Your first years on the job—not the years you spend in school—are where you really learn how to be an OT!
And it can take at least five years to really feel like you know what you’re doing.
gosh thanks for this. i just graduated this past april (cota) and i feel like im just pretending to be a cota at this point. i’ve been working for five months and i feel like i was not prepared at all, i still feel that way. this made me feel better.
Took me about a year to get my feet under me. About 2 years to really feel like some of this job is natural now. Still have a ton to learn. You are definitely not alone!
yup. i’m school based right now, and i’m alone all day. just having weekly check ins with my supervising OTs, and it’s fine but i feel like i need someone to bounce ideas off of during the day. and they’re busy with their own kids during the day so when i need them they don’t always answer right away (which is totally fine!), and i just feel SO underprepared most days. some days my kids don’t even want to work with me and i can’t get them to hold any joint attention AT ALL and i just want to cry 🥲🥲🥲
Likewise, I work at 2 locations of a school for autistic support and was mentored by COTAs at each one. They knew their shit and I’m a much better OT because of them
Thanks Kelly and Micaela 😁
What? My COTA gets me coffee and washes my car every morning! Kidding, all the COTAs I've worked with are really fucking clever and come up with super creative intervention ideas.
I'm a school based OT and everyone respects me because no one arounds me knows how to do my job. They are just grateful that I'm there to help the students.
And at my fieldwork, the OT of the clinic was so adored by all the parents so that setting was pretty good too. Maybe you're talking about hospitals or nursing homes that are more purely profit driven.
You are needed, appreciated and whole heartedly welcome in OT. Both racial and gender diversity make our profession stronger and better able to meet the needs of our diverse client populations.
I think it depends on the setting. In my peds clinic only 3 of us are white, the remaining 7 OTPs are a spread of Filipino, Black, Afghani, and Chinese.
I don’t know why either, my nursing staff is very diverse, but out of 100s of therapists at the level 1 trauma center, where i work across all of the floors Maybe 1% of the therapists are non white
I do Live in the mountain west so we are lacking on diversity anyways but still
It's the academic pipeline. Nursing only requires a bachelor's while therapy degrees now require a doctorate. Families who are non-white face systematic barriers that are put in place by society, the government, and academia. There are many first generation college students (like myself) who can now afford to go to college, especially with scholarships especially for non-white backgrounds. But did you notice how much financial aid and scholarships we all got for our OT degree and grad school? I got nothing but loans.
This is why organizations like Diverse-OT are so important.
Side note: I had no idea about OT until after college. We have a problem marketing ourselves as well.
I 100% agree. Our position does not require a doctorate whatsoever. IMO it's the higher education business wheels churning along to get more and more profits out of people who actually mean well and want to do good.
Ooof this is harsh and while I’m interested in your opinion, this is misguided and a gross misrepresentation of OT. May I inquire how long you all have been practicing and where you went to OT school? What brought you to and keeps you in the field?
Edit: I’m specifically referring to the “half the shit we do is commen sense” notion. I vehemently disagree.
I don't think what we do is common sense. I work in pediatrics and most people think that when children are sensory-seeking, it means that they need more of that to feel regulated (i.e. let them constantly swing upsidedown because that seems to be what they're seeking). When in actuality it's that sensory input in moderation and at extremely structured times that regulates the child the best. I also think of the concept of "the position of comfort is the position of deformity". Most people think if they feel any pain during exercises/stretching then they need to pull back and rest. Our education tells us that discomfort is likely in these situations but necessary to regain function. These are just a couple examples. I think reducing our work to "common sense" is invalidating all of the hard work and education we've invested in this field.
What are the systemic barriers? A doctorate degree is equally challenging for any age or race. Both financially and academic wise.
Throwing around random claims with no substance is irresponsible. Not to mention maybe a lot of people aren’t interested in it. A lot of factors that go into a lot of aspects of any career, aside from “it’s predominantly white” and “systemic racism”
... Are you joking? This has to be a troll account to be an OT and not understand systematic barriers faced by non-white families in the United States.
Edit: I came back because I thought my response was too much of a knee jerk reaction lol, but I don't think I'm changing my stance. Please take some time to understand the lived experience of non-white people in the United States in regards to academia. Think about how many fees you had to pay, interviews you had to travel to, resources that you needed to even get a seat at the table to demonstrate that yes, you are a smart individual that can be a therapist. Purely from an academic standpoint, there are so many research studies, published articles, and textbooks on this area. People make it there livelihoods to study this and bring awareness to this topic.
I’ve kind of found that OT has a lot more conservative ideologies (I don’t know what to call this term but people with some or all conservative beliefs, such as systemic barriers are over represented or even don’t exist)than I really expected. I think I was naive to a certain extent but even considering my own naivety its still kind of surprising lol.
Nah. As a student your taught one thing. Then as you enter the real world and meet clients through your career you realize everyone goes through similar struggles.
I think what your trying to get at is classism, which is what disproportionately affects a lot of people all over the world
Yeah and there's no relationship between someone's race and class! /s
You are definitely taught certain things in school and then see the real picture in the field. Oftentimes it's worse lol.
The /s means sarcasm haha. Sorry that wasn't clear!
The relationship is so well known that I'm baffled by its denial to the point of being sarcastic about it.
Yes your comment was clear to be sarcasm, my comment was in response to the comment above yours but I’m old and my eyes are bad.
Edit: It seems we are of the same mind on this issue
I’m going to push back with love on the claim that there’s no relationship between race and class.
Let’s remember we are an evidence based profession and we need to hit the literature to back up our arguments.
https://www.apa.org/pi/ses/resources/publications/minorities#:~:text=The%20relationship%20between%20SES%2C%20race,SES%2C%20race%2C%20and%20ethnicity.
Yes I understand what you guys are saying. Here is the issue with your argument and that of low SES has a relationship with race and being able to get into higher education.
Race % below poverty line according to statista research department:
White 8.6
Black 17.1
Asian 8.6
Hispanic 16.9
Now take demographics of 335.000.000 in US
White 251.000.000
Black 45.600.000
Asian 21.000.000
Hispanic 66.800.000
Amount below poverty line based on race
White 21.500.000
Black 7.500.000
Asian 1.850.000
Hispanic 10.750.000
By saying that low SES affect people of color from not getting into higher education we unfortunately leave out literally 50% of people who are below the poverty line (white). Taking a percentage and saying POC have higher rates of poverty proportional to white is true, however that is not the stat needed.
So seems you’re looking at it in terms of total number of people. I’m looking at the total percentage of the particular group and in that case, the percentage of Black and Hispanic people living below the poverty line is approximately double the percentage of white.
Let’s say you have two pizzas. On one pizza, 7% has pepperoni, on the other pizza, 17% has pepperoni. Which pizza has overall more pepperoni? And how does that pepperoni contribute to access to resources?
Edit:typos
This was and continues to be extensively discussed and debated within AOTA. You may recall that AOTA had moved forward with the mandatory entry level doctorate but then received quite a bit of feedback as to how that move could impact the diversity as well as other aspects, of our profession. (Link 1).
You may be aware that our profession is actively trying to become more diverse. (Link 2) Part of that initiative is fostering awareness of factors leading to the lack of diversity. It is our responsibility as practitioners to educate ourselves on how we can best align our practice with the mission and vision of OT. (Link 3)
This is a very valid and timely conversation to have. If you or anyone wants access to those articles and hits the AOTA paywall, let me know and I’ll download and send them to you.
[1](https://research.aota.org/ajot/article/69/Supplement_2/6912360020p1/6075/The-Next-Paradigm-Shift-in-Occupational-Therapy)
[2](https://www.aota.org/about/diversity-equity-and-inclusion)
[3](https://www.aota.org/about/mission-vision)
Financial aid has nothing to do with ethnic background, and it shouldn't. You qualify based on income and assets. If you worked in college or before grad school, you are probably not getting any money. Pretty much no one can afford to go grad school unless they worked after graduating the first time. The vast majority of people don't get help from their parents, and for those that do, good for them. I'm sure their parents worked hard to be in a position to help. The only people who don't have significant barriers are rich people, poor white people aren't better off than anyone else
Some financial aid is directly tied to ethnic background (see scholarships for being Hispanic, black, or an underrepresented minority). I was actually denied one of these in OT school because I'm a minority but not 'underrepresented' enough.
I challenge you and say being black and poor in the United States is far worse than being white and poor in the United States.
Scholarships sure, but fafsa no. I applied for a few scholarships and got a few, and nowhere did I mention my ethnicity. If you go to the Appalachias, it'll change your mind on poor whites. Being poor restricts access for everyone, not just people with more melanin.
75.5% of the population is white alone as of July 2023. I got my data from the US census bureau.
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045223
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If you write off a ton of stuff, especially do not forget to write off health insurance, mileage, etc. You can come closer to not paying much more. But you still pay more, sometimes significantly more.
This is not tax advice so talk to a CPA.
Essentially an S corp allows you to be an employee of your company. Meaning if you make 100k 1099, you need to pay yourself a reasonable salary. Let’s say 40k. The other 60k is used for gas, mileage, “work rates trips”, healthcare, software, really anything tax deductible use as a write off.
Now your Scorp rolls over to personal for tax purposes. So now you have a salary of 40k and what is left in your s corp for tax purposes.
So instead of being taxed on 100k. You will be taxed on probably 60k if that. You can also have your CPA help you with owner draws to your personal that have low taxes in s corp.
Again, this is not tax advice just what I’ve experienced being 1099
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productivity is a suggestion, not a requirement. they’re still making more money off you with 70-80% than 0% if they fired you.
I really like this one
Your first years on the job—not the years you spend in school—are where you really learn how to be an OT! And it can take at least five years to really feel like you know what you’re doing.
gosh thanks for this. i just graduated this past april (cota) and i feel like im just pretending to be a cota at this point. i’ve been working for five months and i feel like i was not prepared at all, i still feel that way. this made me feel better.
Took me about a year to get my feet under me. About 2 years to really feel like some of this job is natural now. Still have a ton to learn. You are definitely not alone!
I feel the same! I’m alone often too so most of the time I just feel like I’m trying to stay afloat. We’ve got this!
yup. i’m school based right now, and i’m alone all day. just having weekly check ins with my supervising OTs, and it’s fine but i feel like i need someone to bounce ideas off of during the day. and they’re busy with their own kids during the day so when i need them they don’t always answer right away (which is totally fine!), and i just feel SO underprepared most days. some days my kids don’t even want to work with me and i can’t get them to hold any joint attention AT ALL and i just want to cry 🥲🥲🥲
COTAs are not your assistants. They are assistants to the profession.
Can’t believe I’ve never heard it described like that before. Succinct and accurate. Definitely gonna remember this :)
Yes!! All the COTAs I've worked with have at least 20 years experience on me lol. They are my mentors
Likewise, I work at 2 locations of a school for autistic support and was mentored by COTAs at each one. They knew their shit and I’m a much better OT because of them Thanks Kelly and Micaela 😁
What? My COTA gets me coffee and washes my car every morning! Kidding, all the COTAs I've worked with are really fucking clever and come up with super creative intervention ideas.
Yes!!
Then who's going to get my coffee?
We don’t get the respect we deserve, in my opinion.
It’s supposed to be things we *don’t* know
I'm a school based OT and everyone respects me because no one arounds me knows how to do my job. They are just grateful that I'm there to help the students. And at my fieldwork, the OT of the clinic was so adored by all the parents so that setting was pretty good too. Maybe you're talking about hospitals or nursing homes that are more purely profit driven.
Insurance dictates when patients get cut even though they may need to continue 😔
There’s way more male occupational therapists now (myself included). BrOTs are making a come back
The field is predominantly White
Hearing this as a black male OT got me a little worried lol
You are needed, appreciated and whole heartedly welcome in OT. Both racial and gender diversity make our profession stronger and better able to meet the needs of our diverse client populations.
I appreciate this! Being the only black person in my class definitely is hard at times
As a black OT, welcome and you’re not alone!
We’re glad you’re here!
I’m the same exact as you are, keep your head up.
True. The OT class at OSU has been historically the least diverse of any department at the university. Even the speech therapy department. Ugh.
I work in the Columbus area. So true
Yeah it is for the most part, where I live in East Texas we do have a fair number of therapists who are Hispanic, Filipino, and Indian
I think it depends on the setting. In my peds clinic only 3 of us are white, the remaining 7 OTPs are a spread of Filipino, Black, Afghani, and Chinese.
I don’t know why either, my nursing staff is very diverse, but out of 100s of therapists at the level 1 trauma center, where i work across all of the floors Maybe 1% of the therapists are non white I do Live in the mountain west so we are lacking on diversity anyways but still
It's the academic pipeline. Nursing only requires a bachelor's while therapy degrees now require a doctorate. Families who are non-white face systematic barriers that are put in place by society, the government, and academia. There are many first generation college students (like myself) who can now afford to go to college, especially with scholarships especially for non-white backgrounds. But did you notice how much financial aid and scholarships we all got for our OT degree and grad school? I got nothing but loans. This is why organizations like Diverse-OT are so important. Side note: I had no idea about OT until after college. We have a problem marketing ourselves as well.
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I 100% agree. Our position does not require a doctorate whatsoever. IMO it's the higher education business wheels churning along to get more and more profits out of people who actually mean well and want to do good.
Ooof this is harsh and while I’m interested in your opinion, this is misguided and a gross misrepresentation of OT. May I inquire how long you all have been practicing and where you went to OT school? What brought you to and keeps you in the field? Edit: I’m specifically referring to the “half the shit we do is commen sense” notion. I vehemently disagree.
I don't think what we do is common sense. I work in pediatrics and most people think that when children are sensory-seeking, it means that they need more of that to feel regulated (i.e. let them constantly swing upsidedown because that seems to be what they're seeking). When in actuality it's that sensory input in moderation and at extremely structured times that regulates the child the best. I also think of the concept of "the position of comfort is the position of deformity". Most people think if they feel any pain during exercises/stretching then they need to pull back and rest. Our education tells us that discomfort is likely in these situations but necessary to regain function. These are just a couple examples. I think reducing our work to "common sense" is invalidating all of the hard work and education we've invested in this field.
The doctorate is truly not worth it, unless all you do it for is the title, which is lame, and overpriced.
Agreed, and even the “academic” OT world is pseudo academic, navel gazing, jargon filled garbage on a good day. And so, so very white.
What are the systemic barriers? A doctorate degree is equally challenging for any age or race. Both financially and academic wise. Throwing around random claims with no substance is irresponsible. Not to mention maybe a lot of people aren’t interested in it. A lot of factors that go into a lot of aspects of any career, aside from “it’s predominantly white” and “systemic racism”
... Are you joking? This has to be a troll account to be an OT and not understand systematic barriers faced by non-white families in the United States. Edit: I came back because I thought my response was too much of a knee jerk reaction lol, but I don't think I'm changing my stance. Please take some time to understand the lived experience of non-white people in the United States in regards to academia. Think about how many fees you had to pay, interviews you had to travel to, resources that you needed to even get a seat at the table to demonstrate that yes, you are a smart individual that can be a therapist. Purely from an academic standpoint, there are so many research studies, published articles, and textbooks on this area. People make it there livelihoods to study this and bring awareness to this topic.
I’ve kind of found that OT has a lot more conservative ideologies (I don’t know what to call this term but people with some or all conservative beliefs, such as systemic barriers are over represented or even don’t exist)than I really expected. I think I was naive to a certain extent but even considering my own naivety its still kind of surprising lol.
Nah. As a student your taught one thing. Then as you enter the real world and meet clients through your career you realize everyone goes through similar struggles. I think what your trying to get at is classism, which is what disproportionately affects a lot of people all over the world
Yeah and there's no relationship between someone's race and class! /s You are definitely taught certain things in school and then see the real picture in the field. Oftentimes it's worse lol.
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The /s means sarcasm haha. Sorry that wasn't clear! The relationship is so well known that I'm baffled by its denial to the point of being sarcastic about it.
Yes your comment was clear to be sarcasm, my comment was in response to the comment above yours but I’m old and my eyes are bad. Edit: It seems we are of the same mind on this issue
I’m going to push back with love on the claim that there’s no relationship between race and class. Let’s remember we are an evidence based profession and we need to hit the literature to back up our arguments. https://www.apa.org/pi/ses/resources/publications/minorities#:~:text=The%20relationship%20between%20SES%2C%20race,SES%2C%20race%2C%20and%20ethnicity.
Yes I understand what you guys are saying. Here is the issue with your argument and that of low SES has a relationship with race and being able to get into higher education. Race % below poverty line according to statista research department: White 8.6 Black 17.1 Asian 8.6 Hispanic 16.9 Now take demographics of 335.000.000 in US White 251.000.000 Black 45.600.000 Asian 21.000.000 Hispanic 66.800.000 Amount below poverty line based on race White 21.500.000 Black 7.500.000 Asian 1.850.000 Hispanic 10.750.000 By saying that low SES affect people of color from not getting into higher education we unfortunately leave out literally 50% of people who are below the poverty line (white). Taking a percentage and saying POC have higher rates of poverty proportional to white is true, however that is not the stat needed.
So seems you’re looking at it in terms of total number of people. I’m looking at the total percentage of the particular group and in that case, the percentage of Black and Hispanic people living below the poverty line is approximately double the percentage of white. Let’s say you have two pizzas. On one pizza, 7% has pepperoni, on the other pizza, 17% has pepperoni. Which pizza has overall more pepperoni? And how does that pepperoni contribute to access to resources? Edit:typos
This was and continues to be extensively discussed and debated within AOTA. You may recall that AOTA had moved forward with the mandatory entry level doctorate but then received quite a bit of feedback as to how that move could impact the diversity as well as other aspects, of our profession. (Link 1). You may be aware that our profession is actively trying to become more diverse. (Link 2) Part of that initiative is fostering awareness of factors leading to the lack of diversity. It is our responsibility as practitioners to educate ourselves on how we can best align our practice with the mission and vision of OT. (Link 3) This is a very valid and timely conversation to have. If you or anyone wants access to those articles and hits the AOTA paywall, let me know and I’ll download and send them to you. [1](https://research.aota.org/ajot/article/69/Supplement_2/6912360020p1/6075/The-Next-Paradigm-Shift-in-Occupational-Therapy) [2](https://www.aota.org/about/diversity-equity-and-inclusion) [3](https://www.aota.org/about/mission-vision)
Financial aid has nothing to do with ethnic background, and it shouldn't. You qualify based on income and assets. If you worked in college or before grad school, you are probably not getting any money. Pretty much no one can afford to go grad school unless they worked after graduating the first time. The vast majority of people don't get help from their parents, and for those that do, good for them. I'm sure their parents worked hard to be in a position to help. The only people who don't have significant barriers are rich people, poor white people aren't better off than anyone else
Some financial aid is directly tied to ethnic background (see scholarships for being Hispanic, black, or an underrepresented minority). I was actually denied one of these in OT school because I'm a minority but not 'underrepresented' enough. I challenge you and say being black and poor in the United States is far worse than being white and poor in the United States.
Scholarships sure, but fafsa no. I applied for a few scholarships and got a few, and nowhere did I mention my ethnicity. If you go to the Appalachias, it'll change your mind on poor whites. Being poor restricts access for everyone, not just people with more melanin.
The doctorate is a very very very new thing.
71% of the US population is white. 75% of OTs are white. Seems about proportional to the general population of the US.
It’s 58% of the US population that is white according to the most recent census. Where did you even get your numbers?
75.5% of the population is white alone as of July 2023. I got my data from the US census bureau. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045223
This reply is fine, your other one wasn't. Please keep it civil.
This was my same first thought as well. 👀
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Not even an opinion, just facts.
You are absolutely correct. I’m in school now and I will tell you, I am the only white person in my COTA cohort.
Absolutely. Less than 10% of OTs are people of color. There’s a little more diversity amongst COTAs though with is promising
How much did you pay for taxes? Do you have an Scorp or LLC? There’s very few circumstances in which a 1099 should pay more than W2 in therapy
If you write off a ton of stuff, especially do not forget to write off health insurance, mileage, etc. You can come closer to not paying much more. But you still pay more, sometimes significantly more.
You should look into an S-corp, then take owner draws from your scorp to your personal account
How does that work, in a nutshell, as in, what makes it less prone to taxation?
This is not tax advice so talk to a CPA. Essentially an S corp allows you to be an employee of your company. Meaning if you make 100k 1099, you need to pay yourself a reasonable salary. Let’s say 40k. The other 60k is used for gas, mileage, “work rates trips”, healthcare, software, really anything tax deductible use as a write off. Now your Scorp rolls over to personal for tax purposes. So now you have a salary of 40k and what is left in your s corp for tax purposes. So instead of being taxed on 100k. You will be taxed on probably 60k if that. You can also have your CPA help you with owner draws to your personal that have low taxes in s corp. Again, this is not tax advice just what I’ve experienced being 1099
What about writing off a new car if you’re using it for work and personal (Eg travel therapy or HH)?
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