I’ve been reading some previous threads about how long resumes should be (1 vs 2-3 pages), and it seems like a lot of people who say they work as recruiters want to see 2-3, but more experienced OTs say theirs are only 1 page.

Am I correct to say that it would be better for new grads to have a slightly longer resume to showcase their fieldworks and related jobs/volunteering because they do not have much “real” experience?

In contrast, it would be more appropriate for experienced OTs to shorten their resume because they would have more relevant experiences as an OTR (and would remove fieldwork and volunteer experiences)?

Hello! Let me preface the situation with some background info. After graduating last year, I took up a job at an outpatient ortho clinic, where I have been working for about 6 months now. My town has an indoor pickleball facility, and one of my patients just signed up a week or two ago as a member. She played almost every day last week, and returned to our session with a large increase in pain in one shoulder and could barely move it. I told her I did not want her playing pickleball, so she is now requesting that I write a letter on her behalf to the pickleball facility explaining that I do not want her playing, as she wants a refund due to the high membership costs. I told her I would write a letter, however it is purely up to the facility whether or not she gets her refund. So, because I have never done this before, I just wanted some advice on how I should word this letter, and any do’s or don’t’s. Or, if I should even be writing this letter. It also occurred to me that HIPAA may come into play, as I am not sure if I can mention the patient’s name in the letter. Thank you for any and all help/clarification!

Hi! I’m looking to apply for BOCES jobs or just general school district jobs on Long Island. Does anyone have any insight into the salaries (I graduated 10 years ago). Thanks!

Hi! I’m an OT student currently tasked to make a group protocol for an instrumental group (leisure activity) and i chose the activity zumba with the use of maracas and our clients are senior citizens (no impairments) and now i’m overthinking the FOR I used (which is biomech) since it’s kind of lacking the strength factor in our activity (or are we not and we can actually justify this..) and idk if we’re allowed to use this FOR given that the clients are normal functioning, but I also don’t have time now to change the entire FOR. pls help me! any tips, suggestions, and also maybe affirmations (lol) will be of big help!! TYIA

Hi!

I currently just applied to St. Augustine (USAHS) MOT program in January. I’ve loved the school for two years but now I’m seeing red flag and starting to get cold feet. I didn’t think this would happen so I didn’t have a backup plan.

I’ve done really well in my undergrad, a good resume and GPA.

I looked into alternative schools to apply to that are still open, areas I’m interested in living, and I meet the requirements for. -North Central College (Naperville, IL) MOT … -Wingate University (Wingate, NC) OTD

I would love any input on the areas and programs. I hope to start grad school in fall 2025.

Hi everyone, I’m starting my first year studying Occupational Therapy in Perth. I want to know more about the outlook after graduating.

Working in a hospital setting is what I want to eventually end up doing but I just want to know how it is generally. I know that it is fast paced and I am ok with that. Is the salary generally good and for those who work in a hospital setting which hospitals in Perth would you recommend?

Also is there a way I could find a job or volunteering work to gain experience while studying?

Do any of you drive your patients to appointments? To work on healthcare management or community integration skills? Considering a new job and I would be expected to drive them to and from places and appointments. I see the functionality piece but like… feel like it’s not that skilled. Thoughts? I also don’t like the liability of having a patient in my car.

Hello, I’m a high schooler interested in becoming a pediatric OT, I was wondering what courses I should focus on throughout my high school years?

Unfortunately I’m not to good at math so I won’t be able to take any honors science classes, but I do plan on taking Science all four years of high school. I happen to understand science (so far) but my strengths are in history and english classes. Are there any electives I should look into? There is a child development course at my school, should I apply for that next year? Any tips/advice on getting myself on a track to becoming a pediatric OT are helpful. :)

Hi, fellow human joy bringers! I am a PRN COTA/ L in an Acute care setting. I've been working at my facility approx 4 years now and recently applied for a full time salary position. I appreciate any and all tips or advice on how much I should ask for compensation. PRN rate was previously $ 38.

As the title states, I’m a level 2 student and today my CI, FWE, and I had a meeting regarding my performance, for background in an OTA program and this is my first level 2 rotation in OP pediatrics.

in the meeting is that my CI expressed concerns in several areas including my ability to engage with clients, my participation, and safety concerns, I felt blindsided because my CI has been very nonchalant about feedback and then to be told if I do not improve by the end of this week I will fail out of the rotation is shocking. My CI has been very hands off my whole rotation and is rarely around to provide feedback or guidance due to other roles in the clinic. She originally was not supposed to have me as a student but other therapist on the team was, however, this therapist had to take maternity leave and I got switched to this CI unexpectedly. I feel as though she didn’t have time to take a student but took me anyways.

My CI has also expressed concerns about my ability to grasp pediatrics as it is more fluid than other settings. On my first day at this rotation, I expressed that I am unsure about peds, have very limited experience with children from a personal and professional standpoint, and I barely passed the pediatric semester. She said at our meeting I should reconsider OT if I’m unable to change after this week… it was very harsh and disheartening. I have never received any negative feedback from any fieldwork site. I am wondering if anyone else has been through something similar, I love OT and want to succeed but I’m feeling very burnt out and unsure of how to handle everything.

Hi! I am working on designing my capstone project, and I am hoping to talk with OTs who have experience and training working with children who have experienced trauma. I want to learn more about experiences, approaches, and best practices for this population!

If anyone has the time, I would love to talk!

Gp sent referral to TB clinic to do more tests? Is it normal I am getting anxious, my x ray report came absolutely fine, I am not understanding what to do? Because TB clinic they do more investigation like sputum test and skin test.. other friends saying u will get remark in ur certificate.. GP said I can't give u clearance until further tests done? I am in Australia in qld. This tests are for my clinical placements... I am unable to get speacaslist appointments as I don't have referrals letter.

I am unsure what to do what not to do...

I need advice. I am likely going to pick the cheaper program but heres where they differ:

Program 1 82k + 8k scholarship and another 8k if you do well in the second year. Lower NBCOT rates Starts 2 weeks after my undergrad graduation (starts june 2) Okay program, okay facility Fully in person

Program 2 86k Great program and NBCOT rates Summers are online Starts fall 2025 (september) and would give me more time to save and study before going High NBCOT rates New facility and labs built specifically for OTs and PAs

Hello, I signed up for the minimum of 4 hours to get free access to “Earn admission to the Expo to visit the exhibitors at their booths after completing 4 volunteer hours”. I did two information booths because of the need for local people in the description I’m a southwest Philly kid and pretty outgoing.

Later the site states “Being a Volunteer does notinclude free admission or a discounted rate to AOTA INSPIRE 2025. Volunteers who plan to attend additional educational sessions as attendees must register for AOTA INSPIRE 2025”.

Am I correct in my assumption that after volunteering I’ll be able to hang in the lounge area for the rest of the event and visit booths freely? If I’m being 100% with myself, the biggest factor in me going is wanting to network myself as I’m graduating this May.

Not sure if this is a normal thing or not but I started a job last month (I’m a new grad) and it’s at an outpatient clinic. I had a re-eval scheduled today and I look at the original eval to see that the “therapist” who completed it was me and it has my signature on it. The eval was done 6 months ago which is odd because I did not work there then, however it says I signed it two weeks ago. Is this a possible system mistake? Or something that clinics do if they transfer patients from one therapy clinic to another? Just wanted to know other people’s thoughts. It made me a little uncomfortable.

I just got my final OT program response back from Columbia and I got in!! Very excited, but also stressed to make this final decision. I don't want to be in debt, but Columbia also ranks so highly. Looking for advice. Price difference is 50k at JMU vs 117k at Columbia.

Hey everyone, I’m an Australian occupational therapy student, and I’m considering moving to London to work as an OT after I graduate. I’d love to hear from anyone who has made the move or has experience working as an OT in the UK.

A few things I’m wondering about:

•	Job Market & Demand – How competitive is it to get an OT job in London? Are there certain settings (NHS, private, community, mental health etc.) that are easier to get into?

•	Salaries & Cost of Living – I know London is expensive, but how does an OT salary compare to the cost of living? Is it manageable?

•	Sponsorship & Visas – I’ve heard mixed things about getting sponsorship. Is it common for OT employers to sponsor Australians, or would I need to sort out a visa independently?

•	General Advice – Any tips for making the transition easier? Things you wish you knew before moving?

I’d appreciate any insights from OTs (or healthcare professionals) who’ve done this before! Thanks

Hello again. Looking for assistance from anyone that's done in-home OT for home health, early intervention programs, or anything requiring self-made schedules and traveling. What apps do you use for keeping your schedule? Also just for clarity, I'm not the OT, my wife is. I'm just helping manage things.

So, I'm using Google Calendar to keep the schedule recurring. I've got addresses saved for each patient with alerts set up to allow for driving time between each. Google maps is fine for each drive as it comes up, sure, but I feel like this could be more streamlined.

Here's the thing, as a new patient is offered, we need to try and "place" this patient within the schedule. Ideally we would have all patients "clustered" together on certain days to reduce unnecessary driving since she is servicing several areas around our city. We want to try and keep driving time between patients to no more than 20 minutes.

If there would be an app that can keep a daily schedule and then feed that into a map that shows all routes for that day with distance and time to travel, that would be perfect.

Any OTs do couple and marriage therapy as part of there practice? I have heard of OTs doing it before as it’s part of social skills.

Hi everyone! My name is Hailee Litchfield and I am an occupational therapy student at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences. For my doctoral capstone I am conducting a research study on the Occupational Impact of Losing a Parent at a Young Age. I am looking for individuals to take part in my study who are 18 years of age or older and experienced the death of a parent before the age of 18. If you or anyone you know meet the criteria and would be interested in sharing their story during an interview, please schedule a time to meet using the Calendly link provided. Thank you!

https://calendly.com/h-litchfield-usa/30min

I have two upcoming IEPs that have me truly stumped on where to go from here. Student A is a 5th grade student who spends majority of the day in the resource room. He is non-verbal, and served under autism and emotional disturbance. He has an AAC device that he uses to request breaks and to notify when he needs to go to the bathroom. He has had pre-writing strokes as a FM goal for years and has made little progress. Visual attention is limited and work tolerance is minimal.

Student B is a third grader with a diagnosis of autism and PANDAS. He has recently began having seizures and there has been a global regression this school year. Similar to Student A, he has very limited visual and joint attention to task. He avoids work demands and requires prompting to engage with preferred activities.

I am new to school-based and have no idea where to go from here 😭

I’m wondering what people’s experience is working OT telehealth, any setting/population, or any non-traditional work from home job that you can utilize your degree for. I currently work in school-based and I’m extremely burnt out. Plus I have some medical issues that are becoming more prevalent and would like to look into working from home.

I've been a COTA for 14 yrs now. I currently live in Houston and my hourly pay is 31/hr. I do home health on the side and that pays $50 per visit.

I honestly feel like I'm underpaid and need advice on what the average pay is in this area and how I should ask for a pay raise.

I'm pretty non confrontational so it's really hard for me to bring this up. I feel like everyone around makes much much more than me, including the recent grad new hire we just hired.

I am currently in the process of applying to OT schools and I am working on getting as many observation hours as possible. That being said, it's so difficult to find places near me since I live in a pretty rural area. I am only observing at one place and the OT only works twice a week so it's tough for me to get the hours in. I saw that there were online resources where I could get observation hours like clinedweb.com and I was wondering if that's actually a reliable way to get some hours. I know that online hours aren't preferable but I was wanting to do it in addition to the face-to-face hours I am getting as well. Does anyone know anything about this or know if it would be applicable to OTCAS? Thank you!!

I own a peds practice and just hired someone, they started early January. We just completed week 4 of "shadowing" and them leading sessions this last week, completing notes. I feel like I am paying a fieldwork student to be honest. This person does not want to do evals, nor completely go independent and see people without me. They have expressed concern with some families and I have taken them off their schedule, reducing their hours but they are basically following my schedule because they do not want to do anything independently. I am at a loss. We've already amended the contract and will have to do again as this person wants to cut their time in half. The hand holding is astounding. Should I expect this person to jump ship anytime soon? How do I help them be more independent and work at the expected level of an entry-level OTR?

Has anyone here completed education/certification from the SOS Approach to Feeding? I’m curious if people have found it helpful and worth the costs. If you’ve completed other study in feeding specialization feel free to share about your experience. TIA!

I had a kid age out and the mom recently friend requested me on Facebook and I’m just curious what are the rules on that I know every company is different but I’m just curious to know like is it allowed because I’ve seen a lot of OT say that they’ve kept in touch with their families and who’ve added them on social media so I’m just curious to know

I'm specifically looking for fine motor activities I can do on the go. I'm trying to build my own fine motor kit or container. Wondering what I should be searching on Amazon for beads that are very thick and differently shaped. Would appreciate all and any recommendations.

I’m having a bit of a personal struggle lately with patients at my outpatient adult rehab practice. The # of patients who are morbidly obese coming for therapy is alarming. I have patients asking me to get them better at putting on clothes or something and their size restricts them from movement way more than any strength or ROM deficit does. We have chronic stroke patients too who have these pre-extorting conditions likely caused by diet and lifestyle. I feel like I am fighting years of lifestyle that isn’t making any difference for them. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone talking about this. Life circumstances happen, I am empathetic to it, but I’ve never had a patient acknowledge their weight and lifestyle as part of the problem and I simply feel I am wasting their time. Especially when mobility is limited or pain is occurring. Maybe I am being harsh but I am seriously at a loss with some patients and have tried to convey this to them, that lifestyle changes are going to help far more than my therabands but also? is this skilled? am i a health coach at that point? send help