How Will Career as Occupational Therapist Be?

Emerging students often look for a career as occupational therapist. However, they have little idea about what this profession will be like. To clear this confusion, read this blog and get to know who is an occupational therapist and how the career will be like.

In simple words, occupational therapists are those who assist patients dealing with difficulties in doing day-to-day activities because of aging, trauma, illness, and disability. There could be some long-term conditions as well, which may make it difficult for the patient to do day-to-day activities.

Here are some details regarding the career as an occupational therapist:

Working Life 

Aging, mental health issues, disabilities, illnesses, and accidents may affect people in different ways. Sometimes these things can affect a person so much that they may start having difficulty functioning day-to-day activities, such as walking, eating, talking, and more. As an occupational therapist, your job will be to take care of such people and help them overcome all kinds of challenges. Now how you are going to do that will vary from person to person.

Some of the things that you may have to do are:

• You will advise the person to find a different approach to do a certain task so that he or she can do it.
• You may use some equipment and device so that the person is able to do a few things.
• You may have to find different strategies or work on different approaches that will allow the patient to deal with their problems better.

Basic entry requirements

Now to become an occupational therapist, you will first have to get an occupational therapy degree. That’s the first step to take. Usually, it takes three years to complete the occupational therapist degree, but if you want, you can go for a master’s degree as well. This will make you more proficient and will open better opportunities.

What are the must-have skills?

Along with academic qualifications, there are few more things that you should have. Only academic qualifications won’t help you to get the dream job that you want. You will have to be someone who is willing to help others. You need to be empathetic, understanding, and you need to be prompt with the solutions.

The crux of being an occupational therapist is to help others, and if you simply want to become one because you will earn handsomely, it won’t help you in the longer run. You need to have some inborn qualities. You need to be patient, always ready to take any action, give the best advice, handle the family who is struggling along with the person affected, and provide solutions that will actually work. That’s how you will become a good occupational therapist.

Salary expectations

An occupational therapist is one of the most sought-after careers for multiple medical students. The reason you ask? The work environment is great, there are multiple healthcare facilities that hire occupational therapists, and the pay is decent too.

If you are thinking about a career as an occupational therapist, then the median salary that an occupational therapist earned in 2019 is $84,950. This is the statistics from 2019. The top paid received at least $101,590, while the lowest-paid received around $69,710. Please note that this is 2019 statistics, but the pay still remains the same. A few minor changes could be there.

The best way to get a job as an occupational therapist

If you want to become an occasional therapist, then the best way to go about it is by contacting a staffing agency. Be mindful about the staffing agency, though. The agency should be experiencing and should be willing to help. They have lots of networks and can help you get the right job.