Jeanne Said:

occupational therapy undergrad majors?

We Answered:

definitely kinesiology. Or even psychology, that's what most of the students in our OT program used for their undergrad, and are doing quite well due to this background.

Teresa Said:

Occupational Therapy ?

We Answered:

The job is very rewarding. I do home health OT now, but have worked in acute care, inpatient rehab, and nursing homes. In home health OT, we serve home bound patients - patients who cannot easily go to outpatient services. RIght now, my caseload includes a gentleman who had a stroke, a woman with severe rheumatoid arthritis who just had a knee replacement, a woman with severe COPD and thoracic vertebrae fracture to name a few. With my stroke patient (who has a lot of deficits) we work on bed mobility, transfers, increasing attention to his left, particularly his left arm, increasing range of motion, decreasing tone, and facilitating normal, voluntary movement of his left arm, visual perceptual activities, trunk stability - a lot! A good portion of the session is spent on educating the caregivers on helping him to maximize his independence and safety. There are so many different areas of OT - you can do early intervention, school system, outpatient adults or ped, in patient adult or peds, mental health, ergonomics, and work and industry. As for the hours - it depends where you work. In nursing homes, my hours have been as early as 6:30 - but generally the normal OTs day would begin at 8. In the rehab hospital, the day started at 7 am. Doing home healh is pretty flexible - I see do about 20 visits a week (considered full time - 20 - 23 visits with my company). I get my kids on the bus at 8:15, go to work and am home by 4:00 to get the kids off the bus. I make $65 a visit. In nursing homes and in patient, I have made $40 - $50 an hour. I have a friend who works in an assisted living make $65 an hour. I noticed you put a question up earlier about school. You can get a bachelor's in anything - as long as you have pre-reqs for the grad program. I had a bachelor's in psychology. Here were people in my class with education and business degrees. Good luck!

Diane Said:

Any majors that are similar to occupational therapy?

We Answered:

maybe recreational therapist? physical therapist is the only other one I can think of.
There are lot's of other jobs out there in the medical field that "help make people better", such as:
nurse
radiologic technologist
social worker
nuclear medicine tech
respiratory therapist

and tons of others, don't limit yourself if you aren't finding what your looking for.