For this project I was able to interview an occupational therapist which helped give me insight into the career as a whole.

1. Avery White
Informational Interview Reflection
For my informational interview, I talked with Katie McRae on Monday, March 12 about
the various aspects and responsibilities of her job. Mrs. McRae is currently an occupational
therapist at Shepherd Center in Atlanta on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and also works
as needed in Emory Rehabilitation Hospital. Shepherd Center is located at 2020 Peachtree Rd
NW, Atlanta, GA 30309, and is listed under the phone number (404) 352-2020. Emory
Rehabilitation Hospital is located at 1441 Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA 30322 and can be reached at
(404) 712-5512.
Mrs. McRae has been an occupational therapist for 33 years and has been working for
Shepherd Center for the past 25 years. She worked full-time for her first seven years but has
since switched to part-time and works roughly 28 hours every week. Through working for
Shepherd Center for such a long period of time Mrs. McRae has found that the main mission of
the organization as a whole is to help their patients become as independent as possible thus
helping them to live their lives again.
While Mrs. McRae could have been hired as an occupational therapist with a bachelor’s
degree in psychology, she decided to pursue her masters of science in occupational therapy
before entering the field. She then went on to explain that a masters degree is now required to
become a licensed occupational therapist not only at Shepherd Center, but everywhere else in the
nation as well. Mrs. McRae also mentioned that a doctorate will most likely be needed to become
an occupational therapist in the near future, which would most likely entail around one more year
of school. As for the requirements needed to work at Shepherd Center specifically, the

2. organization used to only hire individuals with at least one year of experience working as an OT,
however they have since changed this stipulation and will now hire candidates without
professional experience but prefer those who have held internships at Shepherd.
The typical salary for a full-time occupational therapist can range anywhere from
$50,000-$100,000 annually, with most therapists making around $80,000. As far as advancement
opportunities go, all workers at Shepherd Center have the opportunity to advance within the
company. Mrs. McRae mentioned that their last CEO, who had graduated with a business degree,
left the organization and was then replaced by a physical therapist at Shepherd. However, if
occupational therapists do not wish to advance managerially, Shepherd Center has four levels of
staff called clinical 1, clinical 2, clinical 3, and clinical 4, which allow therapists to level-up
based on their achievements. For example, a new staff member at Shepherd would be placed in
clinical 1, however; if she wished to advance onto clinical 2 she would need to set goals and
achieve 3-4 of those goals within a given time frame. Mrs. McRae explained these goals can be
anything from supervising a student to creating new adaptive technology for patient use, and
advancement into a new clinical level comes with a raise. Due to the high stress-level of this
position, occupational therapists are not forced to advance in their staff levels if they are satisfied
in their current clinical, and most clinical 1 therapists use the levels to their advantage by asking
higher level therapists for advice.
Mrs. McRae begins her days working on self-care for her patients from roughly 8 a.m. to
10 a.m. Since she specializes in spinal cord injuries, most of her patients have experienced
serious trauma and need to relearn basic activities such as showering, dressing, grooming, and
even brushing their own teeth. Once the patients are done with their self-care rituals, they move

3. into the therapy gym where Mrs. McRae’s responsibilities change each day. While in the therapy
gym, patients work on whatever is planned for them that day which can include working on
fine-motor skills, strengthening exercises, modality exercises, electrical stimulation, and much
more. Mrs. McRae usually works one-on-one with her patients, however she often engages in
concurrent treatments (working with two clients doing two separate tasks), partner work, and
group work as well. Patients usually take lunch around noon, where Mrs. McRae is expected to
assist with feeding, whether that be actually feeding her client or implementing adaptive
equipment to help a patient eat independently. Following lunch, patients are taken back into the
therapy gym where they either continue exercises, partake in recreational therapy, or are
sometimes taken on a bus outing to places like the aquarium or mall. At the end of each day, she
uses her time to chart her patients progress, and noted that she includes even the smallest of
details in all of her charts. Upon hearing all of Mrs. McRae’s responsibilities, I became interested
in learning more about occupational therapy for spinal cord injuries. Up until now, I only have
experience shadowing a hand therapist whose duties are much different from Mrs. McRae’s in
that she sees two patients every hour from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Upon realizing how different each
therapists responsibilities and daily activities are I am interested in shadowing as many different
fields of occupational therapy as possible.
When asked about the positives and negatives of her position, Mrs. McRae explained that
being an occupational therapist is extremely rewarding in that it involves helping individuals
recover and live a better life following a life-altering experience. She also explains she never gets
bored because each day brings new patients, therapies, exercises, and adaptive technologies.
However, she did make it clear that occupational therapy is a high-stress job because of the many

4. responsibilities it entails, and at Shepherd Center specifically, occupational therapists must
intermingle with physical therapists, nurses, speech pathologists, recreational therapists, doctors,
and more team members which can lead to more conflict compared to a more autonomous job.
Katie McRae’s biggest piece of advice for maintaining a balance between career and
family is to simply keep the two separated as much as possible. Mrs. McRae does not discuss her
personal life at work, and tries her best to keep stressful events at work from effecting her time
with her family at the end of each day.
Mrs. McRae explained that while she has faced many ethical situations during her
professional career, she was most comfortable discussing the ethics behind when to and when
not to discharge a patient. She pointed out that there have been multiple cases in which her
patients had met their prior level of function but still had therapy sessions left, and instead of
billing the patients for more unnecessary sessions, it is best to discharge them. She recommended
to always keep the patients best interest in mind during ethical situations, even if that means
having to voice your own opinion to “higher ups”
Mrs. McRae’s main advice for students interested in pursuing a career in occupational
therapy is to get as much experience in as many fields as possible. Since therapists can be found
in a wide variety of settings such as schools, hospitals, private practices, nursing homes,
outpatient centers, and so much more, it is important to find what interests you the most.
Overall, the main thing I learned from this interview is how much flexibility is within
occupational therapy. This profession can be found in almost every setting, and even patients
with the same injury may have varying treatments based on their end goals. I learned that no day
will be the same, and that if I am ever unhappy in the field I chose there is enough flexibility for

5. me to change career settings without ditching occupational therapy completely. This heavily
impacts my job search in that I want to learn as many details as possible about each job I apply to
because they will all differ so greatly. Overall, this interview was very beneficial because it
allowed me to learn more about both spinal cord injury occupational therapy and occupational
therapy as a whole.

6. Appendix
Interview Questions
1. What is the name of your organization as well as your title?
2. How long have you been an occupational therapist for Shepherd Center and what would you say
is the organization’s main mission?
3. What are the requirements for your position (both educational and experience)?
4. Are there any advancement opportunities for your position within your organization?
5. What is the typical salary range for your position?
6. What are the main day-to-day responsibilities of your position?
7. What would you say are the main positives and negatives to your position?
8. How do you maintain a balance between your career and family?
9. Can you describe an ethical situation you encountered or do you have any advice for someone
who may encounter an ethical situation at some point during their career?
10. Do you have any final advice for individuals interesting in pursuing a career in occupational
therapy?