How can we recruit more young people into the O&P profession?

I’ve been with Tillges O&P for 15 years, but I was initially in physical therapy before I came into this, and I learned about the [O&P] career from a job fair. So I try to kind of push that. 

Young kids these days, especially at the high school level, are attending a lot of job fairs, and discovering different professions through that. Kids are thinking about careers a lot earlier.

We have a couple [of job fairs] in the Twin Cities, [where] a lot of different medical divisions go, and we’re one of them. We have displays that we set up, with different kinds of prostheses and orthoses, and we just talk about what the profession entails, what’s required for educational standards, and what we do in a normal day.

Another thing we do is [host] different students who are thinking about going into physical therapy or occupational therapy. Part of their education is to come to our O&P facility, and it just so happened that one of those young people decided to switch careers and come into O&P, which was nice. 

In O&P, obviously, there are so many different things that it’s never the same [from day to day]. I think [the prospect of] that kind of variety would appeal to young people. It’s not a job where you’re stuck doing repetitive kinds of activities; you get to really think about what you’re going to do—any person likes that. [You use] hand skills, and to be able to combine that with the ability to create something meaningful like a prosthesis—I think that’s very positive.
Dan Schmitt, CPO
Tillges Certified Orthotic Prosthetic Inc.
Maplewood, Minn.

I would say the undergrad years, the first couple years of school, [are a good time to introduce the career field]. At my campus, the University of Washington, there were areas students could go to check out physical therapy, occupational therapy and O&P. The medical school had an open house one night, and we toured the [different areas]. I became interested in O&P from that. 

I’ve heard of some programs that have been introduced into the high schools, but it doesn’t seem to be that effective—they just don’t seem to be that interested. I would say that [approach would work] with a little bit older age, when [students] are thinking a little more seriously about [their future].
Amy Foster, CPO
Center for Independent Rehabilitative Services Inc.
Palo Alto, Calif.

I’m listed on the Academy Web site [opcareers.org] as a contact in the state of Arizona for people who are interested in the field. 

It’s not that often [that we get those phone calls], every six months or so, but when it happens, it’s generally people who are so interested in the field that they’re looking to make the next move. 

When they do contact us, I think we have a responsibility as clinicians to bring them in, to show them the ropes, to let them follow us around for a day and to let them volunteer if that’s something they want to do. We’ve done that with about three or four people. One is now certified, and another one just got accepted into Northwestern. 

Not all of the people [getting into O&P] are college age; some are looking to make career changes. One was a day trader, 28 years old, who contacted us six or seven months ago, and he came down the next day and followed us around. We hooked him up with our technician, and we brought him in once in a while on patient fittings, and now he’s going to the next Northwestern program. 

Sometimes the high schools bring students through on field trips, and we spend a few hours telling them what’s going on, and once in a while you get someone who wants to come back and do a report. Three to four years from now, when they’re in college and choosing a major, maybe they’ll look back on that. 

It’s a lot of fun to open somebody’s eyes to a profession that’s given so much to us as clinicians, and we find it very rewarding. We look forward to the next phone call we get from someone who is interested in the profession.
Michael Pack, CP
Artificial Limb Specialists Inc.
Phoenix, Ariz.

We received a DVD [from the Academy, called "The Sky's the Limit"], promoting career awareness of O&P. They sent it out to all practitioners. 

My mother-in-law is a high school teacher, so I gave it to her. She kind of serves as [an informal] guidance counselor—she works with a lot of kids who don’t have any idea what they’re going to do with their lives. She showed it to her class toward the end of the year and a lot of them had good questions. Some said, “Hey, maybe I’ll contact your son-in-law and go over and walk through the lab.” 

I thought that was a really good idea. A lot of [kids] in more rural areas are not going to plan on going to college, but maybe they want to get in and see what it would be like to be a technician, and what they’d have to do; [others, who are planning on college] might be able to gear their college [classes] toward more O&P prerequisites. 

One of the other [practitioners] here gave it to one of his patients, who is a vocational teacher, [because] we thought maybe a lot of those guys [in his class] would be good technicians. They’re already in a classroom where they’re working with their hands.

I know it’s hard to work [showing the DVD] into a normal school year when you’ve got your schedule and your teacher’s plan, but [you could show it on] certain days when you’ve got a little filler time, or study time. 

[Sometimes] you’ll have a patient with an inquisitive child or grandchild who might be in watching the patient’s fitting and [will] say “Can I look back and see where y’all make those?” You can kind of see a little light come on. 

Other than that [situation], there really isn’t anything that practitioners themselves have been able to be really proactive about. [The DVD] gave us a chance to do that.    
Shayne Adkins, CP
Hi-Tech Artificial Limbs Inc.
Lexington, Ky.

We, the practitioners, should do a little bit of community education. In the past I have gone, with a patient, to schools to educate different grades as to what an amputee is, what a prosthesis is, and [how I got involved in the profession].

I approach the schools. Years ago, the schools would approach us to go in, [but] those schools don’t have the money available for their curriculum anymore, so a lot of them have actually cut it out. They don’t pay me, but the schools claimed it was an expense to them. And these schools did it annually, for years.

That was actually the best [form of outreach]. I [started] it 15, 20 years ago, and I’ve seen [current practitioners] say, “When I was a kid, you came into our school.” It’s fun that they actually remembered.
The last time I did this was probably eight to 10 years ago. [We went to] predominantly the younger grades. It was show-and-tell; kids were fascinated when the patient would slip off a prosthesis, and you’d pass the limb around the room. They’d laugh and joke, but it was intelligent.         

I [also] try to get patients to talk to local newspapers.

We’re working with the children’s science museum in Boston—we’ve donated three or four limbs. We’ve got a reputation [so that] some of the people in the arts, and some of the museums, know to call us.
Greig Martino, CP
United Prosthetics Inc.
Braintree, Mass.

[O&P] is not a common thing that people would think about doing. Most people that I know who get into it just luck into it, [or] they know a person who has a prosthesis or an orthosis. I just kind of lucked into it. A friend of mine called me up and asked me if I wanted a job. I said, ‘Sure, I’ll come check it out.” I’ve been here ever since, for 23 years. 

[When] we hire somebody, we usually have to [hire] them off the street. We can’t find any technicians in the area, it’s just hard to do. The starting pay is so low that it’s hard for people to start in this business.

[We need] more schools or more opportunities for technical training, so they can start out at a decent salary instead of $7 or $8 an hour. That’s without a degree, if they don’t have any kind of background in the field, which most people don’t. 

I’ve been fortunate to get in it when I did, because I like coming in to work, which is more than most people can say. I can’t complain about what I make, but when [new people] start out, they don’t make anything.
George Lancaster, LP, RTO
Fillauer Companies Inc.
Chattanooga, Tenn.