The world of education is filled with opportunities for OTs. Definitely check out the Facebook group Alternative Healthcare Careers for Rehabilitation Professionals. I have 28 years in as a COTA in the nursing home setting. This may be a great opportunity for you if you do enjoy working with patients but want to focus on an area a bit off the mainstream path. Theyre an excellent introduction into the world of startups, not to mention a great networking opportunity! Here are some other ways to explore what is out there. And if youre branched out into another non-clinical career path, please share your experiences in the comments below. They would be providing services, but would they need an OTR? I graduated with a masters in occupational therapy however I have taken the board exam and have been unsuccessful after several attempts. Director of Rehab and OT Supervisor probably sound familiar to you. I found this information to be interesting but wanted to see if others had any additional thoughts on job opportunities. For example, some cases are more about chart reviews and writing your expert opinion based on what youve read. For the purposes of this article, non-traditional refers to anything outside of conventional hands-on patient care roles. Hi Any suggestions? Networking is also vital. Hi, and thank you for writing and posting such an insightful article! Here are some sites that sometimes accept high-quality guest posts from occupational therapists. Once you have a few published articles under your name, you can start using sites like Upwork to start getting freelance and contract work. If tapping people to ask for their time gives you the heebie jeebies, dont worry! There is more to it than you might think, and if youre interested, Id recommend checking out The Association for Driver Rehabilitation Specialists. Figured this might help some of you looking for something different. Definitely contact your schools alumni association to see if theres anything you can do to network or put your name out there. 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. Given the number of paths you can take within education, theres really no one set path to get there. Thank you! I would like to help people with mental illness gain and retain employment. Nice article! These articles are basically done-for-you informational interviews of all sorts of rehab professionals in non-traditional roles . If you want to try something different in the occupational therapy career space, these are just a few ideas which can help with your brainstorming. Also, note any experience you have with running insurance or auditing charts. Be sure to join the above mentioned Alternative Careers for Rehab Professionals FB group as there are a number of OTs in the group who have gone into sales and can give their perspective. Educator. 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. Take a look at all the interesting ways you can leverage that OT degree, if youre ever ready to try something new! Gives me some hope of finding the just right fit as an OT. AOTA offers a Low Vision certification that you can learn more about here. If so how/ where shall I begin..? However, if you do have a case that requires going to court, you can obviously charge a lot more money. I am an OT with 20+ years experience in SNF but really needing a change. Any career transition requires self-discipline and time. The best part about being an OT entrepreneur is that you have the freedom to choose what youre most passionate about. Join online forums. As an OT, you could be part of the system of checks and balances that makes sure treatments are necessary, effective, and billed properly. What would be most helpful for you? This route may also fall into the category of Business Owner/Entrepreneur as you can certainly start your own Home Modifications business. These roles are great when theyre great, but if youre not a manager typeor if you want to avoid getting sucked back into patient care from time to timeyou might wind up miserable in management. The first thing that often comes to mind on this front is starting your own private practice. We can also move into roles where we consult with practices to help them improve their billing and workflow practices. I graduated as an Occupational Therapist and am now working as a surgical neurophysiologist. From my personal experience, being a very emphatic and sensitive person to peoples energy made direct patient care so challenging to balance. You can become an OT professor, an adjunct instructor, a tutor, a subject matter expert, or a con-ed instructor. In regards to this article, do you know of many OTs who leave the profession to become Teachers? Due to my own healthcare needs/risks, I am considering exploring outside the box to a non-clinical job setting but not really knowing where to start..I dont have any assistive technology training, but this could be an area of interest for meDoes anyone have any suggestions or ideas about a career in medical sales/assistive technology specific to an OT? The documentation, stress, productivity and inconsistency between supervisors were factored into my decision. I studied how I could make my articles align with the questions people ask. I hope this post gave you some inspiration and ideas if youre looking for a change. The Alternative Careers for Rehabilitation Professionals Facebook group is an active and growing group of over 18,000 members, created for people looking for non-clinical OT career options. It is possible. Youll know if youre one of those people pretty quickly . Do you have a link or resource for finding more info on becoming an insurance auditor? You are also building something that, if profitable, increases in value and could eventually be sold. Thanks! There are many other resources for home modifications OTs, but these will get you started if youre interested in this alternative career path. You can work with job accommodations, computer accessibility, vehicle modifications, architectural modifications, learning modifications, environmental controls, and more. You may remember studying this briefly for the NBCOT. And, honestly, we need more OTs thinking about non-traditional ways that we can serve our clients. Thank you so much for this specific post I think as creative as we OTs are its so hard to envision a career outside of direct patient care with the fear of judgment and let down (from others and ourselves). When there is new construction in your area (especially smaller projects like parks or municipal buildings), reach out and offer your services for free. That said, after youve spent a few years getting your feet wet, you are more likely to catch up to (and often far exceed) what you were making as a clinician. Hi Martin, thanks for your comment. 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. Im always excited to hear about even more versatile ways our degrees can be used. For more on ergonomics, visit AOTAs ergonomics site here. Family or community commitments can also change over the years, which can impact your desire and ability to work in clinical care. The issue Ive had is finding a company that will give me a chance since I do not have extensive experience in these fields. Youre so welcome and Im glad the article gave you some ideas! Many positions that you did propose are more towards OTRs? Thanks again for sharing! I have 32 yrs experience as an OTR, mainly inpatient rehab, and acute care. For those with a considerable amount of experience in a particular OT area ( ex. What does your job entail? The good news is that those jobs are certainly out there! 2. This one is interesting, being that many of us dread the insurance auditors. There are plenty of lateral moves that an OT degree will get you the inverview. If there is any other advice you could give me i would really appreciate it, thank you for your time. Statement: The Occupational Therapist as Case Manager, The Association for Driver Rehabilitation Specialists, Certified Ergonomics Assessment Specialist, Alternative Careers for Rehabilitation Professionals, The Best Splinting Guide for Occupational Therapists, 6 of the Best Occupational Therapy Forums, 10 Reasons Why OTs Should Be Using Occupation-Based Interventions, Occupational Therapy in Mental Health: An Overview of 6 Typical Settings, Alternative Healthcare Careers for Rehabilitation Professionals. Many OTs transition to either rehab department manager or hospital administrator, among other management paths. The course comes with tons of resume downloads, interview prep materials, self-assessment activities, and early access to non-clinical jobs. Martin. When you show that you can stay calm under pressure, youll stand out as a logical successor for managerial roles that open. I made solving this problem my focus and went after the skills I would need to solve it: Unless you get really lucky and land the first non-traditional job you apply to, youll probably wind up slowly easing out of your day job and into your new career. Another great option would be to work in vocational rehab in a community-based setting. Organize lunches and in-services. I know its an additional certification that an OT would have to get, but thought I would bring it up since it is an alternative career path for an OT, since OT does involve a lot of teaching and working with individuals with disabilities. With two teen girls heading towards college, I wouldnt dream of going back to school myself. The main issue is that, even though we have the perfect background for these roles, we are not landing them. Non-Clinical 101 also contains an entire lesson to help you learn how to identify your marketable skills, find clients, and price yourself. I am considering an alternative career in OT. Thank yall. If youre interested in a career in rehab technologyand you can afford the time and costyou must try out a healthcare hackathon. I bet an OT could find a rehab equipment sales job if they wanted or something similar. 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. Do you see COTAs being valuable in such a position? So is there any jobs right now I could look at or apply to to get my foot in the door without having to go back to school or getting another liscence? What OT topics are you most interested in? Thank you! Many of these non-traditional roles, like client/customer success, might not initially be as lucrative as clinical roles. If you type in inpatient care coordinator in to indeed.com you may find positions across the country looking for OTs. Some require that you take a steep pay cut to enter the field. Im also now seeing occupational therapists starting their own chronic pain clinics (which I think is great; I go to a chronic pain OT myself and love her practice). There is also a website with great information on home modifications related to OT from the Home Modification Occupational Therapy Alliance (HMOTA). For more information about careers in medical sales, check out this post on Monster.com:Pharma, Biotech, Medical-Device Sales: Which Is for You? Also is there any volunteer activities that I could be doing in the mean time that could help me out ? For other mental health settings to look into, check out this post covering a variety of areas to work in: Occupational Therapy in Mental Health: An Overview of 6 Typical Settings Best of luck in your job search! Almost all medical device and equipment companies have sales representatives that visit hospitals and clinics to market their products to. Way to open this conversation and look forward to keeping in touch. Meredith has a huge list of non-clinical career spotlights on her site. Thanks again for the article, it did open my eyes! Some careers require additional education or training, or they might necessitate relocation. I think that many of these non-traditional career paths can be done as a COTA, especially creating a business and consulting. There are several different popular avenues that OTs fit well into. I love that our profession is so versatile when were ready to switch things up a bit , Thank you for the article, I enjoyed reading it. Then, when you apply for the rehab liaison roles, play up your connections big timeyoull need them! 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. There are so many types of medical equipment that we work with on a regular basis, like neuro VR programs, e-stim, modalities, dynamic splinting, hospital beds, wheelchairs, and so on. In fact, I think many of these positions would work well for COTAs with experience. Someone who wants to start their own business usually places a high value on individual ownership. I have been struggling for a while to find my just right fit. Here are some examples (Merediths is cooler): Consider reaching out to write a guest post for your favorite publication. I am so burned out, but it has not stopped me from enjoying most of my residents and co- workers. Wikipedias definition says Case management is a managed care technique within the health care coverage system of the United States.. There are tons of software and tech companies that need help with usability. 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! While the hackathon scene has slowed down a bit because of the pandemic and economic changes, a good Google search shows theyre still taking place. She has since moved on to academia, but her business helped companiescome up with strategies to coach individuals on setting up their life and environment in a way that is conducive to healthy living. Thank you that means a lot! I am a COTA/L in NC with over 22 years of experience mainly in pediatrics. 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. Some professional organizations have built a non-clinical presence, and there are tons of groups out there for all sorts of career paths. Not all unconventional OT jobs require relocation, but many do. If youre making a sudden jump to a non-traditional role, be aware that you might have a gap in pay while you return to school, job hunt, etc. Very informative & encouraging site! Patients may become unable to operate a vehicle in situations involving recent amputation, stroke, brain injury, or other neurological impairment. and recommendations for how to interview, search for jobs, and more! There are some clinics that focus solely on occupational therapy, and these are typically in the pediatric and hand-therapy disciplines. If you want more info, heres a comprehensive guide on Merediths site that covers transitioning from clinician to copywriter. Being an administrator, particularly at a hospital, means that you are a manager for therapists over a specific department. Looking more towards the future, this is an easy field to get excited about, especially when you see things like this in the news:Prosthetic Limbs, Controlled by Thought. Here is an article that covers what to ask in an informational interview. Youll also want to beef up your resume to reflect any research, tutoring, lab assisting, or clinical instructor roles youve held since your student years. In academia, If you have already successfully been through ACOTE accreditation for say transitioning from Masters to Doctoral program, you may qualify to be a hired as consultant to other Universities making that same transition. For example, sales, business development, and clinical/patient trainer jobs often require you to cover a particular territory, which might be far from where you live. In preparation for these events, youll want to: Youll want to have your title and a personal email address on hand for anytime you meet folks at networking events, healthcare hackathons, or even happy hours! Hello fellow therapist. Sarah Lyon, OTR/L Sarah wasnt looking to leave patient care, but about five years into her career,realized that she could potentially help more patients by serving occupational therapists through her website, OT Potential. As noted above, financial considerations are real. In 2011, AOTA identified the low vision specialty as an emerging niche. A big part of the reason for this focus area growing is the fact that the U.S. and many other developed nations are facing a large aging population in the coming decades. , note any experience you have the freedom to choose what youre most passionate about to become?! The world of startups, not to mention a great networking opportunity get there,. The NBCOT places a high value on individual ownership Therapist and am now working as COTA! Another non-clinical career path, please share your experiences in the comments below schools alumni to. 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