Occupational Therapy Altruism

When I was in high school the teachers would always be reminding us to be thinking about the future and what we wanted to do as a career. I knew long before high school that I wanted to have a career where I would be helping others in need on a daily basis. I started looking into some sort of therapy after the Minnesota High School hockey player Jack Jablonski was paralyzed in a hockey game. I scheduled a job shadow with a therapist so that I could observe the profession to see if it was something that I was interested in pursuing. After following the Occupational Therapist for the day I realized that what I had observed was very interesting. I scheduled another appointment and my interest in Occupational Therapy continued from there. …show more content…
Practicing altruism is very important in a career like Occupational Therapy and the other medical professions, where you are devoted to helping other people. It is important because in Occupational Therapy you are there to help the person in need and if you are thinking to yourself, “I am only here because it means a paycheck”, how can you be giving a one hundred percent effort if you are thinking about yourself in the back of your mind. Altruism means that at that moment when you are caring for that person you are thinking only of how you can solve their problems and help them. One way I incorporate altruism into my daily routine is I often times go help the elderly people I know with the different tasks such as mowing, raking, shoveling snow, and other physical tasks that they can no longer physically perform themselves. Another way is that if I see someone who needs assistance I will go out of my way to help them if they want …show more content…
Some of your patients as a therapist may come from different cultures meaning that there are somethings that they do not want to do and you need to respect that. In the health care field it is not going to be just the average person who is going to be visiting a facility for help but instead it can and will be anyone from every walk of life. The rich, the poor, the strong, the weak, the farmer, the businessman, you name it, they are going to need health care at some point and no matter what they all need to be treated with respect and equal care to the next. I envision myself understanding this diversity by no matter who the person is, treat them with respect and in a professional manner. Each situation will be different and I will need to be able to understand this and adapt to give necessary attention to each individual person. Diversity is also important among the different people who are working in the health care field because as I said before everyone comes from different backgrounds and with that each person can bring something new to the table. By having many people with different ideas and talents working together everyone else can draw from that huge pool of knowledge and use it in their own professional