Adrian Said:

For someone who's introverted, would an occupational therapist, speech pathologist, or nurse career be best?

We Answered:

Actually the therapy professions(speech, occupational, physical, respiratory) are very good for someone who is introverted because of the limited contact with a mass amount of people. Nursing is good only if you do something like: dialysis nursing, clinic nursing, nurse practitioner, or nurse midwife. Nursing does have areas where there isn't a huge amount of contact with large numbers of people. Also look into respiratory therapist! They are in and out of patients rooms, they also do codes which is something to deal with for the introverted person.

Eduardo Said:

Which career would be better; Occupational, Physical or Speech Therapist?

We Answered:

Hi!

I'm an occupational therapist. Here in Alberta, Canada, occupational therapists and physical therapists make the same amount of money. Speech language pathologists make slightly more. The educational requirements for each profession are the same in Canada (all are masters entry level). This may not be the case in other countries.

All three of these professions are in high demand. There are many work opportunities available.

Work environments are similar. In any of these careers you can work with all age groups and in a variety of settings. More speech language pathologists and occupational therapists work in schools. Occupational therapists and physical therapists often work in long term care facilities. There are opportunities for all three to work in hospitals. There are a number of other areas to work in as well (community, private practice, etc).

If you want to work in an area where people know what you do, physical therapy would be the best choice, followed by speech language pathology. Occupational therapy would not be a good choice in this case.

If you are interested mental health, occupational therapy places the most emphasis on this area, followed by speech language pathology.

If you like routine, specific job duties, and clear guidelines for what you do, physical therapy and speech language pathology are the most concrete. Occupational therapy has more variety, but also more ambiguity.

To choose among these professions, it would probably be best to find out which one most closely matches your philosophy, your preferred work style, and your interests. To help determine which careers match your interests, I included a link below to a work interests quiz. It will determine your profile according to your scores in social, directive, objective, and methodical categories. Then you can find out which jobs match your interest profile. I have found this assessment to be quite accurate - occupational therapy was one of the matches for me!

I can't help much for PT and SLP, but if you would like to know more about occupational therapy, there are some links below.

Hope this helps!

Candi

Wilma Said:

about speech therapist as a career?

We Answered:

Yes Speech Therapy and Speech Pathology are the same.

The governments Occupational Outlook Handbook is a great starting place for information on both fields (including education, salary, work settings and more)!

Just type each career in the search box on their website. Here is the link:http://www.bls.gov/OCO/

The website even includes links to the field's professional organization website; :)