I said I thought we needed more off topic threads - about our personal lives, more specifically, so here's one.
my first career was as a COTA - a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant. I will probably have to keep doing it at least part time - maybe forever, but I'm sick of doing it full time. in fact, I have quit my job and have been taking this summer off as a sabbatical. I have been ashamed of this since "unemployed" is forced on so many it seems selfish to do it on purpose...but that ship has sailed.
it's so freaking ironic that one of the things I hate about it is you so often don't feel useful. therapy should be useful by it's nature and yet we really are hired to "get the minutes" and magically get all this documentation done at the same time so you have to fight to work on what people actually need. and half the time - hell, the majority of the time - what they really need is basic nursing care and an actual social worker and a lot of other stuff all the money getting spent apparently doesn't cover. and don't get me started on patients on therapy caseload who really need to be on hospice - nobody got into healthcare to harass the dying!
hell, this is turning into a rant and I didn't mean to. since it took me until I was 40 to get the first career I might not have time to get a second one! but I mean to try. doing what, I'm not sure. one of my ideas is caregiving.
I think it's odd that it's called caretaking when you care for property but caregiving if it's people. anyway - I don't know how to make this work since it seems to pay so poorly but maybe I can find a live-in situation and then when there isn't any rent I can make it. but with three (old) dogs that doesn't seem too practical.
stay tuned for more exciting updates!
my first career was as a COTA - a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant. I will probably have to keep doing it at least part time - maybe forever, but I'm sick of doing it full time. in fact, I have quit my job and have been taking this summer off as a sabbatical. I have been ashamed of this since "unemployed" is forced on so many it seems selfish to do it on purpose...but that ship has sailed.
it's so freaking ironic that one of the things I hate about it is you so often don't feel useful. therapy should be useful by it's nature and yet we really are hired to "get the minutes" and magically get all this documentation done at the same time so you have to fight to work on what people actually need. and half the time - hell, the majority of the time - what they really need is basic nursing care and an actual social worker and a lot of other stuff all the money getting spent apparently doesn't cover. and don't get me started on patients on therapy caseload who really need to be on hospice - nobody got into healthcare to harass the dying!
hell, this is turning into a rant and I didn't mean to. since it took me until I was 40 to get the first career I might not have time to get a second one! but I mean to try. doing what, I'm not sure. one of my ideas is caregiving.
I think it's odd that it's called caretaking when you care for property but caregiving if it's people. anyway - I don't know how to make this work since it seems to pay so poorly but maybe I can find a live-in situation and then when there isn't any rent I can make it. but with three (old) dogs that doesn't seem too practical.
stay tuned for more exciting updates!
