What are the 10 qualities of a real OT?

Why did you come into OT – any answer that doesn’t immediately convey personal passion about people and the profession and begins with my Mum/ Dad / Aunty Noreen thought I would be good gets big a minus.

Any answer that begins with ‘well I realised I really want to be a florist/doctor/physio/psychologist/ mathematician/work in a zoo etc, but well I am here now’, doesn’t bode well. All things I have heard students say over the years.

Over the past twenty two years I have visited 1000’s of educators and students. I have learnt a lot.

1. Real OT’s like people

2. Real OT’s are passionate about the people they work with

3. Real OT’s are people who want to improve lives

4. Real OT’s are advocates.

5. Real OT’s are people who use activity in a way that is meaningful for the people they work with.

6. Real OT’s people who are genuinely interested in their clients story.

7. Real OT’s are people who are determined to find a beginning.

8 Real OT’s work with people to identify a place to start another journey.

9. Real OT’s believe what they are doing makes a difference, because it does make a difference.

10. Real OT’s ( difficult as it is to define challenging as it is to articulate) love Occupational Therapy.

They never yearn to be anything else.

I know after over thirty years of being, doing and becoming an Occupational Therapist that my ot coat which has always been a very comfortable and natural fit is now my second skin.

I hope you feel the same?