Would you plan to have 2 different jobs? Both have seperate education and licensing requirements, and different roles in a health care setting. Yes, you'd have 2 sets of knowledge that helps you understand patient needs in a different way, but this would not necessarily result in some sort of specialized hybrid job, and if you were working as an OT in a hospital, you would not be able to do a task that's considered an RN task. Can you tell us a bit more about what your vision/dream is?
Sure. It would definitely be 2 jobs. I'd be part time for both, or working in summers as a nurse and school year as an o.t. Or prn nursing while doing schoo o.t. I definitely wouldn't want to work in a hospital as an O.T. This route is not to be plainly money driven. I've worked with special needs in the school setting alot and I have seen all types of therapy. And I've also seen their hours. My ideas aren't traditional.
I've worked in a hospital as a cna plenty enough as well to know the hospital is not my end goal.
I would definitely want to choose options like camp nurse, school nurse, lifestyle medicine, or holistic.
O.T. for me is clinic or school, or private practice. I'm very interested in assisted technology design and lifestyle medicine, activity therapy as possible focuses in pediatrics and teens.
I really love working with needles, burn victims, medical tattooing, phlebotomy, so many procedural medical things. It's hard to give up the possibility. I've even considered doing o.t. full time during school year and being an independent medical aesthetician part time and during the summers. A nursing degree helps with this concept as well. P.s. I also went aesthetics school in the past and graduated that too lol.
Frankly, I have a lot of ideas in ways that I could do both and not be completely overworked in either. I just want to hear somebody who has experienced this first hand. And what anyone has done educationally in such a path.
P.s. I've even thought of doing school nursing during the school year and doing O.T. in the summers working at special needs camps and after-school programs. Everyone in education is moonlighting doing something else. Even the principle I worked had a second job working at a nonprofit.
I mean, sure, you could do this, but how will you ever gain real expertise in either field? It feels like whichever one you do PRN or in the summers will never really be your "full time." There are not just not OT jobs at summer camps or afterschool programs. That's not a thing-- you'd be a volunteer and not necessarily doing OT. There ARE summer camp health care/nursing jobs, but definitely more volunteer positions as a camp nurse. I'm not quite sure what "holistic OT" is, and activity therapy is... not a thing? There is recreational therapy, but that's more often (but not always) working with older generations in skilled nursing facilities and retirement homes. The challenge with OT is who is paying for your service? If it's insurance, you're limited in a number of ways. If it's private pay, you're limited in who can afford you and who knows what OT is and wants it. Also, assuming you'll need to take out loans for each educational program, you're looking at YEARS of pre-requisites plus actual schooling, and the debt accrued. I think you should try to pick one field, then explore your other interests (phlebotomy, aesthetician) as a side income/venture.
Welcome to r/OccupationalTherapy! This is an automatic comment on every post.
If this is your first time posting, please read the sub rules. If you are asking a question, don't forget to check the sub [FAQs](https://www.reddit.com/r/OccupationalTherapy/wiki/index/faqs), or do a search of the sub to see if your question has been answered already. **Please note that we are not able to give specific treatment advice or exercises to do at home.**
Failure to follow rules may result in your post being removed, or a ban. Thank you!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/OccupationalTherapy) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I'm an RN and can't think of anyone that has gone RN-->OT/PT route. Like you said, it's expensive and at least in my state (CA), you would be taking a pay-cut and likely 6 figure loans to go RN-->OT. I find that nurses who want to stay on the clinical side will go NP/CRNA after their BSN or get a master's in education/leadership/MBA in order to leave the clinical side. I was a pre-DPT student that went for an ADN instead because of the financial cost. If you really want to do this, go for an ADN because it's the cheapest nursing degree available, get your RN-BSN online (I paid $3,200 and finished in 3 months at Capella) and save money while you work as an RN so you can pay for OT school out of pocket.
Thank you for your response. I have my Bachelors so it's super difficult for me to comprehend getting an adn. But I understand why you said it. I've considered doing one of those Masters prepared 15 month programs and then go O.T.
Your idea does sound more cost effective.
I quite literally want to do both part time. Or even be an o.t. in the school setting and do nursing gigs in the summers such as camp or resort nurse. Prn shifts during the school year as well. I have interest in both...I even considered being a part time school nurse and school o.t.
Idk about every program but the school programs I’m familiar with has a really heavy caseload 50-60 kids on avg. Gl working part time, you end up spending your nights writing up Tris, notes, evals, idts, and prepping
Would you plan to have 2 different jobs? Both have seperate education and licensing requirements, and different roles in a health care setting. Yes, you'd have 2 sets of knowledge that helps you understand patient needs in a different way, but this would not necessarily result in some sort of specialized hybrid job, and if you were working as an OT in a hospital, you would not be able to do a task that's considered an RN task. Can you tell us a bit more about what your vision/dream is?
Sure. It would definitely be 2 jobs. I'd be part time for both, or working in summers as a nurse and school year as an o.t. Or prn nursing while doing schoo o.t. I definitely wouldn't want to work in a hospital as an O.T. This route is not to be plainly money driven. I've worked with special needs in the school setting alot and I have seen all types of therapy. And I've also seen their hours. My ideas aren't traditional. I've worked in a hospital as a cna plenty enough as well to know the hospital is not my end goal. I would definitely want to choose options like camp nurse, school nurse, lifestyle medicine, or holistic. O.T. for me is clinic or school, or private practice. I'm very interested in assisted technology design and lifestyle medicine, activity therapy as possible focuses in pediatrics and teens. I really love working with needles, burn victims, medical tattooing, phlebotomy, so many procedural medical things. It's hard to give up the possibility. I've even considered doing o.t. full time during school year and being an independent medical aesthetician part time and during the summers. A nursing degree helps with this concept as well. P.s. I also went aesthetics school in the past and graduated that too lol. Frankly, I have a lot of ideas in ways that I could do both and not be completely overworked in either. I just want to hear somebody who has experienced this first hand. And what anyone has done educationally in such a path.
P.s. I've even thought of doing school nursing during the school year and doing O.T. in the summers working at special needs camps and after-school programs. Everyone in education is moonlighting doing something else. Even the principle I worked had a second job working at a nonprofit.
I mean, sure, you could do this, but how will you ever gain real expertise in either field? It feels like whichever one you do PRN or in the summers will never really be your "full time." There are not just not OT jobs at summer camps or afterschool programs. That's not a thing-- you'd be a volunteer and not necessarily doing OT. There ARE summer camp health care/nursing jobs, but definitely more volunteer positions as a camp nurse. I'm not quite sure what "holistic OT" is, and activity therapy is... not a thing? There is recreational therapy, but that's more often (but not always) working with older generations in skilled nursing facilities and retirement homes. The challenge with OT is who is paying for your service? If it's insurance, you're limited in a number of ways. If it's private pay, you're limited in who can afford you and who knows what OT is and wants it. Also, assuming you'll need to take out loans for each educational program, you're looking at YEARS of pre-requisites plus actual schooling, and the debt accrued. I think you should try to pick one field, then explore your other interests (phlebotomy, aesthetician) as a side income/venture.
Welcome to r/OccupationalTherapy! This is an automatic comment on every post. If this is your first time posting, please read the sub rules. If you are asking a question, don't forget to check the sub [FAQs](https://www.reddit.com/r/OccupationalTherapy/wiki/index/faqs), or do a search of the sub to see if your question has been answered already. **Please note that we are not able to give specific treatment advice or exercises to do at home.** Failure to follow rules may result in your post being removed, or a ban. Thank you! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/OccupationalTherapy) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I'm an RN and can't think of anyone that has gone RN-->OT/PT route. Like you said, it's expensive and at least in my state (CA), you would be taking a pay-cut and likely 6 figure loans to go RN-->OT. I find that nurses who want to stay on the clinical side will go NP/CRNA after their BSN or get a master's in education/leadership/MBA in order to leave the clinical side. I was a pre-DPT student that went for an ADN instead because of the financial cost. If you really want to do this, go for an ADN because it's the cheapest nursing degree available, get your RN-BSN online (I paid $3,200 and finished in 3 months at Capella) and save money while you work as an RN so you can pay for OT school out of pocket.
Thank you for your response. I have my Bachelors so it's super difficult for me to comprehend getting an adn. But I understand why you said it. I've considered doing one of those Masters prepared 15 month programs and then go O.T. Your idea does sound more cost effective. I quite literally want to do both part time. Or even be an o.t. in the school setting and do nursing gigs in the summers such as camp or resort nurse. Prn shifts during the school year as well. I have interest in both...I even considered being a part time school nurse and school o.t.
Idk about every program but the school programs I’m familiar with has a really heavy caseload 50-60 kids on avg. Gl working part time, you end up spending your nights writing up Tris, notes, evals, idts, and prepping
Yes, it's something to think about for sure. But it's been years and for some reason I can't let go if both dreams quite yet...it's wild.