Looking for opinions! I have a bachelors of science majoring in biology ( minoring in chemistry), and a masters of science in occupational therapy. I've been working as an OT in LTC settings mostly, for the last 7 years, with a smattering on acute care units of hospitals. I just found out that there is a fast track RN program that I could complete in 21 months.
I'm interested for a few reasons: 1) I'm passionate about wound care/ pressure ulcer treatment and prevention. Wound care in my current LTC setting is kind of behind the times. I'm in a place where nurses "learned" this year that steristrips aren't best practice for skin tears in elderly clients.. This frustrates me because although I want to help ( and mentioned it when I started working at this site two years ago) truly my knowledge is limited ( I only know bits and pieces beyond my typical scope, and frankly who is going to listen to me anyway??) I feel I could really offer a full package of wound prevention and treatment knowledge with further education. 2) There is a breakdown in communication/ lack of respect at times between nurses and clinicians. Not always, and at times it's veiled, but long story short, it appears OTs " hound" ( albeit politely) nurses with individualized care plans for clients. And, the other side of the coin is that I have witnessed way too many eye rolls of clinicians who feel nurses just " don't care" or " don't pay attention" to proper use of equipment, interventions, etc. I love a multidisciplinary team: this meeting and contribution of different professions actually excites me! I kind of feel if I know of or experience the nursing side of client care, I may be able to bridge that communication gap and help others bridge it too? 3) I've met many great nurses that genuinely care about patients and it shows ( and not all of them are outright "warm and fuzzy", but even though some of them don't have sunny dispositions, their actions show how dedicated they are). I've met other nurses that don't appear as caring and sometimes there actions ( or inaction) make me cringe ( and not regarding anything OT-related). I guess the OT in me wants to figure out a way to " fix" this? Is it even possible? I just don't feel like I'm qualified to pass any sort of judgement until I've been in their shoes, literally. I'm not meaning to be disrespectful here at all, but I have only come across one disgruntled OT in my travels. There has to be a reason for this! I'd love to possibly offer solutions/ explore this more.
Anyway, are these pursuits worth it? I've found forums discussing the jump from nursing to OT, but not the other way around. I'd love to hear some thoughts on the matter!
