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I’ll be entering an Occupational Therapy Master’s Program at San Jose State University in August. What is OT?  Here is an article about it from NPR.

(via)

Transcript:

ARI SHAPIRO, host:

Some people are calling the current economic downturn a man session – really. That’s because the jobless rate for men is about 2 percent higher than it is for women. While it is more of a struggle for men to find a job than women in this economy, men take note: One profession needs and wants more male bodies, and it even pays well.

Jenee Darden reports.

Mr. FARLEY HOM (Occupational Therapist): How bad is your pain, from one to 10?

JENEE DARDEN: Farley Hom is an occupational therapist. Today, he’s helping a patient at a rehab center for seniors in Southern California. The elderly man recently fractured bones in his neck after a fall. Hom tries to help the man move from his wheelchair to his bed on his own.

Mr. HOM: We’ll see when you can have your pain meds next, OK? You want pain medication?

DARDEN: Hom has been an occupational therapist for 15 years. In case youre wondering, OT and physical therapy are not the same.

Mr. HOM: To this day, even my parents have difficulty explaining to their friends what I do for a living.

DARDEN: Here’s how he breaks it down.

Mr. HOM: Occupational therapists help people to be as independent as possible with their activities of daily living. That can be anything from getting themselves dressed to brushing their teeth to driving.

DARDEN: Hom is the only male OT at the center, which is not unusual. Men make up only 10 percent of therapists. Historically, the profession has focused on recruiting women. Now, it’s pushing for gender balance and actively reaching out to men. Hom says they want workers to be diverse, like the people they serve. For instance…

Mr. HOM: A male might prefer another male to be with him in the bathroom when we’re working on toileting issues, simply because of dignity issues, privacy issues.

DARDEN: But Hom says there’s a growing need for OT’s in general, especially as baby boomers retire. Labor Department stats back this up. They show occupational therapy growing more than 20 percent over the next few years.

Mr. HOM: I’ve always been able to find work. I’ve never had a problem finding work.

DARDEN: Now that’s something you rarely hear today, and the pay isn’t bad, either. In California, an OT fresh out of grad school can start making up to $80,000 a year. Nationwide, the mean salary is about 67 grand. Good pay, steady work and a demand for male workers – in the so-called man session, why aren’t more men signing up?

Mr. SHAWN PHIPPS (President, Occupational Therapy Association of California): I think occupational therapy is one of those best kept secrets.

DARDEN: Shawn Phipps is president of the Occupational Therapy Association of California.

(Soundbite of children chattering)

DARDEN: On this day, he supervises therapists at a rehab center for kids with disabilities. He says people dont know about the profession, and a number of those who do view it as women’s work.

Mr. PHIPPS: I think that occupational therapy is sometimes seen as a caretaking profession like nursing, and men traditionally have not been drawn especially to caretaking professions.

DARDEN: But OT’s go beyond bedsides. Some work in technology and develop ideas to help people with disabilities function in everyday life. And you can find OT’s treating injured workers.

Mr. PHIPPS: I’m aware of a number of men that work in industrial rehabilitation. An occupational therapist can play a role evaluating that worker’s capability of returning to the workplace.

DARDEN: But Phipps says he notices men are starting to pay attention. He even convinced one of his friends to consider the profession. Sergio Sandoval worked in marketing research for 12 years, but was laid off more than a year ago and can’t find work. Now he plans on applying to an OT graduate program. Sandoval says he made the career switch for a few reasons.

Mr. SERGIO SANDOVAL (Occupational Therapy Student): The ability to work with people with disabilities to make a difference in their lives, and to also have steady work and create a future for myself.

DARDEN: And the perks dont stop at steady work, whether youre a man or a women. Money Magazine recently listed occupational therapy as one of the least stressful jobs in the country.

For NPR’s, I’m Janee Darden in Los Angeles.

This fall I’ll be starting grad school, pursuing a Master’s Degree in Occupational Therapy. This road began a few years ago when my dad, after seeing a newspaper article about the field of Radiation Therapy, suggested I consider it as a new career. The article said that the work was steady and the money good. As part of my road toward becoming a Radiation Therapy Tech, I volunteered in a hospital and figured out very quickly that Radiation Therapy is not for me! Maybe it’s for you. Read on and decide for yourself.

Let me tell you a story.

RTT (Radiation Therapy Technology) isn’t for me, but probably not for the reason you think. Most people think that the danger of the X-rays, or dealing with sick people is difficult. First, the X-rays aren’t an issue: the beam is so incredibly lethal that there are many interlocks to make sure you never get near it. And it’s not dealing with sick people, heck all the people you see are healthy enough to make it into an 8 week course of treatment shooting death rays at their head and stuff. Read on.

I spent a day volunteering in the Radiation Therapy department of a local hospital. I was in the middle of a 6 month volunteership in the Radiology department of the hospital (but that is a different story). In Radiation Therapy, I got to watch the tech and the nurse do their thing for about 5 hours. I saw them work with patients, operate giant death ray, and chat between one another.

The control room in the hospital’s basement is quiet except for the incessant “bip.. bip.. bip.. bip.. bip.. bip..” of the machine telling you the beam is on. You see, although everything is pretty straightforward, the solemnity and responsibility of firing a huge death ray straight into people’s vital organs (and hopefully missing the healthy bits) requires quite a bit of focus. One mistake could spell a gruesome death for a patient. The room looks like  one of those 1950’s science fiction movies where people in white coats operate Big Science machines, which is fascinating and all except that all those movie scenes lasted waaaay too long. This is no exception.

I’ll be frank, I found the job mind numbingly boring, non-interactive, and sad. What they did was quite simple:

1. bring the patient into the treatment room
2. strap them down
3. leave the room
4. watch the patient on a TV monitor while administering the treatment, finger hovering over the “stop death ray!” button
5. turn the dial every couple minutes to start a different treatment (a treatment which has been chosen by the prescribing doctor down the hall)
6. unstrap them
7. walk them out
8. repeat every 15 minutes for 30 years

The worst is what happened when I asked two folks that worked there about their work.

I chatted with the nurse and got her in a good mood. Then I asked if she liked working in Radiation Therapy and she said… well, here’s how the conversation went:
Lee: Do you love your job?
Nurse: [hesitation and then ] Well……
Lee: Do you like your job?
Nurse: [her shoulders fell a little]
Lee: Do you not hate your job? (I’m thinking “Oh my god, what if she doesn’t answer this third question, where the hell do we go from there?!”)
Nurse: Well… [she paused and then spoke slowly and with a bit of sadness] it’s sad when you see patients continue to come in and keep getting worse. And it’s especially bad when a patient stops coming in mid-way through treatment because… well, you know.

And that’s all she had to say about her job . . . . to a new volunteer! Yipe. :-(

I chatted up one of the Technologists and asked..
Lee: Do you like your job?
Tech: [pausing to give a thoughtful answer. Then he spoke clearly and slowly, looking me straight in the eye] It’s monotonous. It’s not enjoyable. It pays ok but… [and his voice trailed off. It was time to change the subject]

And that’s pretty much how the tech left it. Yow! This is not job satisfaction.

Your mileage may vary but this does not look like the career for me!

First, I love the idea that every OT has told me that they love their job. Following that, I love that OT salaries are high and unemployment is virtually nonexistent.

Here’s an article talking about OT salaries in 2012. Here’s the summary:

* Average salary for therapists in the first 5 years is $64k
* Average salary in the US is $71k
* Average salary in California is $88k (just about the highest, Alaska is $113k but hey, that’s Alaska)
* Men make on average $8k more (it’s unfair but hey)
* unemployment is extremely low
* Most common employment
25% primary and secondary schools $63k/year
17% Skilled Nursing Facilities $78k/year
8% clients’ homes, $80k/year

I just completed the last prerequisite class before entering my Occupational Therapy Master’s Program at San Jose State. I’m just a tiny bit proud that I got an “A” in this graduate-level class. The class had two sections; the other section was full of med school students.

Classes at San Jose State start August 25th and the program runs for about 24 months straight.

I was conditionally accepted into San Jose State’s Master of Occupational Therapy program a few months ago. I just have to take a Neuroanatomy prerequisite class. San Jose State offers the class in the spring and summer semester but the former is a long commute for just one class and the latter would overlap with my wedding plans this summer. So  I went looking for other classes that would fill the prerequisite. I called the SJSU OT Department and received a list of Acceptable Neuroanatomy courses from other colleges that was updated in 2008

Update January 2014: Even better, I received this list of Acceptable Neuroanatomy courses from other colleges, Updated January 28, 2014 (Dec 2014 update: I heard secondhand that the National Academy of Neuropsychology course on this list is NOT acceptable any more. You should definitely check with the SJSU OT department before taking any of these classes. But I’ll leave it online so you can get an idea for what to expect)

This note was attached to the document as well:

Here are as many details as I have about neuroanatomy this summer offered through SJSU. You will have two options:

OCTH 190, Foundations of Neuroscience, 3 units, starts first week of June and ends in mid August. (Dates and Instructor TBD)
BIO 109, Human Neuroanatomy & Physiology, 3 units, June 16, 2014 – August 2, 2014 (Starts and ends later than previous years)

Dr. Sneary (who taught BIO 109 when I took it) will no longer be teaching. The online horror stories and bad Rate my Professor reviews won’t apply to you guys. Both of these courses will be offered through Open University for SJSU summer sessions. Here’s a link with more information on that: http://www.sjsu.edu/openuniversity/. Make sure you are sitting down when you look at the cost. Tuition for classes once you have matriculated into the program is much more reasonable. You will not be able to register for either of these courses until later in the spring. I will email out the exact date when I know it.

I got a phone call from San Jose State today. I was accepted into their Master’s of Occupational Therapy program!!!The program begins fall 2014. I am over the moon!

Some folks have asked what OT is… You might start with the idea of a Physical Therapist. A PT gets your body working, an OT focuses on helping you do whatever it is you do in your life, your “occupation”. Some quick examples: kids need to grow, amputees need to relearn shoe tying, elderly want to keep living independently. It’s a rather broad field!

I just mailed off the applications for 2 of the 3 schools I’m applying to. This is the culmination of 2 full years of work. If I’m accepted, I’ll have another 2 1/2 years of school before receiving a Master’s Degree in Occupational Therapy.

This is the second time I’ve sent applications. This time my application is much stronger:
* I have completed all of the prerequisite courses
* I raised my “last 60 units” GPA from 3.67 to 3.87
* I raised my GRE score to include a 4.5 on the writing: 160 Verbal, 150 Math, 4.5 Writing. (previous attempt was 161, 156, 4.0)
* Starting at having 100 hours at a private pediatric clinic, I added another 78 in a (hardcore) non-public school for non-verbal autistic kids
* My Personal Essay kicks ass! Thank you Megan, Alexis, Bean, and Tami for writing help!

Done:
San Jose State University, San Jose, CA
Samuel Merritt University, Oakland, CA

Almost Done: (not due for 4 months)
Dominican University, San Rafael, CA

I went to take the GRE today. Long story short, the computer at the testing center broke. I have to reschedule the test. Ugh. Maybe I’ll get to take it next week.

I’m trying to get into a Master’s program for Occupational Therapy. To this end, I’ve been preparing to take the GRE for the last couple months. This is actually my second attempt. I took it in January and did “ok”, and that wasn’t enough to get me accepted into grad school. It was time I did “great”.

I went to bed early, had a normal breakfast (the golden rule I follow is “don’t do anything out of the ordinary”), a good lunch and then was off to the test location. I got there an hour early just in case. 20 minutes before the test was to start, they told me and the others in the waiting room, “there’s a technical problem, there might be a delay.” Ugh, so much for starting my test early.

12:30, my test time, came and went. 12:45… 1pm… 1:10 rolls around and I’m thinking that I will have to reschedule. It’s a long test, last time I was in the test center for 5 hours. After 6+ hours in there, I know I’d be thinking “what’s the square of the hypotenuse of LUNCH?!? What is the definition of LUNCH?!” Just as I was about to bag, they called my name.

I sign in at 1:12pm. I sit down at the computer and begin. Will my energy hold out? Did I take enough caffeine, or maybe too much? All that starts to fade as I sink into the first question. It’s asking me how I feel about politicians with a dark side. I dig in! My mind is in gear, making connections, developing a convincing argument and BAM! “JAVA EXCEPTION” the computer vomits onto the screen. WTF? I turn around in my chair, as if yanked out of The Matrix. A woman sitting opposite me turns away from her desk a moment later looking bewildered. She whispers something that I can’t understand to me and all I can spit out is a grumbling “I don’t know.”

I think back to when I was checking in. The attendant had said something about, “If the screen goes blank, come back here.” Or maybe it had been “When…”. Grrr. I go back to the attendant, I explain how I can’t go on. With a bit of sympathy in her voice she says how the test is run over the internet and there’s no way to fix things at this end. She’s a nice enough lady. She gives me a piece of paper with some numbers scribbled on it and describes how I can reschedule the appointment.

I wandered around downtown San Francisco for an hour, trying to purge my huge buildup of energy.

Just got back from 12 days on vacaion in Minnesota with Megan. Pictures and stories forthcoming.

Trying to get into an Occupational Therapy Master’s program. I’m applying to: San Jose State, Dominican University in San Rafael, Samuel Merritt in Oakland. I’ve been volunteering at a pediatric OT clinic in Sausalito and a non-public school for kids with autism. I’m studying for the GRE; I got an “Ok” score last time, but I’m shooting for “Great”.

Megan and I are planning to be married! There’s rings to make and a life to be planned!

I’m still teaching at the Crucible. In a few weeks I’m teaching Arduino, Electromagnetics, Flame Effects, and a new taster class “Atari Punk Console”!

After the school applications are done, I’ll try to organize teaching a Flame Effects class in Los Angeles with Michael Kearney. There’s also a flame effects book to write.

I’ve been hanging out with Sean Cusack, his gal Lara, Michael Kearney and some friends and building some fiery things. Crazily enough, more than 5 years ago, Lara had built one of the first really notable flame effects I saw, The High Striker! And now she wants to retool it!

At Ben and Lil’s wedding in August

Megan and me at Ben and Lil’s wedding photobooth!

I went to Richmond to volunteer for Occupational Therapy in early August. Due to a mix-up, my 2 hr (each way) commute which included a mile walk on a highway was for naught. :-(

Richmond is a dreary dreary place. I could not find a single structure that did not have endemic peeling paint, there was no ornamentation of any kind on any structure or person. At the Richmond BART station, a description on a prominent monument, the gleaming gateway to the city, touted Richmond’s heyday some 70 years ago and actively renounced all claims of current livability. I do not feel compelled to return.