Sparked from a twitter discussion last night ...
As a soon-to-be-qualified OT, I've recently started taking more of an interest in the jobs on offer. More and more Band 5 OT jobs are now asking for post-graduate experience in certain areas. Given that this post-graduate experience is difficult to find when no-one will offer you a job in the first place it is not surprising to see an increasing amount of qualified OTs in non-OT roles. Last night I learnt that this is also affecting other professions, such as social work. This issue was reflected in a recent uni task, where we had to find a job not advertised as an OT, but one where we felt we could use our OT skills. Whilst there were many jobs put there, such as "rehabilitation officers" and "vocational advisors" that specified a desirable degree in OT, there is a lot of opinion surrounding this topic and it lead to a bit of a discussion.
The main themes that came out of a quick chat on twitter last night were:
It distracts from our unique skills base. We (and I'm speaking from experience) put a hell of a lot of effort into getting a degree in OT and this should be recognised with a protected title.
In a way it is good, as it allows OT skills to be spread to more people in need of our services, and we will be educating more people about OT who may have previously not heard of us.
However, OTs often struggle to identify a professional identity and definition as it is, and by moving away from the title of Occupational Therapist this may confuse us, and our service users, even more!
Ultimately though, it is becoming a necessity. If I want a job when I graduate where I can use my knowledge and skill base that I have built up over the last three years, then I am going to have to look further than the traditional roles and protected titles.
This topic is in line to be discussed further in a future #OTalk, so I may be able to update you with more experiences and opinions then.
Many thanks to @Clissa89 , @OT_Expert and @Ermintrude2 for the original twitter discussion :)
Monday 14 November 2011
Friday 11 November 2011
OT Week Celebrations
Happy OT Week everyone :)
Hope you've had a great week sharing the vision of OT and generally spreading the word of such a fantastic professional (yeah ... so I might be a little biased).
Unfortunately, I have to say that my OT Week has not been spectacularly different. I had great plans, some were lived out, others weren't, but I've really enjoyed hearing what others have been up too.
One of my main plans was to increase OT awareness in the setting where I work as a support worker. I had plans with the OT there to create a noticeboard promoting the profession and to hold some sessions to further explain the role of OT in the particular setting. As with all good intentions, things didn't quite go to plan though. Workmen never installed the noticeboard we were planning to use, and a sickness bug knocked down staff and clients alike to leave us too short staffed to run sessions :( but the plans and resources are still there to be completed another time on another day, and hopefully it will only be the dates on the OT Week pens that don't match up!
However, Tuesday came around and presented us (on twitter) with #OTuesday in #OTweek featuring #OTalk, which was guaranteed to cheer me up! This weeks topic was how to use SM for CPD and provoked some interesting discussions. So here is my experience and opinion ...
I first began using social media (SM) professionally after rediscovering my twitter account, and a slow Saturday afternoon searching by interest. I began tweeting about my experiences as an OT student; lectures I'd just been too, articles I had just read, and calls for help with assignments! I then started my blog when I struggled to fit everything I had to say into 140 characters! My main outputs of SM are on twitter, participating formally in OTuesday, NHSSM and more recently, OTalk and OChat. I also use twitter for informal discussions with OT students from other universities, practicing OTs and academics (a personal highlight was a tweet from E Duncan!).
I get a lot of benefits from my use of SM, the main one being the opportunity to communicate with so many other people, each with their own interesting stories and viewpoints on current issues. It allows exposure to a wider range of opinions - and with NHSSM, not just from OT perspectives - which breeds constructive debates. Another benefit of using SM is the speed at which information in shared. Previously we talked of how journals bypassed text books in getting information out there, now with SM your news, findings, thoughts and experiences are spread to a waiting audience instantly! I also find SM is a nice fall back for those days when the work can get too much, as a gentle reminder of why OT is so fantastic, why we do it, and mostly importantly why we love it!
Hope you've had a great week sharing the vision of OT and generally spreading the word of such a fantastic professional (yeah ... so I might be a little biased).
Unfortunately, I have to say that my OT Week has not been spectacularly different. I had great plans, some were lived out, others weren't, but I've really enjoyed hearing what others have been up too.
One of my main plans was to increase OT awareness in the setting where I work as a support worker. I had plans with the OT there to create a noticeboard promoting the profession and to hold some sessions to further explain the role of OT in the particular setting. As with all good intentions, things didn't quite go to plan though. Workmen never installed the noticeboard we were planning to use, and a sickness bug knocked down staff and clients alike to leave us too short staffed to run sessions :( but the plans and resources are still there to be completed another time on another day, and hopefully it will only be the dates on the OT Week pens that don't match up!
However, Tuesday came around and presented us (on twitter) with #OTuesday in #OTweek featuring #OTalk, which was guaranteed to cheer me up! This weeks topic was how to use SM for CPD and provoked some interesting discussions. So here is my experience and opinion ...
I first began using social media (SM) professionally after rediscovering my twitter account, and a slow Saturday afternoon searching by interest. I began tweeting about my experiences as an OT student; lectures I'd just been too, articles I had just read, and calls for help with assignments! I then started my blog when I struggled to fit everything I had to say into 140 characters! My main outputs of SM are on twitter, participating formally in OTuesday, NHSSM and more recently, OTalk and OChat. I also use twitter for informal discussions with OT students from other universities, practicing OTs and academics (a personal highlight was a tweet from E Duncan!).
I get a lot of benefits from my use of SM, the main one being the opportunity to communicate with so many other people, each with their own interesting stories and viewpoints on current issues. It allows exposure to a wider range of opinions - and with NHSSM, not just from OT perspectives - which breeds constructive debates. Another benefit of using SM is the speed at which information in shared. Previously we talked of how journals bypassed text books in getting information out there, now with SM your news, findings, thoughts and experiences are spread to a waiting audience instantly! I also find SM is a nice fall back for those days when the work can get too much, as a gentle reminder of why OT is so fantastic, why we do it, and mostly importantly why we love it!
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