Leaving Occupational Therapy profession advice

jamiecooke

Hi guys,

First time poster here. I would hugely appreciate any advice with my issue. Basically I'm a 29 year old male who qualified as an occupational therapist two years ago. Unfortunately I'm very unhappy in my job and I've become a bit disillusioned by it all to be honest.
I always wanted to work in healthcare and OT initially seemed to be a very attractive career option but the more the years rolled by and the deeper I got into the course I came to realisation that it's not what I expected it to be, this was further confirmed to me once I started working.
At the moment nursing seems like a very attractive alternative career option for me and I would be willing to go back and retrain. Has anyone here ever made similar career changes and if so how did you go about it? I know of people who studied medicine following OT, is anyone aware of at a similar graduate entry for nursing too?
Many thanks for all your advice.

jamiecooke

jamiecooke wrote: »

Hi guys,

First time poster here. I would hugely appreciate any advice with my issue. Basically I'm a 29 year old male who qualified as an occupational therapist two years ago. Unfortunately I'm very unhappy in my job and I've become a bit disillusioned by it all to be honest.
I always wanted to work in healthcare and OT initially seemed to be a very attractive career option but the more the years rolled by and the deeper I got into the course I came to realisation that it's not what I expected it to be, this was further confirmed to me once I started working.
At the moment nursing seems like a very attractive alternative career option for me and I would be willing to go back and retrain. Has anyone here ever made similar career changes and if so how did you go about it? I know of people who studied medicine following OT, is anyone aware of at a similar graduate entry for nursing too?
Many thanks for all your advice.

I don't know much about OT myself so not sure if you'll find my advice useful, but here goes.

Are you community or hospital based? A friend of mine initially worked in a hospital setting in London and loved it. She then moved to Ireland after a few years and worked in a community based setting (house visits, etc). She hated it, nearly quit a few times and even enrolled in a part-time masters in a non-related field to get out of it altogether someday. After approx. 2 years she moved back to a hospital based role (still in Ireland) and seems to be back loving it again.

But maybe you tried both work settings and it's just not for you, which is okay. My other friend did a Nursing degree and went straight into an OC masters. As I mentioned earlier, I don't know much about OT so I don't really have any further advice to offer.

pmono

Hi Jamie,

I'm just starting masters in OT myself this September! I know of OTs who went to work in advocacy work and some who went into a more counselling role?

Is there an advanced entry route into nursing in the UK? I was also considering a course in DIT in clinical measurement science which looks very interesting, but I went with OT in the end!

Do you have any advice for someone about to embark on an OT career??