I graduated with a masters in occupational therapy however I have taken the board exam and have been unsuccessful after several attempts. Thank yall. Much thanks Some require that you take a steep pay cut to enter the field. 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. If youre not familiar with this concept, it can be described as a short-term, goal-oriented psychotherapy treatment that takes a hands-on, practical approach to problem-solving according to Psych Central. Best of luck to you with whatever path you choose! Seeing is believing, and these occupational therapists have successfully transitioned into non-clinical roles! Itll help your case! 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. Glad I found you at the perfect time in my career. Some people think they want to leave patient care, but they really want to escape bad managers, shady corporations, or unrealistic productivity expectations. Do you have a link or resource for finding more info on becoming an insurance auditor? Thank you that means a lot! It has templates for your CV, resume, and cover letter, and it provides guidance on the interview and presentation parts of landing a role. 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. Use it on your LinkedIn page, in your bylines, and for your online profile in professional networking groups. For example, most OTs and PTs have a very difficult time selling themselves and their services, and very few are savvy with social media and digital marketing. Many positions that you did propose are more towards OTRs? Here are some sites that sometimes accept high-quality guest posts from occupational therapists. Im so sorry to hear about leaving your job! Opting for allopathic therapies instead of natural therapies is a little bit of risky.https://himalayashilajit.com/, Just happened upon this outstanding website!!!! Working in mental health as an occupational therapist is similar tobeing a mental health counselor. 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. Get business cards printed with your OT credentials (and any other special certifications you pursue). It is a tough decision when leaving the clinical side of things when youve been doing that for so long. 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. 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. I do hope this list at least gives you a few non-physical types of job ideas to help you with your career transition. If you develop a skill set that solves a specific problem that people are havingand a problem that you enjoy solvingyou will become extremely marketable. The good news is that those jobs are certainly out there! I have been struggling for a while to find my just right fit. Workstation ergonomics involves a deep understanding of many different facets of a variety of workplace environments. 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. Office jobs, sales jobs, ergonomics/workplace evaluator jobs, telehealth jobs, and assistive technology jobs are all considered non-traditional (or non-clinical or unconventional) in this article. Areas of focus include office ergonomics, production ergonomics, musculo-skeletal injury prevention, general health and wellness promotion. Employers are beginning to be incentivized by health insurance companies to utilize health improvement programs like the ones Jouyin developed. Writing is awesome, though. If you make yourself an expert salesperson, or you learn the ins and outs of online sales strategies, you will easily excel in a role as a social media manager, or where youre marketing (selling) rehab practitioners services. As in inpatient OT, Ive been looking for alternative careers and economics and sales excite me the most. Not only are you in charge of scheduling, but you are responsible for coaching therapists about how to become better, intervening in tough situations, keeping everyone motivated, and reporting to higher level management about the productivity and efficiency of your department. As an ergonomic specialist, youllspend time identifying environmental risks, coming up with creative strategies to reduce those risks, educating others on the importance of ergonomics, and drafting comprehensive plans for businesses to follow. That said, you dont need any additional training to write for your next career! Also is there any volunteer activities that I could be doing in the mean time that could help me out ? 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. Go to usability meetups. There are people doing it. Do you see COTAs being valuable in such a position? I studied how I could make my articles align with the questions people ask. Always appreciate the content and the transparency! Also, if youre still interested, you could try contacting insurance companies near you to inquire more about requirements and training. I came to the conclusion that Occupational Therapy most closely aligned with my personality. The first thing that often comes to mind on this front is starting your own private practice. Thanks for sharing. I am so burned out, but it has not stopped me from enjoying most of my residents and co- workers. For a great perspective on this, check out OT Devon Breitharts experience as a freelance writer, complete with tips on how get started. Not sure where youre located, but Center for Community Partnerships in Fort Collins, CO is a great agency for community integration/job retention services. Take a look at all the interesting ways you can leverage that OT degree, if youre ever ready to try something new! Then, when you apply for the rehab liaison roles, play up your connections big timeyoull need them! Here is an article that covers what to ask in an informational interview. rehabilitation ) you can also look into being an expert witness. Given the number of paths you can take within education, theres really no one set path to get there. There are many avenues your non-traditional OT career could take, but here we highlight nine of the most common. Getting back to driving under these circumstances is not always straightforward and requires the intervention of an OT specialist. 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! Try to work in multiple acute care hospitals within your region and get to know the case managers in those facilities. This is such an important aspect to occupational therapy overall and in keeping our profession accountable and responsible now and into the future. Hi, and thank you for writing and posting such an insightful article! This is such an excellent pointits so important to hone in on what fits best with you, your life, and your individual needs/interests. I would love to connect with you and chat is there a way to share contact info here? Once you have a few published articles under your name, you can start using sites like Upwork to start getting freelance and contract work. offer contract work (similar to registry or per diem work) for creatives. What other alternative careers for occupational therapists and COTAs would you add to this list? For me (Sarah), my hobby of writing an OT blog became a career when I switched my mindset. This means a time commitmentand, yes, a money commitment. If youve landed on this article, you may be currently wondering, What else can I do with my occupational therapy degree that is not direct patient care? or are looking into non-clinical occupational therapy job options. Interesting, how much training did you need for that? Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Sarah Lyon has also put together an article titled Resources to Start (and Grow) Your Occupational Therapy Businessfor some additional insight and inspiration. 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. There are definitely quite a few OTs that make the switch into medical device sales. Family members, significant others, and even friends might feel the impact of your change, so its vital to consider how much of a change makes sense for you at any given time. AOTA offers a Low Vision certification that you can learn more about here. I am considering an alternative career in OT. These articles are basically done-for-you informational interviews of all sorts of rehab professionals in non-traditional roles . Liaisons face quotas, so if you hate productivity requirements, you might not enjoy this role. Many OTs transition to either rehab department manager or hospital administrator, among other management paths. 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. However, being an occupational therapist, we are able to effectively decipher other therapists notes and determine the necessity of the treatments being billed. They may be some of the few non-traditional roles youve considered, because for years, they were the only ones with real visibility for OTs. What a great article to get the wheels turning! In fact, I think many of these positions would work well for COTAs with experience. 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