I need a new career

[Air_Stewardess]

I've been getting more and more disgruntled and burnt out with being a flight attendant

I've been offered a chance to go back to university to study occupational therapy...don't suppose anyone here is an OT? I've spent some work experience days with OTs and enjoyed it. Just going to be a huge change. Husband will be paying the mortgage and I'll have to work part time but hoping to get some office temping or nursing assistant work in the holidays rather than the dreaded retail.

Fed up of being treated like a servant in the sky but then I know some patients won't be nice either!

[Shyla]

I'm not one but I attended many of my niece's sessions. You can specialize in children. Many will be autistic. Some will not. Many will never improve. Or you can work with adults. Most of your work will be with senior citizens after strokes or other illnesses. I suspect the abuse of the adults probably feels meaner. I am sure not every patient is abusive. It's what you can handle. Would it bother you if an autistic kid refused to cooperate? Would it bother you if an old person called you a name? I suspect you've experienced worse.

On the other hand, you have the chance of really making a difference. You'll have to weigh the options.

[Seshat]

OTs have helped to make a huge difference in my life. The training I received also involved pain-specialising physiotherapists and a psychologist, but about a third of the program was provided by OTs.

They also arranged for modifications to be made to my house, to make my bathroom safer (grab bars) and easier to use (lever taps).

[bhskittykatt]

PTA student here. PT and OT fields tend to have some overlap.

In the inpatient rehab settings I've seen, the OTs do all the upper extremity rehab, as well as training for "activities of daily life" such as dressing, feeding, toileting, bathing, etc. (PT side in inpatient settings do lower extremities and focus on functional mobility such as transfers and gait training.)

Haven't seen much outpatient OT, but we did get to tour a pediatric facility here owned by an OT. One of the services they provided was hippotherapy, which is using horses in therapy. They also had dogs and goats and other therapy animals and some interesting gyms for the kids; they worked with a lot of kids with sensory processing disorders and were mostly OTs with a few PTs and they did pretty much all the same stuff with the kids. I saw a lot of vestibular system training stuff set up there.

I also met a quad patient who had some interesting dining and writing utensils that were custom-made by an OT for him since he lacked active finger flexion.

To get into the PT side of things (PT or PTA) you typically have to have a bunch of job shadows in before you can even apply to the school program of choice (I had to get over 100 hours in; 50 is the minimum but you really need 100+ to get enough points on your application to be competetive). Not sure what OT/COTA requirements are, but they may require shadowing too. Even if they don't, contact some OTs and rehab facilities and see if you can shadow the OTs.

I'm switching careers because while I like the hospitality industry, I don't love it. I'm looking for a meaningful career. Rehab services that really help people feels meaningful to me, so I'm going to school now to make that transition.