What are the First Steps to Becoming a Certified Hand Therapist_
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[00:00:00] Hey there, it's Wong. If you're an occupational therapist and you have a goal of becoming a certified hand therapist, this question might help you. I have a follower who said, I am an occupational therapist with less than one year experience. What are the first steps to becoming a certified hand therapist?
So the first steps, to becoming a certified hand therapist, it's really all about getting your years first. So this is really important because if you're an occupational therapist or a physical therapist, you can qualify to become a certified hand therapist by number one, getting your years, number two, getting your hours in upper extremity, and then number three is passing the CHT.
So those are the main three steps in terms of the years. You just have to wait. So if you're a year into it, you just have to wait and you'll be there before you know it. My name is Hwang. I'm an occupational therapist and certified hand therapist. And over 10 years ago, I [00:01:00] started my own therapy clinic.
And over five years ago, I started hand therapy secrets to help more clinicians develop their clinical skills and their business skills. And I get this question all the time from patients. new grads coming out. And they're like, I've always, I went into OT school with the intention of becoming a certified hand therapist.
I went into OT school and found out about hand therapy. And now I want to become a certified hand therapist. What are the first steps? So if you can kind of think about the years, it's going to pass you regardless of what you do or don't do. But one of the first steps to becoming certified hand therapist outside of the years is you need your hours.
You need 4, 000 hours of hand and upper extremity. Grab the checklist that I've written all about those hours, because I think there's a lot of myths around it. One of the myths that I address in there is like, Oh, you have to work under a sage sheet. You do not have to work under a sage sheet. Another myth is [00:02:00] like, Oh, I don't think I have the hours because I didn't work in outpatient.
You don't have to work in only outpatient. You just have to work with hand and upper extremity types of injuries. And as occupational therapists, we're always constantly. No matter what setting we're working in, working with hand and arm injuries. I got majority of my hours in acute care, because I promise you, all those people had hand and arm injuries.
I remember working with, um, you know, people with open heart surgeries and they would harvest that artery. And so people had limited thumb and wrist motions. They had sensory types of issues. They're wound care types of issues. Cause you're in acute care. I had people with, um, strokes. I had people with a craniotomy is, and they, they would have a right hemi or left hemi and all of them had shoulder issues, elbow problems.
Uh, no. Passive, you know, finger motion and then their tone will come in and then you're working [00:03:00] with that. So just because you're also doing cognitive types of issue, perceptual types of issues, ADL types issue doesn't mean that you were not some form or fashion working with hand and arms. Um, Are you, do you have to see a flexor tendon to be considered a certified hand therapist?
You don't have to be. There's plenty of certified hand therapists out there who don't work with a ton of flexor tendons. You just have to know what you're supposed to do. If you had a flexor tendon, right? So if you're new in hand therapy, uh, really one of the first steps outside of just knowing what's required.
And I'm going to link that below that checklist, grab it. I break it down for you. I tell you exactly what you need to do. Okay. But you need that job. You need that work experience, right? And so if you're new, just think about what you need to do to get the work experience and then think about the kind of classes that you can take, whether they be online classes, if they're in person classes, what are the [00:04:00] courses and classes, programs?
mentorship programs, things like that, that can help you start to, uh, become more of a critical thinker. Don't just do shit because you saw it done before. Don't just do shit because someone told you that was the way they do it. Like find out why, why are you doing what you're doing? Right. Don't just follow, um, some kind of cookie cutter program.
Like, well, the book, the protocol book told me I have to do this, this, and this, because protocols, don't cover every single type of injury. It is just like this generalized baseline thing. Um, but the sooner you really practice your critical thinking skills, the sooner you take power back, right? Take power of knowing what you're doing, knowing why you're doing what you're doing, and just not just sitting there and getting orders.
You know, from somebody from doctors, from your clinical director, for, from some PT telling you, Oh, you have to do it this way. Like why? You know, be, [00:05:00] become very independent in your thinking. That might require you saving up some money and taking a class, whether it be online or in person that might require you sitting down and learning a little bit about anatomy and learning a little bit about splinting and learning about different body parts.
So just pick and choose over a period of time. Um, you know, Like that you're gonna learn something, you know, you're gonna learn something new. It's a very easy To come out of school and be really complacent about continuing your learning. It's very easy to go into the job Where you know people are sitting there and bitching and moaning about like how they hate their job and how they hate being a therapist We, I see that all the time and I know from firsthand experience that, um, as much as I had loved my job, there was a lot of people who just bitched and moan all day about like how they hated being a therapist.
If you're surrounded by that, you're going to be inundated by that and you [00:06:00] cannot help but like, You know, slowly start to take on a lot of that negativity. So make sure you're surrounding yourself with the right people taking the classes, you know, making it a point to do something every, you know, every three months, every six months, do something that's going to help you to continue learning.
And it's through that. Continuous action that starts those steps of becoming a certified hand therapist, because to become a certified hand therapist is very intentional. Uh, you know, you can get the years with your eyes closed. You can get the hours with your eyes closed, but to become a certified hand therapist, you have to pass a national board certification and that requires intentional studying, intentional learning, uh, intentional effort, right?
Yeah. First year, don't even worry about the CHT thing. Just get your hours. Just get your years. Just get your experience. Get a really good job. Take some [00:07:00] really great classes and Becoming a CHT will come because you have it, you have it as that end goal. You have it in the back of your mind and you're doing all the necessary steps to then become one, right?
So I hope this video helps you. If you, you know, want to know more about the details of becoming a certified hand therapist, the link below for my checklist is the key video. Document is the key guide that have written that dispels everything and I even share if you're going to start studying for it The breakdown of like how to study so it's easier And I believe there's resources in there for you.
Like what books to grab and things like that. So grab that link And if you have other questions about becoming a CHT, definitely leave them below for me. Um, I get tons of questions like this and I want to make sure I'm creating some videos around it so that you can know exactly what you need to do step by step in terms of [00:08:00] becoming a CHT.
Um, and I'm going to include some videos here as well for you. So, um, if you're a little further along, grab those videos, take a look at them, and I share about how to study easier. Until next time!
