The Ultimate Guide To Building Your Career In Hand Therapy
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[00:00:00] If you're an occupational therapist and you want to build your career as a hand therapist, I'm going to share with you my ultimate guide in helping you build your career in hand therapy. My name is Hoang. I'm an occupational therapist and certified hand therapist. And I speak to so many different people about.
[00:00:18] What they can do at various stages of their career in terms of building hand therapy. So this is going to be the ultimate guide to help you. Now, if you're an occupational therapist or you're an occupational therapist assistant, this is totally possible for you. So one of the first things is if you know that you like hand therapy and may one day go into hand therapy, make sure that your field work.
[00:00:42] represents that right? And what I mean by it is if you want to be in hand therapy, talk to your coordinator and make sure that they understand that is a very important experience that you're looking to have. If you're not persistent about where you're being [00:01:00] placed for your fieldwork placement, it's gonna it's going to make it difficult for you to go out and get a job afterwards. So your field work placements really key in terms of helping you move your career in a faster pace, right? But it's okay if your field work, wasn't really, you weren't able to get into a hand therapy clinic, make sure you're going into adults.
[00:01:25] So make sure you try to get inside of a hospital, doing acute care inside of SNF. Those things make a difference because In those settings, you're working with people with hand and arm injuries as well. You're working with people who have stroke injuries. You're working with people, maybe have spinal cord injuries, spinal cord injury.
[00:01:42] People have hand and arm issues as well. So think about all the population of people who suffer from hand and arm issues, and then try to be work, try to be in those types of settings, right? So your field work placement is going to be really key. Now. I spoke at. A [00:02:00] conference recently, and there's a lot of students and I felt like a lot of students there said I just want to try out a lot of different settings and that's wonderful.
[00:02:07] And that's great. No matter the setting that you go into, make sure that you get the most out of it from an experience. experience, because the ultimate guide to building your career in hand therapy really comes down to your work experience. So go out there and get a job, right? Go out there and get a job, get your experience.
[00:02:27] Now I know a lot of people are going to be like, but Huang, I can't get the job that I want to get the experience. I totally get it. I hear you. And there's ways. To go around it again. Really it's just about going out and getting that first job, even if you have to piece it together. That's what I did. I got a a job in a small acute care hospital.
[00:02:48] Believe it or not, I got a lot of hand and upper extremity experience there because I was willing to raise my hand and say, Hey I want, this is what I ultimately want to do. And anytime you have those type of patients, I would love the opportunity [00:03:00] to work with those people. I was allowed to then they didn't want, they didn't want to let me into the hand therapy like outpatient section, because there was already an OT that wanted that.
[00:03:10] And that's fine. But you know what? I got a wound care experience at that hospital. I went to, I got my first jobs in a skilled nursing facility. And in those facilities, I was like, yeah, I'm really interested in hand therapy. Would love to have any patients that have hand and arm injuries. You got someone with a stroke, you got someone with a humoral fracture, you got just a radius.
[00:03:30] You saw someone with arthritis, please. I'm here for it. And so every chance you get, you have to gather your work experience. Now, if you don't know I have this guide out there that says how to get a job, how to get a job. I think in hand therapy, but I think it starts with how to get a job and I have a lots and lots of tips and Recommendations in there.
[00:03:54] Recommendations there about what you can do to ensure that you can get that job. And one of the number [00:04:00] one things I talk about is your resume. Y'all tell me y'all people with really shitty ass resumes. I'm really sorry that I have to be the one to tell you that, look at your resume. If you're not getting called back and you're not getting called for any kind of positions that you're applying for, then.
[00:04:17] You have to go back and say what's going on with my resume? What about my resume does not tell them a very quick story of that. I'm capable and I want this position, right? So you really gotta go and be willing to look at what you're doing and look at, what you can change essentially, but getting that job, getting that experience is really key.
[00:04:40] Now, resumes are really great and everything, but if you're not sending that shit out, nobody's going to call you back. So you have to be persistent and send those resumes out. You have to be persistent with saying that you want to go into hand therapy. I can't tell you. I think I came off like a little bit snobbish when I first, looking [00:05:00] back, I feel like I came off a little bit snobbish about what I wanted to do, but I think because I kept saying it over and over when I was assuring myself that it is something that I wanted to do.
[00:05:10] And second, I was letting people know What I wanted to do. So I wanted to build a career in hand therapy. I wanted to build a career in hand therapy. I wanted to build a career in hand therapy. And I kept saying it over and over until one day I had the opportunity. And so you have to think about how you're going to be ready when the opportunity lands in your lap, right?
[00:05:28] So if number one is getting that experience, number two has to be about taking courses. A lot of times. Therapists. I know this. Yes. Let's celebrate. Number two, taking courses, right? I speak to a lot of therapists who when you first come out, you think, Oh my God, I just got out of school. I just spent a ton of money to get my degree.
[00:05:54] Like I'm done studying, but my friend, I think what you need to realize. And what I hope [00:06:00] to help you realize is that your education is just now. So your master's degree, your doctorate degree literally lets you, it's the ticket to enter the game, right? It's the ticket to enter the game. Now you can come and enter the game and become and be an occupational therapist, be an occupational therapist assistant, right?
[00:06:20] You can do some of the work. You have to think about how are you going to get better? How am I going to get better at what I'm doing? I can only speak for myself, though I hear lots of stories, but I came out there and I didn't know shit from shit. I thought I knew something, but really at the end of the day, deep down inside, I knew I didn't know enough.
[00:06:42] So when I got into that acute care job, I literally was trained for a day, maybe two, but that was just on the protocols and the policies of the hospital, those things like that CPR. And then they show you [00:07:00] around the clinic a little bit. But what they wanted to show you was a computer says I know it was a charting system back then started with paper and pencil, right?
[00:07:09] But I got a list, I got a list of my patients. And it was like, Okay, here you go. And I was like, What do I do? What do I do now? I have this list of patients. What am I supposed to do with these people? So when you first get that job and you start to learn how to do your job, you can learn how to do your job within a few weeks for the most part, give yourself the six months.
[00:07:34] I'm going to be doing this for the next nine months and start looking for a class honestly, start looking for a class. I came out of school and I knew I needed to do something because I felt like so unknowledgeable. I felt oh my God, people are going to rely on me. And they're going to want my help and I don't know what to do.
[00:07:53] So I started, I did, I started looking for courses. Now, back in the day, there used to [00:08:00] be these magazines and I think it was like advanced occupational therapy or something like those magazines. I don't know if those magazines are still out there, but I started with those magazines and I would flip through the list of courses.
[00:08:13] And I'd be like, okay, which ones are in my local area? Now, I totally get it. Which ones are in my local area? Because you're first coming out, you're trying to work, you're trying to save money. And maybe traveling for class isn't necessarily as doable. So I was looking for courses like in my area that I could drive to.
[00:08:33] Now, further along in my career, I'm looking for classes that I could fly to, right? So It might change. And then there were some classes that there were never going to come down to where I am, they're never going to come to me. So I need to make sure, if I wanted to take that type of course, I was willing to pay for the course, fly out there, stay at a hotel.
[00:08:53] So think about how you need to in this day and age, how you need to look for courses, right? You might be [00:09:00] looking for courses online, go on Google search, look for some classes. You might start, a lot of people tell me that they find me on Instagram. I'm pretty active on Instagram and they just...
[00:09:11] Put in like hand therapy and you can find like tons of accounts that talk about hand therapy. And then you start looking to see are those people doing courses? Those people that you're looking at, do they, do you like them? Do you like how they present? Do you like how they teach? And then you think about how you can join one of their courses or one of their programs.
[00:09:30] Now I'm really active on Instagram. I'm really active on YouTube and this year we're all over the place. I'm on Tik What else? Instagram. I'm on LinkedIn. So you can look up hand therapy secrets and you can find me pretty much everywhere, anywhere where you like to consume social media.
[00:09:49] So I want to make sure people find me because I do have courses. So you can, if you're looking for courses, you can find those courses. Just start typing for them. So start typing out the [00:10:00] words. Leave me a comment below. What would you be searching for? I did that we, when I first came out of school over 20 years ago, definitely the internet was around, just not around as much as it is now.
[00:10:12] And I, even then I was looking, I was searching up like, where are the classes? What classes should I be taking? But find some courses that you can take and then start thinking about which ones you want. My recommendation is go broad before you go very specific, right? So for example you can do a broad level of a manual therapy before you get real specific into it.
[00:10:35] I remember taking a real specific risk course and it was so specific. It was completely over my head, like the whole weekend. I didn't understand anything because it was so specific and I Didn't have enough experience and I didn't know I hadn't really studied the anatomy of it I didn't really I hadn't really studied the details of the different types of wrist injuries and it was going into like [00:11:00] wrist ligaments and kinematics Completely over my head Completely over my head.
[00:11:05] I left there not really knowing what to do with a distal radius fracture and that's one of the reasons why I've built the courses. So what I've built like my manual therapy course covers all of the hand to shoulder. And then at some point I'm going to start to break it down and get more specific.
[00:11:22] But I also think I already break it down and get more specific in my other programs, like in the mentorship program and the exam prep program. Take some courses, think about Broad level courses versus real specific ones at first. Taking a manual therapy course before doing an instrument assisted course.
[00:11:40] Because instrument assisted is very specific to the tools, but you already have to know how to provide manual therapy in order to make the best use out of that class. Like in my opinion, because I've taken it you can take more specific courses if you're looking to learn a very particular technique.
[00:11:59] Basically [00:12:00] look around. There's lots and lots of courses nowadays. There's stuff online. There's stuff in person I would encourage you to mix it up take at least one course in person a year and then supplement it with some online courses and You know think about which ones you're gonna get the most out of versus.
[00:12:22] Oh, let me take that course because it's cheap Like I hear that a lot too. Oh, I just want a cheap course. Is it really going to be valuable to you? If you're spending the hours and stuff like that, is it going to be really valuable? Is it going to help you build your career? So keep that in mind as you are thinking about the different courses to take.
[00:12:39] And if you want me to do a video very specifically on which ones to take in what order let me know below. And maybe I'll make a video about that. number three. So number one, get a job. Number two, take some courses and number three, find yourself a mentor, right? Find yourself a mentor. And what do, what does the [00:13:00] mentor?
[00:13:00] Mean, right? What does the mentor mean? The mentor doesn't necessarily have to be the one sitting next to you showing you X, Y and Z what to do. Let me help you think about a mentor in more ways than just showing you like the ropes of like how to make a splint or move a joint. I think a mentor may be someone who can help you make some career decisions.
[00:13:22] Transcribed A mentor might be someone who helps you make some career decisions. So something I have always offered to people who volunteered with me, who are students of mine To reach back out to me when they need help, right? And you'd be surprised at how few people do that you know I don't always have the time now, but I had plenty of time before but I would tell like past volunteers and past students.
[00:13:50] Hey when you graduate reach out to me Let me know if you need any help. So anyone has ever said that to you make sure you have their name, number and email [00:14:00] name, number and email. And then that way, when you are done with school, reach out to them. I did that when I first graduated, my CIs were really great to me.
[00:14:11] And I feel like I, put in the work and I did the work. And so when I left, they were like, anytime you need anything, reach out to me. And I did, I reached out to them at the very beginning parts of my career just to help me, feel comfortable, feel confidence just for any kind of reassurance in the world.
[00:14:29] So you can have that kind of mentor, right? And I would encourage you to have someone like that in your corner that kind of roots for you, right? You can have that kind of mentor. You could have the kind of mentor that you follow, listen to and watch. I think some people watch me. I've been doing this for, I think, four years and in my clinic, I've been doing it for longer.
[00:14:52] So I think some people will start to watch me from the clinic side and then followed me when I started doing more stuff with hand therapy [00:15:00] secrets. And you could look at that person as your mentor just by consuming their content. If they have books out there, they do podcast videos and that kind of stuff.
[00:15:08] If they take, if they have a course or anything like that, you can go and. They can mentor you from afar, basically. So those are two types of mentors that I just want to encourage you to think about and utilize in your career that they don't have to be the one sitting right next to you.
[00:15:27] And then, of course, if you have the opportunity, you can have the mentor that sits right next to you. Someone in your... In your clinic, in your company that could help you think through things bounce ideas off of they're not always, they're not going to be the person who can sit there and explain to you or teach you, right?
[00:15:49] So there's teaching and then there's mentorship, right? So teaching is someone sitting there and explaining to you X, Y, Z. equals X, Y, Z, right? [00:16:00] They're teaching you something. They're taking the time to explain. A mentor is, that works with you is someone who's who you've already been taught and then they help you to finalize.
[00:16:15] And finalize your thinking and help you see anything that might be missing. So I'm going to give you an example in my mentorship program. I teach in my videos, right? Go watch the videos. I teach in my videos. I explain everything in my videos. I show you things in my videos. And then the part of the mentorship call that is a mentor.
[00:16:40] Part is that now you have a case and then you're thinking through your case and I'm helping you fill in the blanks, right? versus Let me sit there and explain to you all the anatomy of the extensor tendons and go over protocol, right? That's the teaching part. A mentor [00:17:00] will be like, okay, so what did you do?
[00:17:03] All right, give me the history of the case What were you able to do? What are you struggling with? Let me help you think through What you could do next so I'm a mentor to, to my staff. I'm a mentor to you know, not just a therapist, all members of my team and for the therapist. They might have some struggles and they're going to come to me and I'm going to help them think through it.
[00:17:29] Like we had a very difficult case couple of years ago where the patient was just really negative, right? And so my therapist was struggling with the negative narrative of that person. And I was able to mentor her to give her a different perspective of, why that person was so negative.
[00:17:51] And why she was feeling the way she was feeling. That's a mentor, that's a mentorship. They're gonna help you through those sticky times. So [00:18:00] think of your, think of your mentors. And I feel like I could have made a video all on mentorships, mentors. But those are some of the three ways in which you could find different types of mentors.
[00:18:13] And they could be you can have multiple mentors. You don't have to just have one mentor. I have I have a business, I have a business mentor, right? I have a business coach. I have another coach that helps me with my mindset. Helps me, think through some negativity, think through like my money mindset, think through negative types of issues.
[00:18:37] And then I have a business one, right? But for me, mindset is very needed in business. And mindset is very needed in therapy. Mindset is very needed in when you're building a career. Just think that you could have multiple different mentors. Now I go to books. Now I go to books to help me, as well.
[00:18:57] I take, I read books. I take [00:19:00] different, therapy courses, I, I'm still looking to improve my clinical skills so that I could help teach better, so I look at, I look at different people for different things and. What you want in the mentor is alignment of your values and alignment of what you're looking to do, right?
[00:19:19] And a mentor doesn't have to be forever. It can be different people at different phases in your career So just something to think about but that's essentially the ultimate guide to building your career in hand therapy you've got to get the experience. You've got to take some classes and you've got to find some cheerleaders in your corner that helps you through some tough times.
[00:19:37] And one of the biggest things about this guide is that you have to be persistent. You are the only person who can push you. I've in the last four years spoken to various therapists that I've seen that have come back to me time and time again. And, I've seen people. Rise up very [00:20:00] quickly in their hand therapy career.
[00:20:01] I have seen people go very slowly and I've seen people not make any moves. I've seen people make zero moves towards it and it's and it's very unfortunate because they do themselves such a disservice. It's okay to say I'm not ready right now. But to say that you want something and then not take any action steps towards it.
[00:20:21] You're doing yourself a disservice cause nobody's going to make you do it. You have to want to do it. So yeah, so I hope this video helps you. I hope this guide helps you in terms of building your career in hand therapy. And I hope it gives you some some key steps that you can take, but also.
[00:20:44] The mindset to say, Hey, I can persist. And Hoang says that there's other people who've done it, who are in my same position which means I can do it too. So let me know if this helps leave me a comment below. And if you like videos like this to help you as an [00:21:00] occupational therapist, then please consider clicking the subscribe button below and I put out videos every week, so look forward to talking to you next time, peace out!
