This presentation shows an interview I conducted with an Occupational Therapist

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Interview Questions
Taylor Jackson

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Virginia E. Villafane, OTR
Occupational Therapist
Manalapan, NJ

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What training or education is required for
this type of work?
Schooling and a Masters in public administration and health
management.

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What personal qualities or abilities are
important to being successful?
You need to be a problem solver, be able to think outside the box
and be creative. Have compassion for your patients and their
families. You need to be objective and non judgmental.

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How did you get this position?
Well currently I am an independent consultant but I have spent
many years in hospital trauma. After I had my children I joined the
pediatrics in home and in the school systems and I would work
strictly with children. I started working with trauma children in
their home and developmentally delayed children. Working years
in hospital gave me the ability to do what I want to do now. It
gave me the fundamentals that I use in my daily routine. Working
in the hospitals and clinics for years gave me the ability to work
with other therapist and health professionals that way I could
learn from them and correspond with them to make appropriate
decisions.

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What types of training do companies
offer person entering this field?
Companies that refer children to me provide in-service education
with them. I also do in-service online and go to conferences and
courses. All occupational are required to do 36 hours over the
course of 3 years.

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If you were starting out again, would you
do anything differently?
No. I love my job. I was a chief therapist and then moved into the
burn center as their chief. I have a Masters in public
administration and health management but love doing direct care.

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What do you do on a typical day in this
position?
Well today I had a in home case at 7:30 drove, then drove to the
clinic and served two children in the clinic. After the clinic I had
three more home cases that I traveled to and then back to the
clinic afterwards. Overall today I served seven children and my
day went from 7:30am to 8 pm.

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What part of this job is most challenging
or satisfying?
The most satisfying aspect is seeing a child perform a skill that
seemed impossible when you started working with them. The
most challenging aspect is managing the families of the children.
Adults are just as satisfying as the children when they accomplish
task but since now work mostly with pediatrics I really enjoy
seeing the children progress. Sometimes you do not always get
to see a child progress because they will grow out of the program
before you can witness change but I still get satisfaction knowing
that the skills are helping them move forward and progress in the
new stages of recovery. These can also be seen as the positives
and negatives in working in this field.

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How many hours do you typically work
each week?
40 hours. 25 in the home 18 in the clinics.

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What are the geographic restrictions in
this field? Travel?
I travel to home cases often but the great think about being an
independent consultant is that I am able to choose where I want
to work or how much I want to work. I do take on certain outlier
cases where I will travel longer distances but it is all about the
decisions you make and if you do not want to travel as far you
don’t have to.

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Would you rather work for a smaller or a
larger company?
I love that use to work in the hospitals and clinic because it
allowed me to learn so much but now I really enjoy being
independent and deciding what cases to take. I would advise an
younger occupational therapist to start in hospitals because it
gives you fundamental that can help in later cases but now I love
working outside of the hospital.

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How will this field change over the next
five years?
I have seen more diversity in the way services are delivered. I considered
physical disability and pediatrics to be the main areas of occupational
therapy but there is also a large and growing need for mental health sectors.
I have also seen a change in the therapist and not taking advantage clinical
setting. I get called in to replace other therapist because they are young and
challenged to help or help manage the families, so I will come in and help
out the current patients. It is important to remember that you want to know
the priorities of the patients. A lot of young therapist want to do independent
work first and aren’t able to learn from their time in hospital and work on
developing more skills. Money has also changed over the years and has
increased over the years. In structured hospital or clinical setting, there is a
salary structure with no bonuses. In schools it’s a contract with hourly rate,
but I have also seen increases in the school salary just depending on the
amount the school is given from the state. As a independent occupational
therapist you have opportunity to work as much or as little as you want. You
also have the option to do both hospital and independent work; you can work
in clinic till four and then go do one or two home cares or even become a
professor if you are a clinician.

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Would you say your organization is
expanding, shrinking, or maintaining?
I have seen the field of work expanding in terms of demand for
occupational therapist and like mentioned earlier it is expanding
financially.

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Do you have any special advice to give
to a person entering this field?
The best advice I can give you is to l earn more from the children
and the families. They are my textbooks and they teach me so I
can help them. You always should keep an open mind. Also have
to find an outlet for yourself to counter balance what you go
through. Resets you as a person because it can be tough and
you can sometimes bring the stresses or stories of work home.
Also know yourself, and be familiar with your strengths and
weaknesses and be willing to work with others.

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What if anything do you wish you had known
before you entered this occupation?
Sophomore in high school the then guidance consular gave me a book
on OT because based on personally and crafts she believed that I
would thrive in this field. I initially wanted to go to med school but she
directed me in the therapy direction and I started volunteering
immediately. I didn’t know all the different areas I could work in I didn’t
realize all the different areas you could work in and I learned the
training and I went on.
Mental is task doing and outcome of that task such as time
management. Mental can also deal some with physical therapy
because a lot of drugs have physical side effects. For example,
Parkinson is medical but we will help them manage mentally what they
are going through physically. Mental is growing and I should’ve done
more homework on the mental aspects of occupational therapy.

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What strategy would you suggest for a
person to break into this field?
Volunteer in a center or see if you could shadow a therapist to get
a sense of what you are getting into. We are scientifically
orientated but functionally based.