O&P Nature of Work/Job Requirements and Knowledge

Nature of the Work

Throughout the job of being an orthopedist or a prosthetist there will be a lot of things that you will be expected to complete for your job. Some of these expectations include:

Ø  Examine, interview, and measure patients to determine their appliance needs and to identify factors that could affect appliance fit.

Ø  Fit, test, and evaluate devices on patients, and make adjustments for proper fit, function, and comfort.

Ø  Instruct patients in the use and care of orthoses and prostheses.

Ø  Design orthopedic and prosthetic devices, based on physicians' prescriptions and examination and measurement of patients.

Ø  Maintain patients' records.

Ø  Make and modify plaster casts of areas that will be fitted with prostheses or orthoses, for use in the device construction process.

Ø  Select materials and components to be used, based on device design.

Ø  Confer with physicians to formulate specifications and prescriptions for orthopedic or prosthetic devices.

Ø  Repair, rebuild, and modify prosthetic and orthopedic appliances.

Ø  Construct and fabricate appliances or supervise others constructing the appliances.

O&P Work Environment

Work Environment

Orthopedist and Prosthetist (O&P) professionals work in environments that are very similar to many other specialists in the medical field. For example, O&P’s work in private practice, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, specialty clinics and laboratories devoted to the fabrication, modification and repair of O&P devices. There are also many different areas for you to work in as an O&P professional. Some of these include O&P practitioners, assistants, fitters, and technicians.

O&P Schooling and Training

Schooling and Training

The normal requirement for education is usually 4-6 years of schooling. Nearly 70 percent of O&P professionals have their master’s degree in the specialized study of Orthotics and Prosthetics. Another 28 percent of people working in O&P area only have a bachelor’s degree, and only about two percent of people working in this medical area have less than a bachelor’s degree of education. Beginning in 2012, all accredited programs should be at the master's level. As early as 2009, transition programs were created for those who had already earned a bachelor's degree or certificate and were working as a prosthetist and orthotist. These shortened programs result in a Master of Science in Orthotics and Prosthetics.

Employment Information

In 2008 there were about 6,000 people working in the O&P medical area.

O&P Job Growth

Potential Job Growth

In a matter of ten years (2008-2018) this profession is thought to grow nearly 14 to 19 percent. This is quite a significant growth considering the small number of people working in this area.  The National Commission of Orthotic and Prosthetic Education (NCOPE) expects, “that there could be a potential 2,100 new jobs available in 2018 in the field of Orthotics and Prosthetics.”

O&P Income

O&P Median Income

Percentile	10%	25%	50% (Median)
Hourly Wage	$16.20	$21.58	$31.28
Annual Wage	$33,690	$44,890	$65,060

As you can see from the chart above the median wage for people working in Orthotics and Prosthetics is about $65,060 per year.

Bibliography/Sources

Bibliography

1.      http://data.bls.gov/search/query/results?q=prosthetist

2.      http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes292091.htm

3.      http://education-portal.com/prosthetics_education.html

4.      http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/29-2091.00#Education

5.      http://www.ncope.org/info_students/schools.asp

CCC Reflection #5 - Recording My Voicethread 11-1-11

I thought the recording and commenting function were both very easy. The only complication of this was in order to use the magic pen while recording you had to memorize what you wanted to say at that point in time. I thought embedding the Voicethread onto my blog was a very easy process and I would feel comfortable doing it again at any point in time. GoogleDocs was another thing that we worked with that I think is a very handy tool to have. It allows you to have more than one person viewing and editing a document at the same time. In order to upload a document you have to save it to your computer and then upload it from your computer to your GoogleDocs account. Then after it is uploaded you set your sharing preferences’ to public and copy the html code and put that code where ever you want to share and upload your documents.

CCC Reflection #4 - Relating to the Culture 10-27-11

The three topics that I chose to get information on for our Voicethread project were, etiquette, traditions, and religion. Some of the information that I thought was very important was that part of their etiquette was that it is considered rude to make direct eye contact with Samoan people. I also added information about their religion. I thought this was extremely important because it gives a good look into some of the major parts of how they live. I found out that they used to worship many Gods but after the Europeans came into contact with them, they gained Christianity and now worship the Christian God. This information could be extremely important when working in the medical field. For example when providing medical care for a person you would not want to offend them in anyway if you made eye contact with them. It could also be important to know a person’s religious background in order to make small talk with them and make them feel more comfortable. There were a lot of different things that I could relate to from their culture to our culture. For example they celebrate Mother’s day, Father’s day, and even Christmas. They are also a very punctual society and I also believe being on time is extremely important. 

CCC Reflection #3 - Samoan Culture 10-24-11

The culture that my group chose to research was the Samoan people. We chose this group because we thought it had an interesting name and none of us knew very much about their culture so we all wanted to learn more.  Some of the things that I discovered about my culture is that the women are expected to have a very high tolerance for pain. If a woman is having laboring pains and cries out, one of the elder women will slap her to remind her to toughen up. Another interesting thing that I learned about the Samoan culture is that, because they do not have a written script they are extremely passionate about passing poems, stories, or family histories orally. Some of this could be helpful to me in a medical setting knowing that not all cultures allow different pain medications, and no how much they may seem to be in pain it would actually be worse to give them any type of medication than it would be to leave them as they were. I would like to learn a little bit more about the etiquette of the Samoan culture, including how they greet or say goodbye to one another.

This is a picture of the Samoan Rugby team doing their chant before one of their games.

“Le Manu Samoa e, ia manú le fai o le faiva

Le Manu Samoa e, ia manú le fai o le faiva

Le Manu Samoa lenei ua ou sau

Leai se isi Manu o le atulaulau

Ua ou sau nei ma le mea atoa

Ma lo'u malosi ua atoatoa

Ia e faatafa ma e sósó ese

Leaga o lenei Manu e uiga ese

Le Manu Samoa! Le Manu Samoa!

Le Manu Samoa e o mai i Samoa!

Hi!”

CCC Reflection #2 - Voicethread account. 10-20-11

The websites that we set up accounts for were for blogspot.com and voicethread.com. I think both of these websites will be very useful for me not just in this class but in many other classes and activities that I do. I see myself using voicethread.com for my senior portfolio because it is a very easy way to get your thoughts across in an interesting way. It catches your eye very well and would be great to use as a reflection source for different project that I do. One of the cultures that I thought would be very interesting would be the Sudanese culture. I would love to research this culture because later on in life I would to travel to Africa, specifically Sudan, and help provide health care for the people living there.

         

CCC Reflection #1- Purpose of the Unit 10-18-11

The purpose of the Culturally Competent Care unit is to help identify and learn about the many different cultures that exist throughout the world. It is also to help us become more aware in order to be able to be respectful to all cultures as you provide medical care for them.  Implicit associations are associations that are made within the mind without consciously thinking about them.  For example certain people may relate a picture to a certain type of person without even thinking about it they make a connection between the two different things.

            The IAT that I took was in relation to blacks and white and the comparison to harmless objects and weapons. The conclusion of the test came back and said that I moderately associated weapons with black people. The purpose of the IAT test is to “assess attitudes, self-esteem, personality, and many other characteristics of individuals.”

            Some of the definitions that we came up with for culture include: a way of life, state of mind, and the categorization of a population based on certain characteristics.  There are many different types of culture that really stand out. Some of these types of cultures include; sex, race, religion, diet, generation, income, language, and physical appearance. Other ones include disabilities, ethnicity, career, clothing, political ideals, geographic location, and nationality.

            It is very important to be culturally competent in a medical setting because, as a health care provider you do not want to offend your patient or colleagues in any way. For example if a patient has a certain diet due to their religious beliefs you would not want to bring this to them as their dinner because it could truly offend them. Culturally competent care helps the health care facility provide the best service because it allows them to know their clientele on a much more personal level and make them feel at home.