have to be my first place of employment after undergrad. I had the pleasure of working with the Jackson Public School District as a Special Needs

and intrigued by the mind-body connection as well as the importance of human activity and occupation in maintaining mental and physical well-being. At the same time, my desire to work directly with people and be able to make a positive and lasting change to their lives by empowering them and helping discover their strengths and confidence in themselves to achieve their goals, led me to a realization that a career in occupational therapy would be a perfect fit for me.

It seems like yesterday when I was in high school trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my future. When I thought about the career I would want to pursue I was having trouble picturing myself in the type of work I would be most satisfied in. Around this same time, I suffered a sports injury and had to receive physical therapy in order to heal. This is what initially got me interested in working in rehab. This, I’m sure, is the way many young people become interested in physical therapy. It clicked for me because a physical therapist was the first career I could picture myself as, no other career choice I could so easily see myself doing. So, after I had this revelation I started to pursue higher education in the health sciences and tried to become more familiar with the rehab environment.

I feel that I am suitable for this choice because my family has had many medical problems and things of that nature. After losing an uncle at 38 of a heart attack and an aunt at 39 with a massive stroke to the brain I

For almost three years now, I have been enrolled in the Health Science program at Manchester Community College in Manchester, NH. My intentions are to transfer to a four-year college for a Bachelor’s degree in Occupational Therapy and then continue on to a Master’s degree. My goal is to become an Occupational Therapist with a focus on children with special needs. I recently added a dual enrollment to my degree in the Infant/ Toddler Lead Teacher certification program to gain experience in the Early Childhood Education field in a school setting. Beginning my college career at the community college allowed me to focus on my academics, while also being able to explore my options with job shadowing and observing occupational therapist and

Since eighth grade I have had this burning desire in my heart to become a pediatric occupational therapist. As a thirteen year-old I spend hours watching videos and reading about “what it takes to be an occupational therapist”. Passion was overwhelmingly the most popular answer. I knew the second I read the word “passion,” I had what it took to be a pediatric occupational therapist. I know that God has shown me that the path for me is to become a pediatric occupational therapist over and over again. This past summer while I was working at the Columbia Mall Carwash I was introduced to Dr. Bert Bachrach at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Columbia, Missouri. Dr. Bachrach gladly gave me his email and has coordinated days for me to job shadow. God has continued to open doors for me and I am excited to see what my future

The field of Occupational Therapy kept growing. During the 1960s, as a medicine became “specialized”, so did OT. Occupational Therapists were also called upon and qualified to treat in the fields of pediatrics and developmental disabilities.

Occupational therapy allows a patient to work towards the goal of being able to perform basic everyday functional tasks. Therapy will differ for each patient, providing purposeful tasks that will allow the most growth for the specific individual needs. Being able to be an independent individual that can perform functional tasks is something that most people strive for, and if something happened that altered this way of life, it can be very stressful and even feel dehumanizing to the patient. Striving for independence and working with the therapists is something that will positively affect the patient's quality of life.

Occupational therapy saved my family. Growing up with a sister with severe spastic cerebral palsy to include both cognitive and functional deficits, life existed on a day to day, hour by hour basis, as we were unsure of challenges each moment would bring. This all changed the moment occupational therapy brought quality of life back to me and my family. My very personal experience defined my purpose to become an occupational therapist, to pay the gift given my family forward.

People have a personal potential to live up to and standards to live by, but everyones’ differs. Deep down, I know I have a high potential to find a career in the health field and become successful at it. I, along with other people, know that I set high standards for myself because of the potential that I hold. The health field attracted me due to its nurturing nature in taking care of others and logical thinking with problem solving. My existential and pragmatistic mind has inspired me to pursue a career in cardiac rehabilitation.

First of all, I feel as if I am a very dedicated person, whether it’s related to my educational goals, current job or career goals, or personal relationships. I take dedication seriously because I believe dedication shows you truly care about that goal you are trying to attain or that person of which you are trying to maintain a good, lasting relationship.