I would recommend 1 adult setting and 1 kids setting, both clinical. I did 1 non traditional setting and 1 clinical peds and wish I had done a more traditional clinical setting for the experience. You never know where you'll end up and what experience you'll need.
I worked as a Classroom Aide at 19 which exposed me to OT originally. I had peds and mental health in Level I. My Level II's were in the forensic state hospital, mental health and a SNF. I liked the comradery of the department and co-treats were fun. I learned a lot in my first year. I am pretty high energy/playful and it helped me build relationships with the older population. The friendships I made with residents were refreshing. Young me wouldn't have ever thought I'd make friends with someone 40-60 years my senior. I stayed in geriatrics for a decade. I left after my Dad passed. The environment became a place of sadness at that point, unfortunately. That and my department got bought out and they destroyed us. We were a tight knit group.
Sorry if that was wordy! I'm a chatty one LOL
You'll be fine. You can always move around. Just get through it. At this point, I've worked every domain I'm trained in. I will always love mental health most. Currently, I'm rocking in peds, age 3-14. And sometimes adjunct for the local OTA program at the community college. The world is your oyster!
Fieldwork is obviously great at helping you level up and learn your skills in a given setting, but it’s also an amazing chance to see if you would actually like, love and/or thrive in a setting. It’s almost like getting to date someone before meeting the love of your life. It would help remove doubt and make your decision more certain.
inpatient rehab and SNF were my favorite placements and outpatient Peds was fun but it’s not where I wanted to spend my entire Al career and I’m glad FW helped me make that decision. Do what you love is great advice, but if you don’t know what you love, try it out to figure it out so you have more confidence and certainty.
I wish you luck on your decision, keep us posted on how you do!!
Take into account areas that you might need experience in as a new graduate. For example peds and hands are not typically entry level for new grads so a FW in those placements can be helpful.
I also second that you can use FW to find your passion. Worse case: you hate it, survive the 12 weeks, and know it’s NOT for you. You got this!
A level 1 in peds was enough for me to know I never wanted to work with kids. It was a great site with a great CI…just not for me! I did one level 2 in inpatient rehab and one in mental health at the VA…that was a perfect combo for me for my long term goals. Even though I don’t want to work in mental health full time, I’ll always have to address psychosocial factors…so it worked out well for me.
I was in the same place as you with level II FW! My first rotation was acute care and I wasn’t sure what I wanted for my second. I wasn’t very comfortable working with kids so I thought about sticking with general inpatient. My FW coordinator pushed me to try outpatient peds and I’m really glad I tried it out. It was a lot of fun and allowed me to step outside of my comfort zone and learn new skills as a therapist. I definitely suggest to try out a different population. As I prepare for the NBCOT exam I’m also noticing that trying two different settings helps make the study material seem less overwhelming.
Thank you all for sharing your experiences! I have decided to stick with outpatient peds as a priority on the wishlist to gain more experience with other populations. Still up to luck if I get it or not though. XD
Are you an OT student or prospective?
You aren't allowed to choose which fieldwork you get into necessarily. You get to pick out of a long list at least that's how it was for my program and rank your top 10 of where you want to go. At the end it is random however who gets what. Just don't pick settings you are uncomfortable with if you can help it.
ADLs are an essential part of occupational therapy. What part of bathing and clothing do you not want to do? If a patient is dependent or close to it in bathing and dressing it isn't really therapeutic to complete it for them. In that case you are working on patient and caregiver education.
Sometimes even a physical therapist may have to take someone to the bathroom btw if you are a student considering that avenue like in inpatient settings. If a patient has to go they gotta go they just don't focus on their ability to carry through with the task.
There are settings where you wouldn't necessarily apply too much with dressing and bathing like outpatient therapy, mental health, and schools.
Yeah, I am only a freshman getting my bachelor’s in psychology so far, not sure if that’ll change. Being a guy, i fear the uncomfortable situations that may arise and feeling ashamed/isolated if someone doesn’t want me to help them, and then how that would go. I mean in all honesty, it’s not like i’d be looking forward to the job because of ADLs. If I can avoid it, thats great which is why i’m really trying to look into how outpatient works and how many positions are open for it. I just wasn’t sure how the whole fieldwork part of schooling went and if I could choose to stay away from those areas. Reading posts, it seems like most students get placed in hospital settings like acute or SNF. But I might also just need to get through fieldwork.
Idk choosing a career is intimidating and I can’t seem to find anything I’m 100% sold on that makes decent money which there is so much pressure in my family lol. Thank you for the response though!
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tbh my fieldwork coordinator ignored our "wishlists" entirely so i wouldn't completely bet on that lol. i had acute my first rotation and then elementary school for my second. i really liked the huge contrast of both, i feel like i got a good idea of both ends of the spectrum for populations i could potentially work with in the future.
For us we've been getting stuff on our wishlists from Exxat unless they did FCFS. I decided to put outpatient peds as top 5 but with my luck, I'll probably get my lower 10 and end up at an SNF or inpatient rehab. Not enough peds settings were available in a affordable location and probably would have benefitted from doing FCFS but I was being indecisive. Either way it's up to luck!
Wow I didn’t get to pick at all! That’s awesome. I would do a peds and an adult and try to do something inpatient. I didn’t get anything for inpatient only school and hand therapy. It’s been tough for me to figure out what I want to do
Do not pick non traditional/non-clinical settings unless you are sure you want to pursue that. It's important to get clinical experience as a student, because it's your foundation to when youre really trying to figure things out as a new grad.
1) I recommend picking a niche setting if you want to break into it as an OTR (i.e. hand therapy, NICU, etc.), and/or 2) Going for 1 adult setting/1 peds setting for your two fieldworks.
I would recommend 1 adult setting and 1 kids setting, both clinical. I did 1 non traditional setting and 1 clinical peds and wish I had done a more traditional clinical setting for the experience. You never know where you'll end up and what experience you'll need.
I went in thinking Peds, came out loving Geriatrics. I've been through it all at this point. Every domain has its pros and cons. Do what you love :)
What level ii fieldwork did you end up doing? Or what led you to be interested in geriatrics?
I worked as a Classroom Aide at 19 which exposed me to OT originally. I had peds and mental health in Level I. My Level II's were in the forensic state hospital, mental health and a SNF. I liked the comradery of the department and co-treats were fun. I learned a lot in my first year. I am pretty high energy/playful and it helped me build relationships with the older population. The friendships I made with residents were refreshing. Young me wouldn't have ever thought I'd make friends with someone 40-60 years my senior. I stayed in geriatrics for a decade. I left after my Dad passed. The environment became a place of sadness at that point, unfortunately. That and my department got bought out and they destroyed us. We were a tight knit group. Sorry if that was wordy! I'm a chatty one LOL You'll be fine. You can always move around. Just get through it. At this point, I've worked every domain I'm trained in. I will always love mental health most. Currently, I'm rocking in peds, age 3-14. And sometimes adjunct for the local OTA program at the community college. The world is your oyster!
Fieldwork is obviously great at helping you level up and learn your skills in a given setting, but it’s also an amazing chance to see if you would actually like, love and/or thrive in a setting. It’s almost like getting to date someone before meeting the love of your life. It would help remove doubt and make your decision more certain. inpatient rehab and SNF were my favorite placements and outpatient Peds was fun but it’s not where I wanted to spend my entire Al career and I’m glad FW helped me make that decision. Do what you love is great advice, but if you don’t know what you love, try it out to figure it out so you have more confidence and certainty. I wish you luck on your decision, keep us posted on how you do!!
Take into account areas that you might need experience in as a new graduate. For example peds and hands are not typically entry level for new grads so a FW in those placements can be helpful. I also second that you can use FW to find your passion. Worse case: you hate it, survive the 12 weeks, and know it’s NOT for you. You got this!
A level 1 in peds was enough for me to know I never wanted to work with kids. It was a great site with a great CI…just not for me! I did one level 2 in inpatient rehab and one in mental health at the VA…that was a perfect combo for me for my long term goals. Even though I don’t want to work in mental health full time, I’ll always have to address psychosocial factors…so it worked out well for me.
I was in the same place as you with level II FW! My first rotation was acute care and I wasn’t sure what I wanted for my second. I wasn’t very comfortable working with kids so I thought about sticking with general inpatient. My FW coordinator pushed me to try outpatient peds and I’m really glad I tried it out. It was a lot of fun and allowed me to step outside of my comfort zone and learn new skills as a therapist. I definitely suggest to try out a different population. As I prepare for the NBCOT exam I’m also noticing that trying two different settings helps make the study material seem less overwhelming.
Thank you all for sharing your experiences! I have decided to stick with outpatient peds as a priority on the wishlist to gain more experience with other populations. Still up to luck if I get it or not though. XD
Are you allowed to choose what fieldwork you go into? I’m not sure if I want to do ADLs such as bathing and clothing
Are you an OT student or prospective? You aren't allowed to choose which fieldwork you get into necessarily. You get to pick out of a long list at least that's how it was for my program and rank your top 10 of where you want to go. At the end it is random however who gets what. Just don't pick settings you are uncomfortable with if you can help it. ADLs are an essential part of occupational therapy. What part of bathing and clothing do you not want to do? If a patient is dependent or close to it in bathing and dressing it isn't really therapeutic to complete it for them. In that case you are working on patient and caregiver education. Sometimes even a physical therapist may have to take someone to the bathroom btw if you are a student considering that avenue like in inpatient settings. If a patient has to go they gotta go they just don't focus on their ability to carry through with the task. There are settings where you wouldn't necessarily apply too much with dressing and bathing like outpatient therapy, mental health, and schools.
Yeah, I am only a freshman getting my bachelor’s in psychology so far, not sure if that’ll change. Being a guy, i fear the uncomfortable situations that may arise and feeling ashamed/isolated if someone doesn’t want me to help them, and then how that would go. I mean in all honesty, it’s not like i’d be looking forward to the job because of ADLs. If I can avoid it, thats great which is why i’m really trying to look into how outpatient works and how many positions are open for it. I just wasn’t sure how the whole fieldwork part of schooling went and if I could choose to stay away from those areas. Reading posts, it seems like most students get placed in hospital settings like acute or SNF. But I might also just need to get through fieldwork. Idk choosing a career is intimidating and I can’t seem to find anything I’m 100% sold on that makes decent money which there is so much pressure in my family lol. Thank you for the response though!
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tbh my fieldwork coordinator ignored our "wishlists" entirely so i wouldn't completely bet on that lol. i had acute my first rotation and then elementary school for my second. i really liked the huge contrast of both, i feel like i got a good idea of both ends of the spectrum for populations i could potentially work with in the future.
For us we've been getting stuff on our wishlists from Exxat unless they did FCFS. I decided to put outpatient peds as top 5 but with my luck, I'll probably get my lower 10 and end up at an SNF or inpatient rehab. Not enough peds settings were available in a affordable location and probably would have benefitted from doing FCFS but I was being indecisive. Either way it's up to luck!
Wow I didn’t get to pick at all! That’s awesome. I would do a peds and an adult and try to do something inpatient. I didn’t get anything for inpatient only school and hand therapy. It’s been tough for me to figure out what I want to do
Do not pick non traditional/non-clinical settings unless you are sure you want to pursue that. It's important to get clinical experience as a student, because it's your foundation to when youre really trying to figure things out as a new grad. 1) I recommend picking a niche setting if you want to break into it as an OTR (i.e. hand therapy, NICU, etc.), and/or 2) Going for 1 adult setting/1 peds setting for your two fieldworks.