Tag: new grad

Posted on in occupational therapy

Three Weeks Down as a Pediatric Occupational Therapist!

Hello Renrenspeakers! How is everyone doing? Long time, no type! I am so glad that the weather has FINALLY cooled off. I have returned my fuzzy socks and sweats as my go-to loungewear. I am about three weeks in as an official OTR/L in an outpatient pediatric clinic with some home health. So far, it has been such a wonderful experience! Lemme update yall on my journey as a new grad thus far.

As a new grad OT, there is a huge learning curve in general. I am constantly consulting other peds OTs I know and look up to, handy dandy Google/ChatGPT, and my old notes/resources from my fieldwork experience and school to refresh my mind on things that I am less familiar with or need additional information on. Heck, the other day, I even pulled out my TherapyEd book I used briefly to study for the NBCOT to verify various developmental milestones and primitive reflexes. Either I blacked it out, but I don’t remember studying as frequently – or might I rephrase, as diligently – when I was in school. I think that I am more willing to seek out this information because first, my license is on the line; and second, I am so new to this, so I want to be the best therapist I can be! I actually do enjoy researching things and discovering how I can spice up my sessions, apply the knowledge that I learn to my tool kit, and educate parents and caregivers for increased carryover (via HEPs, education, etc).

I know my mind is young and fresh, but here are some of the reasons I enjoy the pediatric population thus far:

  1. I always have a story I can recall at the end of the day. My clients say and do the funniest, cutest, and interesting things. I recently had a client who was eating cherry tomatoes for her snack, and she had some remaining juice on her fingers. I laid my jacket down on my chair prior to session starting, and out of nowhere, I saw her walk up to my jacket to wipe her fingers like she would do if she were using a napkin, lol.
  2. I get to be in touch with the youth and channel my inner kid. There are so many things I have discovered that kids like these days, like Ms. Rachel. I also felt super cool working with a client who liked Roblox because I know exactly what that is and could converse about it (shoutout to my little sister, Claudine, for the exposure lol).
  3. I can do a ton of arts and crafts – and they are used therapeutically! First, arts and crafts are my thing. Plus, they can target so many performance areas such as fine motor skills, sensory (tactile), bilateral coordination – the list goes on and on! So far, I have enjoyed finding themed printables or even just creating templates on my iPad and printing them out to use in sessions. I can also upgrade/downgrade them to my discretion. For instance, I can cut pieces of a craft out and have the child bear crawl to them, picking them up 1 by 1 all over the room to also target gross motor skills or any other skills they are working on.
  4. Each client is so different from the next. The variability of clients allow me to get to know many different personalities and learn how to navigate hardships I come across more effectively.
  5. I am constantly on my toes. I never know how the day is going to go as much as I may plan for it, truthfully. Of course, I always hope for a positive, productive session. However, sometimes my clients just might not be feeling an activity as much as I am. I have to be flexible and adaptable so that I am also meeting the client’s needs. This is a skill I am definitely growing in, but knowing that I constantly have to modify my creativity forces me to learn, and therefore, grow as a clinician.

I am thankful that I have a great work environment that supports me and accommodates my needs well. I hear many new grad first job horror stories, and I hate that for us because we are just trying to learn and be our best selves in this new life transition.

The hardest transition for me honestly has been getting used to being an OT. When I first started, I was very anxious because I just did not know what to expect. I had many worries – What is my kids don’t like me? What if my clients and I don’t connect? What is the right way to do therapy? First, there is no right way to do therapy, because everyone’s style is different! Of course, some days are harder than others, but I have to remember to give myself grace. I am three weeks in, NOT 30 years in. And no matter where I am in my years of experience, I will always have room to grow and improve. That is what striving to be a great clinician is all about – recognizing what you don’t know and addressing those gaps. I’ve learned so far that it is okay and even encouraged to ask for help! As much as I try to figure things out on my own, there are going to be so many things that I merely do not know. Again – that is OKAY! I am new to this life! After all, clinicians always say that it took them a year before they finally started really feeling confident and comfortable in what they were doing, so I still have 49 weeks to get there, haha. Fieldwork was a good way to get my feet wet, but that was only the foundation. I get to constantly add to my foundation as a life-long learner. I try to stay grounded as a new grad OT by continuously giving myself grace because again – I am new! I can mess up, I will make mistakes, I will learn from them, and I will grow because of that. Being a peds OT has required me to quickly adopt a Type B personality – one that is more relaxed, easygoing, and flexible when needed.

One thing I noticed that is so easy to fall prey to is going to the store and being tempted to buy anything that I can use for my session, lol. Yesterday, I went to the Dollar Tree and found a TON of items that I could use with my clients to target their goals (shoutout the Dollar Tree for inexpensive stuff, though I do have to side eye a little bit because everything was really marked $1.25. Inflation I guess). My next destination is Goodwill, haha. Currently, there are multiple go-to games stashed away in my car that I did not even touch until starting my job, and I believe that this list will continue to grow at the rate I’m going. I also have a Peds wishlist on Amazon and a growing checklist on my Notes app. Sometimes, it is hard to resist buying new items that my clients might enjoy or benefit from (so help me out with this, fellow peds OTs lol).

The largest downside I’ve faced so far – the getting sick part, eh, not my favorite. I am currently recovering from a bad cold – ah, the joys of working with kids, lol. I remember when I did my first fieldwork at an outpatient peds clinic. I literally lasted 2 weeks, and then BAM. I got COVID for the first time. I was out all week. My immune system is not up to par yet, but I know I will have a beast immune system in no time. 😉 I guess I’ll have to stock up on my vitamins extra hard to try to avoid being sick at all costs.

On my to do list is to continue researching, taking CEUs on my weaker knowledge areas (ex. sensory integration), and honestly just striving to do the best that I can do every day. I also want to work on work-life balance. I want to improve my documentation efficiency, as I notice that I can be a little long-winded when it comes to notes (I blog after all, so writing is inherently a part of my personality trait, lol). If yall have advice or an example of the most efficient notes you’ve written that you’d like to share with me (respect HIPAA, obviously), I am all here for it. 🙂

Thanks for riding this journey with me thus far!

Peace and love,

Irene

Posted on in new grad, occupational therapy, occupational therapy practitioner

New Grad Season – What a WEIRD Place to Be In!

Hello, Renrenspeakers! I hope all is well with you. Happy October – spooky season is upon us! I don’t know about you all, but I am so ready to watch some Halloween DCOMs this month!

Let me catch y’all up to speed with my life as of late since completely shedding the remains of my “student” identity. My entire month of August was a really fun one! I felt so blessed. I traveled home to San Diego, my hometown, and visited family and friends for a little bit. I also had a delayed but wonderful grad party to celebrate finishing OT school and passing my exam. Then, I flew to Miami for the first time and reconnected with my lovely college girl gang for a few days. And to top it all off, at the end of August, I was blessed to go on a very relaxing, peaceful, much needed vacation via a cruise sailing around the Caribbean sea! It was one of the best trips of my life (shout out to my partner for making it all happen <3). I am officially a cruise advocate now! I wish I could travel forever!

As amazing and necessary as vacation was, after coming back to AZ, reality hit me like a brick. I officially processed that I am now in my new grad season – what a weird place to be in! My entire September has consisted of a whirlwind of emotions. I think these emotions were suppressed because after taking my exam, all I could focus on was how much fun August was going to be at the time. Not going to lie, September has been simultaneously anxiety-inducing, reflective, and introspective. I was super blessed to have a job lined up for me even before taking my board exams, so the process of applying to jobs was one less stressor I did not have to worry about (side note – the power of networking is tremendous. Word of advice? Hold on tight to those connections you make throughout life because this is exactly how I was able to land my first job!). However, when there is a drastic shift from constantly studying, writing papers, and just trying to survive grad school to now having no routine, nothing pressing to do, and no money, I found myself having a LOT of time to think and even ruminate on my future (maybe too much time, honestly). School did not warn me adequately about the many emotions and feelings that come with this new grad season.

The more and more I waited around, the more my nerves started to kick in about EVERYTHING. Perhaps this is the beginning of imposter syndrome creeping up. It is a genuine feeling of wondering if you know enough, are qualified for the job, and are ready to be your own boss. Though I have had extensive training in OT, it is still a feeling that is hard to shake off completely.

What I really think augmented my worries about starting this next chapter of my life is the fear of the unknown, and the realization that I am really now a full-blown adult. I now have to think about and strategically plan for all of the other responsibilities that come with growing up – finding the best health insurance plan for myself, rent, car payments, investing in a 401k and other retirement accounts, maintaining relationships, the list goes on and on. Oh, not to mention the dreaded massive student loan debt I have (and am still slowly coming to terms with). There is no best answer to what I SHOULD do because everyone’s situation is so different. As a student, these were aspects of adulting that I knew were ahead of me. Yet, they were still a pretty abstract concept because I did not have to tackle these things head on. Now, I think about the rising cost of living and overall responsibilities. Sometimes, it makes me spiral worrying about whether or not I will actually be able to afford to live comfortably and merely enjoy life because that is something I really do value. I don’t want to look back 20 years from now and realize that I am continuously in a situation in which I am just going through the motions of life and slowly losing myself and my values because of the overall stressors of adulthood.

Truthfully, September was hard mentally and emotionally for me because I realized that to me, change is scary. It is much harder for me to embrace change than I initially thought. There are so many moving parts and components about change that a person just simply cannot fully control. For some time, I really just felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders, and it made me feel like I had to have everything figured out – especially being a Type A girlie like myself.

Now that October is here, I’ve done a lot of processing of my emotions, and it has launched a catalyst for me to seek a complete mindset shift. Me constantly stressing about the future, especially when everyone goes through some kind of trial or tribulation period in their life, was not making me feel better about myself – just worse. Relying on the strength of merely myself clearly wasn’t cutting it, and it never will be enough. BUT stepping into faith and casting my anxiety and worries with God helped me to start developing an inner strength to work through these feelings of exasperation and negativity I was battling. Of course, it is still very much a work in progress, but remembering to keep my faith in all that I do has helped keep me grounded and not completely go off the deep end. Giving myself grace has been so important because I am just simply trying to do my best. I also have to remember that I am not the only one in the world going through this major life transition!

So, how am I taking care of myself and working on my mindset shift as I transition to this next stage of life? The single best thing that I have prioritized to keep my sanity is going on my daily walks! My mom and I used to power walk frequently growing up, and it is a practice that I am very grateful she instilled in me. Honestly, the gym is not my go-to choice of fitness, so I knew that wouldn’t be the way I better myself physically. The weather is still blazing hot (100º+, to be exact), but I refuse to let the hot sun prevent me from staying on my fitness journey! I’ve made it a point to exercise early before peak heat, and it has given me some kind of routine to adhere to. I have upped my daily power walks to 4 miles a day first thing in the morning, and it has helped me a ton with providing clarity and practicing gratitude. This is also a time where I listen to my cherished podcasts to work on bettering myself. I also opened a library card to get back into my reading era, as well as bought a coloring book! Of course, I am still consistent with juicing, so that has been fun and tasty. Additionally, I started to journal again. Not frequently as of late, but I made it a point to keep a regular journal and a gratitude journal. I think I like my gratitude journal much more because even if I am feeling overwhelmed and down, I try to name at least one thing in my life that I am currently happy with and grateful for. I, like most people, find it super easy to fixate on the negative aspects of life, even if they are very few, rather than the numerous, wonderful positive aspects of life that I should strive to focus on.

As of right now, I am (still) patiently waiting for my license to come in, which is the last step I have to achieve before being able to finally practice. By the way, I will be starting off my career in outpatient pediatrics if I have not mentioned that already, whoohoo! Additionally, I have also been trying to increase my financial literacy like crazy while I do have this time so that I am not completely blind-sighted by all of the additional financial responsibilities to come. Even though I consider myself to be a novice in the financial world, I am very proud of myself for finally starting to understand things such as a Roth IRA, a high yields savings account, and even the differences between all the student loan repayment plans. These little action steps are great and should be celebrated because it brings me one step closer to financial peace and freedom. Eventually, I will do a whole finance post because I have a lot to say about the student debt crisis, lol.

I primarily wrote this post as a reminder to myself that everything will be OKAY and will work out! This is a shared experience that I know happens to many people, especially young new professionals who have sacrificed other life opportunities such as traveling, working, etc. to pursue grad school in hopes of fulfilling their own professional ambitions.

I am a new OT grad, so any tips and advice on navigating this new grad season and feeling more confident about starting adulthood (for real this time) as a young professional are SO invited. Thanks for allowing me to be vulnerable within this space today, Renrenspeakers! 🙂

Peace and love,

Irene