Chloe Skinner talks about her drive to share her passion for the profession with young people , in the hope of inspiring them to choose occupational therapy as a rewarding career .
Maximise your potential , and theirs
Chloe Skinner talks about her drive to share her passion for the profession with young people , in the hope of inspiring them to choose occupational therapy as a rewarding career .
I
am an occupational therapist within an older adult rehabilitation ward in NHS Highland . My role involves working with patients to help them be as independent as possible with their activities of daily living to return to their homes .
Feeling that it ’ s important to help educate young people about our role as occupational therapists , I have given presentations to Tain Royal Academy ’ s third year pupils , UHI North Highland College ’ s Healthcare and Access to Nursing students and at Knockbreck Primary School in Tain .
This involved presenting for a range of different ages within the education settings about my role as an occupational therapist , to allow for young people to have a deeper understanding and identify if they wished to undertake a career in occupational therapy .
Our professional body says that ‘ we must grow understanding and enhance the profile of occupational therapy , attract more people to work in the profession and help more people throughout society get the life-changing help they need ’ ( RCOT 2022 ).
I wanted to achieve this goal by reflecting on my own personal experience of discovering occupational therapy .
I undertook an Access to Nursing course and during both my nursing placements I was able to have the opportunity to shadow the occupational therapists ; it was then
54 OTnews September 2023