Occupational Therapy Personal Statement

Most of my professional life to date has focused on working with people with disabilities and in helping them identify and achieve their goals. As an occupational therapist, I had coursework in psychology, but no formal training in counseling. My ability to help my patients reach their highest potential really depended on my professional relationship, or what as therapists we referred to as “therapeutic use of self”. I certainly learned and used specific techniques and assessments over the years to help me achieve better outcomes, but never identified with any specific theory as the framework of my interactions. I recognize there were times when my personality and my skills were a great match and other times when I felt like I just couldn’t figure out the right approach. Thankfully for much of my career, I worked with an interdisciplinary team that included some very skilled psychologists, so I always had the ability to consult.

Ever since I was a child, people always asked me what I would like to be when I grew up. At first, I would always say that I wanted to become an engineer because of my love for hands-on learning and my exceptional problem-solving skills. However, when I grew older I found that similar spark of fascination in the medical field. I wanted to go into a profession where I could help others and use my love for problem solving and hands-on interest. This is when I became interested in occupational therapy and fell in love with the profession. Occupational therapy has several elements I find passion in such as, the ability to be hands on and help change other people’s lives in a positive manner. My goal in life is to become an occupational therapist and help others live independent lives again. As I work to obtain this goal, I am doing many things such as strengthening my writing skills because this major involves many various aspects of writing. To succeed in this field, one needs to be able to write strong research-based papers and cite all sources correctly. I am striving to master these skills in hopes that I can succeed in and accomplish my academic goals.

Growing up, I have been an individual who has pushed myself beyond the minimum requirements in order to succeed. In high school I excelled in both academics and athletics. I graduated in the top 10% of my class and lettered in hockey and tennis my sophomore, junior, and senior year. I worked hard and put in extra time in order to set myself apart from others. Succeeding in both school and athletics made me a responsible, reliable, and an organized individual. These experiences made me a versatile individual and have given me a work ethic that has benefited me with my academics in college and with my work and volunteer experiences.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Occupational therapy assistants and aides help patients develop, recover, and improve the skills needed for daily living and working.” OT Career Path.com also states that, “occupational therapy assistants assist with the rehabilitation and care of patients with mental, developmental, physical, social, and emotional disabilities” Occupational therapist may provide many different forms of service from setting up materials, moving a patient, explaining exercises, preparing reports and implementing treatment plan as prescribed by the Occupational Therapist. An OTA’s duties vary greatly an example of their duties include helping patients acquire fine

social awareness and social skills (See appendix A). The OTS scored 31 on self-awareness. The

With my past work experiences as a case manager, I 've had various meetings about what services my clients were going to need and what my involvement was going to be in meeting their needs. This has helped me strengthen my communication skills and I have learned to talk to a variety of different individuals. I especially find myself to have confidence which has also helped me sound relaxed and approachable when meeting someone for the first time. With this in mind I felt positive I was going to do well on my interview reflection assignment for my Introduction to Occupational Therapy class.

The occupational therapist, I interviewed was Lorena Ortiz, MS, OTR/L. She is from Columbia, South America and currently lives in Greenville, South Carolina, where she has been a resident for sixteen years. She has three sisters, one brother and a son that is two years old. She attended Brea High School her junior and senior year and later graduate from Mauldin High School. Her favorite subject in School was anatomy because she enjoyed learning about the human body and the way it functions. In her opinion of what an occupational therapist is, she stated, “Helping people become as independent with daily activities as they wish after injury or disease.” The facilities where she works are, Greenville Health System, PRN acute care/In-patient rehab and Greer Memorial Hospital, out-patient rehab fulltime. Other areas she has worked are, subacute, long term acute care orthopedics. She worked as an occupational therapist assistance at St. Francis Hospital for seven years. While she worked at St. Francis Hospital, she later went back to school, for her master’s degree,

The Occupational Therapy Assistant lab at University of Charleston is unavailable after normal business hours to complete tasks hands on and to work on homework effectively; with no computer lab available for additional knowledge on the subjects, OTA students of University of Charleston is at a hindrance, resulting in tasks being completed off campus. The OTA program is at an educational disadvantage because the main resources are limited to a Monday through Friday schedule, which entitles students to rely on unscholarly articles and websites for information.

I was at ease because I was in the best hands when my father sat me up on a table to wrap my sprained ankle after a reckless fall in gymnastics. He lectured me while handing me crutches and pulling me back onto my feet. “You have to take it easy until it heals,” he said as he continued to demonstrate how to properly apply my own bandages, ice my ankle and safely walk. This occurrence was not something new to me. Growing up, I was often inspired by the struggles my father underwent as an Asian immigrant fighting to open his own primary care clinic in America. However this gave me the freedom to interact directly with patients to educated people on how to promote their health and the steps to take in order to recover and return to their original lifestyles. My father’s influence and tenacious work ethic instilled in me the dedication to provide the best care possible throughout all my experiences and cultivated my desire to become an occupational therapist.

I believe that everybody deserves to have a happy and comfortable life and that being able to complete every task effectively plays a major part in achieving this. I think as humans we tend to take everyday tasks for granted as it we complete these subconsciously without ever considering the impact it would have on our lives if we were unable to complete them. I want to be an Occupational Therapist as I believe that adjusting a person’s environment and teaching them necessary skills makes a huge positive impact to their life. I am also passionate about seeing people grow in strength to achieve their full potential no matter what challenges they face.

An Occupational Therapist is a individual that can evaluate, develop, and help people regain and maintain daily living skills. Occupational Therapist work with people that have physical, mental and developmental conditions. The goal of the Therapist is to offer intervention that focus on teaching skills and helping the patient as well as the family on how to adapt and strengthen themselves so that they might be able to overcome physical obstacles. Occupational Therapist work with other health professionals in speech therapy, nursing, physical therapy and social work to ensure that the patients course of treatment aligns with the other areas.

As a recent graduate of the Family and Child Sciences program at Florida State University, I am committed to advancing my career opportunities on a graduate level of study in occupational therapy. I accomplished my initial goal of becoming a certified preschooler teacher and acquired a further understanding of the pediatric realm of occupational therapy based on my educational experiences. At this point in my life I have realized that the graduate program of occupational therapy is my path forward to becoming a professional pediatric occupational therapist. I believe occupational therapy is one of the most innovative and effective approaches in health care delivery in the medical field. I am fascinated by the thought of helping future patients deal with ailments and diseases with a primary care level. Occupational therapy, as a discipline is

For my career exploration assignment I have chosen the field of occupational therapy. Not only am I a certified occupational therapists assistant, but I also have a passion for this field. Occupational therapy wasn’t something that I have always wanted to pursue, but once I got into college and observed an occupational therapist I fell in love with the occupation. Occupational therapy is the unique focus on occupation and daily life activities and the application of an intervention process that facilitates engagement in occupation to support participation in everyday life (American Occupational Therapy Association [AOTA], 1994). As therapists we are here to help our patients return to the highest level of independent physical function. Patients come to us in their lowest time, and it is our job to help build them up, and teach them how to be more independent, and to live their life to the fullest. Occupational therapists assistants do everything from increasing a patient’s standing/sitting tolerance and balance, safety with transfer training, dressing, bathing, grooming, and bed mobility. A lot of people always ask, “Physical therapy and occupational therapy are the same thing right?” That is not true. Physical therapy helps with the bigger movements, such as walking and lower extremity muscles, where as occupational therapy focuses on smaller, more fine motor movements, such as clothing manipulation, and grooming tasks. Occupational therapy helps to regain independence

I have chosen occupational therapy as a career because of my family experiences, volunteer work, and my personal skills and qualities that I believe will contribute to my success as an occupational therapist. Occupational therapy has interested me from a young age because my mom, who is an occupational therapist, inspired me and instilled a passion within me for helping others. I have always been interested in pursuing a career in the health field where I am able to put my sills to great use in order to help other people. I am also drawn to occupational therapy because of the amount of variety within the profession. I love that occupational therapists have a wide range of populations to work with, as well as settings and specializations that they can chose to pursue. I also like how holistic and patient centered the therapist’s approach is while helping patients. For me, the biggest reason that I would to be an occupation therapist is because of the opportunity

An occupational therapist is a trained and licensed health care professional who can make a complete evaluation of the impact of disease on the activities of the patient at home and in work situations. Hobbies and recreational activities are considered when an assessment is made. The most generally accepted definition of occupational therapy is that it is an activity, physical or mental, that aids in a patient’s recovery from disease or injury.