Professional New Years Resolutions

When I think of what I want to accomplish professionally this year, I can think of a million things that I want and need to do to develop my skills. I have already bookmarked numerous courses that I want to take, looked into the requirements for advanced practice in the state of California, and picked out a slew of books that I want to read on varying subjects. There is just so much to learn as a new practitioner, I want to do everything, yet I don't know where to start.

To begin the new year, I am starting my first real job this Monday. The recommendations for professional development in the newest OT Practice for the Novice practitioner include areas that will be developed just from being a practicing OT, such as establishing knowledge of conditions, practice techniques, and professional issues and developing communication skills with clients and colleagues. I feel so lucky that I will be working at a facility that has a wide variety of specialties, where I can observe and expand into in the future. With a large OT and PT team, I will be able to learn a variety of techniques to treat a variety of patients with many different conditions. Working will be my main means of professional development, but I do need to be self-directed in order to get the most out of my experiences.

My main goal for this year is to work towards getting advanced practice certification in "Swallowing Assessment, Evaluation, and Intervention" in California. This requires a minimum of 45 contact hours of related continuing education and 240 hours of supervised training. I currently have about 45 hours of training and several courses that I want to take. I just don't know how long this will realistically take to complete. I would love to complete it by the end of the year. The two issues that affect quick completion of the requirements are that the courses are expensive and I will be working a full time job when it will be hard to get the training hours in.

Overall, I am just really excited to learn and develop my skills as an OT! 2010 here I come!