Why did you choose OT as a career?
My best friend in high school was looking into OT as a career, so
I followed her and looked into it as well. She's now a pharmacist and 20 years
later I'm still an occupational therapist! While I originally looked into it
because of my friend, I stuck with it because I really like healthcare, and I
like that occupational therapists get to spend time getting to know their
patient and looking at what is meaningful to that patient. We get to look at actual
activities rather than focusing on disease. The other reason I really stuck
with it was because of the diversity. The more I looked into OT the more
different practice areas I discovered which meant that I wasn’t going to get
bored! I think that is one of the real strengths of OT. Once you have those
basic skills you can apply them to so many different areas.
Where have you worked over your
career? Where do you work now?
I started off by working in the US for about 4 years. It was a
very small hospital, and it meant I had exposure to a lot of different areas. I
got to spend some time on the medical surgical unit, the rehab unit, extended
care and outpatient. When I came back to Canada I went into private practice with
Community Therapists, and after working there for a number of years I went to
work for Providence in their Driver rehab program. I ended up here at GF Strong
as of January of this year. I've been fortunate in my work experiences that
I've had a huge variety, which is great.
You are a volunteer for CAOT-BC. Why
do you do it?
Historically in driver rehab, the OT community was not cohesive; we
didn’t have a lot of communication between therapists. As I continued working
in the field and switching from one place to another, I saw opportunities for
all of us to grow and share information and resources and get better at what we
are doing by working a little more collaboratively. I wanted to build places for
us to come together to share knowledge, rather than everybody having to learn
the same thing independently. I also really wanted to build our relationship
with RoadSafety BC and promote what occupational therapy can do. For the past
several years I’d say it’s worked out quite successfully, and that network is
gradually growing. It’s actually one of the things I’m most proud of.
Tell me about someone who has
influenced your OT practice.
There are a lot of people. Brenda Vrkljan is an OT who’s involved
in research at McMaster University. She has an amazing ability to network, and
she is one of the people I’ve been using as a model as I've been trying to
build networks. Dana Benoit was my instructor and mentor when I took my
graduate certificate at McGill. She is the goddess of all things clinical for
driving. She knows everything. I wish I had her knowledge—maybe I will after
another 20 years! Jeanne Harborne is one of my colleagues from Holy Family Hospital.
She has an amazing calm personality and wonderful ways of phrasing things to
patients – I've picked up a lot from her. She also has the ability to step back
and look at the big picture. She could always help me when I was getting stuck
on the little details.
What might someone be surprised to
know about you?
I was once in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most
knitters knitting simultaneously in one place at one time. Unfortunately, the
next year someone beat our record!
What do you do when you aren't working
and volunteering?
Knitting, hiking, and reading. Between work projects and school I haven’t
had much time, but I finally finished my coursework for school and I am looking
forward to more hobby time!
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