I was Registered Nurse for 13 years before "converting" to Occupational Therapy, many aspects of which are actually still new and exciting after two years out from uni (not too cynical yet, but then I am fortunate to have an interesting and unusual job that seems to match my learning style and world view well)!
I think I ALWAYS had at least a sense of what Occupation was about: as a nurse I was forever being confronted with the fallout/signs of Occupational Imbalance and Occupational Deprivation (maybe I didn't know the names then; but I could sure tell what a person withdrawing from an unacceptable reality looked like; and I heard a helluva lot of stories from people I'd been nursing about how their life frequently felt like a wasteland because of their lost independence). It seemed that When people presented with a health problem, this was just patched over, seemingly never addressed at the source...in fact more often than not, the health system actually reduced people's quality of life (at least that's how it seemed to me).... i am now of the opinion that the most appropriate response to being in hospital is to complain loudly and longly until noone can stand it anymore, and things gets fixed to your stasifaction! HOWEVER, as the hospital where I spent most of my nursing years employed several motivated caring therapists, I got to see OT in practice; and to hear about the simultaneously obvious and subtle benefits of Occupation. I've caught up with some of these inspirational people lately; and taken the opportunity to tell them that I considered them to be great ambassadors for the Profession. anyway, thanks for listening to my rant, I know there is a lot of ignorance out there, especially from nurses, but please bear in mind that there might actually be one or two nurses that really DO appreciate what the OT is trying to achieve! David *********��*********** Unsubscribe? Send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the message's *body*, put the following text: unsubscribe OTlist ** List messages are archived at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] *********��***********
