Episode 29: Engagement with the OT Community

The guests on this episode of On The air are the hosts of the Glass Half Full podcast, occupational therapists Jessica Kersey, MS, OTR, and Natalie Barnes, MS, OTR.
 
Jessica graduated with her masters in occupational therapy from the University of Florida in 2009. She has worked in inpatient rehab in San Diego and Las Vegas and has owned a community-based private practice for individuals with neurological conditions. Jess is now a second year PhD student at the University of Pittsburgh where her work focuses on facilitating community participation for individuals with traumatic brain injury.
 
Natalie has 10 years of experience as an OT in acute care and acute rehab; she currently works as a senior OT in the ICU at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, DC.

Our conversation in this episode centers around ways that engagement in the occupational therapy community helps to shape one's career through inspiration, education, support, and mentorship.  Jess and Natalie each share their origin stories about how they learned about OT and reflect on their time in OT school.  They talk about how they met and how they started their podcast as well as their passions and how that relates to what each of them is currently doing in the field.

Resources & Recommendations:

• The Edge Effect, an episode of the NPR podcast "Hidden Brain" 
• Glass Half Full podcast, hosted by Jess and Natalie
• The Healthcare Education Transformation podcast: "OT Education and Practice"
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make It and Others Don't (Jim Collins, author) - a book about how some businesses have made it into the "extraordinary" category

"Richness, extraordinary beauty, and something called 'the edge effect' abound as a result of collective cultures, backgrounds, talents and ideas." ~Stephanie Lancaster

Jess Kersey

Natalie Barnes