shmays
Hello and welcome to the OTION Student Forum! The launch of this site will serve as a platform to connect the thoughts, opinions, and questions of occupational therapy and occupational therapy assistant students.
My name is Chloe, and I am an M.S. Occupational Therapy student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States. One of my primary OT interests lies in community mental health. I am eager to begin the conversation within our diverse group of occupational therapy students as we virtually share, learn, and build upon ideas together.
As we begin to utilize this space, please share where you attend school, a little bit about your self, and how you envision this forum serving our OT student population best.
Wherever you might be on your educational journey, I wish you all the best!
Chloe
Meg
Hi!
I'm Meg. I'm a 2nd year student at a B.S./M.S. Occupational Therapy program at Long Island University in the United States. I have a variety of hobbies and skills that I hope will be useful during OT treatment. I hope to learn a lot from everyone's experiences and ideas especially those from different countries. I look forward to chatting with you all!
- Meg
esc501
Hello
I'm Ellen. I'm a first year student on the MSc course at Leeds Beckett University in England. I have had a carer change from Teaching, and have just started my first placement on my course so am looking forward to learning about the experiences of other students and offering anything I can to help. Would be interesting to see how O.T works in other countries too :-)
Gabi
Hello,
My name is Gabi. I'm a student at the B.S. OT program in NL and courious about this forum - and, as I realize right now - quite out of practice writing in english :-( - maybe I'll get better again here :-)
sarahfrancesca
Hey all! I am finishing up the last Level II Fieldwork of my masters at UNC-Chapel Hill. I'm currently at the TEACCH autism clinic in Asheville, which has been a fascinating experience. Hoping to head back to the Raleigh-Durham area after this summer to take the boards and find a job out there!
JosieBrown
Hello Everyone,
I'm Josie a second year (going to go into my final year in Septmeber) BSc (Hons) Occupational Therapy Student in England.
Hopefully we can use this as a platform to see how different/similar OT courses are around the world.
Am I correct in thinking that in USA they do not have a Bachelors of Science Degree for OT?
Josie 🙂
shmays
Hey everyone, thanks for the messages! We're off to a great start with the OTION student forum.
Josie -- To answer your question, the current entry educational level for OTs in the U.S. is a Masters. However, many current OTs that were educated prior to the shift in requirements are practicing with a Bachelors degree. Some universities are also transitioning to entry level OTD (doctorate) programs. For more info on the requirements, I recommend checking out some of the AOTA resources (
http://www.aota.org/Education-Careers/).
Let me know if I can help in any way!
~ Chloe
Kadra Muhiyadin
Hello everyone
My name is Kadra, I'm a student in VIA University College, Denmark.
I am in my last year as OT student and will graduate at the end of January next year. I have seen how occupational therapy is used in different areas in the danish healthcare system, I find the work with neurological patients very interesting.
I am looking forward to learning more about how OT is used in different countries. 🙂
stephtobes
Hi everyone.. 🙂
I'm currently taking up my last year of Masters in OT here in Cebu Doctors University in the Philippines.Aside from my Masters, I am also teaching BS OT for the undergraduates in Velez College. I joined this forum to learn more about the OT practices of different places. It is a pleasure meeting (virtually) OTs all over the globe.. 🙂
Steph
SarahB
Hi all,
I'm Sarah. I've just completed the first year of a BSc at Northumbria university in the UK. I'm a mature student, going back to uni last year after having quite a few years at home with my kids. I attended COT conference this week and heard about this forum. Looking forward to chatting with you all and making new international connections.
Suziharris
Hi everyone, I'm Suzi and am a mature aged 2nd year student at Monash Uni in Melbourne, Australia. Currently interested in working with the marginalised somehow. Also interested to know if the OT degree is 3 years in the UK, Josie? I emigrated to Australia from England 10 years ago and it's a 4 year degree here. Am hoping this forum will be a really valuable tool for us all 🙂
1379597
Hi!
My name is Sonja and I am currently studying B. Sc OT at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. I just finished my first semester and cannot wait for the seven that follow.
Currently I am very interested in the Mental Health aspect of OT, but being very new I am excited to hear everyones' opinions on the different branches!
It is so exciting to be part of this international mix of future OTs. I hope to learn a lot from this forum.
Vimal Vinod
Hi everyone..
I'm Vimal.Vinod.V ; Im pursuing Bachelor of Occupational therapy Program at Manipal University,India.
I've completed my second year. Currently I'm interested to learn more about Neuro Rehabilitation & also Mental Health rehab 🙂
I'm sure that this platform will help all the dedicated OT students to exchange ideas and gain knowledge
emedina67
Hi everyone!
My name is Elaine and I am a first year student at California State University Dominguez Hills. I'm new to forums, but I joined to learn about practicing OT in different cultures and am interested in traveling abroad for my fieldwork session next year 🙂
I'm also excited to gain different perspectives from other international students!
Julia.Parini
Hello! What a fabulous idea giving students from around the world this opportunity to network together! Similar to SarahB, I have undertaken the path of OT as a career change. I am in my second year of a five years Masters program with Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia. The course is structured as a double degree - the first three years as a foundation program known as the Bachelor of Health Sciences (Principles of Occupational Therapy) with the Masters program being a further two years. Having come from the human services industry where professional networks are important in getting the job done, I was surprised to find that in my Uni, no formal OT student association or network had been established. Thus, one of my current interests is start an OT student network with view to establishing formal links with our state association. I am really keen to hear from you about whether an OT student association exists in your Uni and if so, a few details about how its working and what tends to be on the agenda. Look forward to corresponding with you all! Kindest regards, Julia
OT512016
Hello,
My name is Willette Wiley and I am a mature aged OTA student at Pitt Community College in Greenville,NC, who is also making a career change. I have finished my last official classroom work and will begin my level ll fieldwork August 18th. I graduate in December 2016! I joined this forum because I just finished a research project on Asian countries and the OT profession, and it really sparked my interest to know more about the OT practice in other countries.
I would like to know if any other countries license OTA's or OT's only? If they do license OTA's what type of degree do they have to receive?
JonathanCLH
Kia Ora (Hello in Maori, language of the indigenous people of New Zealand),
My name is Jonathan and I am a year 2 OT students at Auckland University of Technology(AUT) in New Zealand. I am new to the forum, really excited to see people posting stuff about occupational therapy here! I am sure students/OTs/educators will gain so much from this international knowledge exchange platform!
Cheers,
Jonathan
Knormile
Hi Everyone, I am a 4th year (2nd year Master's) student at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. I am from the US and wanting to work back there at some point! I am excited about this forum because I know I will need to work through a lot of steps to get my degree approved in the States and hoping to find others in the similar situation. In the meantime I am interested in the area of mental health here in Australia (and the UK)!
Katie
ReneeCahinde
Hi everyone,
I'm Renee, and I'm a 3rd year BS Occupational Therapy student from University of the Philippines- Manila. I can't wait to hear (or read) about everyone's stories, especially experiences as OT students. I'm also interested on knowing the similarities and differences of OT student and professional life, and health care beliefs and practices across different regions and cultures.
Regina
Hello everyone,
I'm Regina! I'm currently heading into my fourth and final year in the BSc. Medical Rehabilitation Program: Occupational Therapy at the University of Guyana, in Guyana, South America 🙂 . This is presently a new field of therapy being introduced here in Guyana. Physiotherapy is much more popular here at present. We have no OT therapists stationed permanently in Guyana except for those volunteers from the American Peace Core. These volunteers are the ones providing lectures and resources as well to the students that are pursuing a career in OT. In fact it was my lecturer that told us about "otion". So I am excited to be here and do hope to learn a lot more from you fellow OT colleagues. All the best to all of you too in your studies.
