There’s never been a better time to work as an Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA). With a employment outlook, OTAs have the opportunity to work in a variety of clinical and home settings.

Occupational Therapy (OT) is a great career if you want to make a difference in a person’s everyday life, and volunteer OT opportunities help get your foot in the door. For ways to gain valuable OT experience and boost your resume, here are five OT volunteer ideas to consider.

OT Volunteer Opportunities

Volunteer opportunities, including OT internships or shadowing an OT, gives insight into the variety of OTA environments you could work in. Wherever you do it, OT volunteer work will teach you valuable skills that will propel your career forward.

1. Geriatric Facilities

Geriatric care makes up a large percentage of the OT industry, and most OTAs work with older individuals at some point in their career. Volunteering at a nursing home can give you a head start as an OTA, and many Joyce graduates make meaningful careers in geriatric care.

Skills and Experiences Gained

As an OT volunteer in a geriatric facility, you’ll help patients regain and maintain skills they may have lost due to illness or injury. If patients live in the facility, you’ll spend time assisting them with their daily tasks and tailoring their space to suit their individual needs.

Time Commitment

Nursing homes, resident facilities, and treatment centers each require different time commitments from volunteers. Be prepared to spend a few hours weekly for a few months if you want to complete a geriatric care OT internship, and check with the volunteer coordinator at local care facilities for specific requirements.

Required Qualifications

Most nursing homes and geriatric care facilities provide on-site volunteer training, so you don’t need a degree or prior qualifications.

2. Children’s Hospitals

Pediatrics is another big focus in the OT field. As an OT volunteer in a children’s hospital, you’ll work with children born with a medical condition that results in developmental delays and chronic conditions, as well as children with traumatic injuries. �������������’s OTA program will teach you specialized pediatric OT skills to help you succeed in children’s hospitals.

Skills and Experiences Gained

Pediatric OT volunteers help children learn independence-building skills like tying shoes and brushing teeth. OT treatment for children often resembles play, and you’ll need to be creative. This makes children’s hospital OT volunteer work so formative for many aspiring OTAs — creativity is key in OT.

Time Commitment

The volunteer time commitment varies between children’s hospitals, but many require about 100 hours spread out over six months to a year.

Required Qualifications

Most children’s hospitals require OT volunteers to be at least 18 years old and pass a background check and a health clearance screening. You’ll also receive on-site training and orientation.

3. Special Needs Day Programs

Special needs day programs are a safe, structured place for disabled adults to participate in activities and build skills. There are plenty of opportunities to volunteer at special needs day programs, and Joyce’s holistic approach to healthcare sciences makes our OTA students a welcome addition to many volunteer teams.

Skills and Experiences Gained

OTA volunteers at special needs day programs will practice a holistic approach to OT. Much of your work here will revolve around developing social skills, work skills, and the tools for independence. Volunteering at special needs day programs will expose you to a wide variety of OT modalities.

Time Commitment

The time commitment for OT volunteers varies between special needs day programs. Make sure you go over any time commitments with the volunteer coordinator.

Required Qualifications

To volunteer as an OTA at a “special needs” day program, you’ll need to pass a background check. Some programs will have additional requirements, so check with each facility.

4. Equine-Assisted Therapy

If you’re an animal whisperer, consider volunteering in equine-assisted OT, also known as hippotherapy. This is a form of animal assisted therapy that uses horses to help patients with physical, developmental, or psychiatric needs.

Skills and Experiences Gained

As an equine-assisted OT volunteer, you’ll work with a wide variety of patients and learn how to incorporate animals into your OTA practice. Equine-assisted therapy requires great communication, so volunteering here will teach you crucial skills for your OTA career.

Time Commitment

Most equine-assisted therapy organizations require their volunteers to make a regular time commitment, even if it’s a small one, like an hour every week.

Required Qualifications

Most equine-assisted OT volunteers must take a short training course before beginning. After that, you can take the reins and help horse therapy patients!

5. OTA Policy Organizations

Leadership training is big at �������������. We encourage students with a special interest in leadership roles to volunteer with OTA policy organizations. Rather than working with patients directly, you’ll shadow OT policy-makers in these positions.

Skills and Experiences Gained

Volunteering with OTA policy organizations can prepare you for a future shaping big-picture changes in the OT industry. This behind-the-scenes career path influences the daily experiences of OTAs and patients. The leadership skills you’ll learn here will serve you during your whole OTA career.

Time Commitment

OTA policy organizations have varying time requirements. Reach out to the volunteer coordinators at your local organizations for more information.

Required Qualifications

Most OTA policy organizations give on-site training and don’t require their volunteers to have prior qualifications before jumping in and helping. You will need to pass a background screening.

Why Do Volunteer OT?

Volunteer OT is a great way to:

• Learn about various OT specialties
• Boost your resume
• Find mentors
• Make connections with potential employers
• Serve your community

OT Volunteer Programs

Most OTA programs require students to complete OT volunteer hours or spend time in the workforce getting hands-on experience.

Joyce’s OTA program includes 16 weeks of clinical practice fieldwork, during which you’ll work with a diverse group of patients and get a feel for the industry. Any OT volunteer work you do before your fieldwork will get you ahead, helping you decide what you want to specialize in your practice.

FAQs ������������� OT Volunteer Opportunities

How to get OT volunteer hours?

If you’re in an OTA program, your school likely has connections to OTA organizations where you can volunteer. If you know you’re interested in a particular specialty, you can get OT volunteer experience by calling up relevant organizations in your area. Most will have a volunteer program you can join.

Where to volunteer for OT?

Check out geriatric facilities, children’s hospitals, special needs day programs, equine-assisted therapy organizations, and OTA policy organizations for OT volunteer opportunities.

Does OT volunteering count toward observation hours?

Volunteer hours usually count toward observation hours on OT program applications. However, some schools have strict guidelines about what counts, so it’s worth checking with their specific policies.

What does an OT volunteer do?

OTA volunteers can work with therapists to help with stretches and simple therapies. They also clean toys and equipment and fill in where needed to keep things running smoothly.

How to get OTA jobs?

Read more about OTA job opportunities and application tips here.

Volunteer OT is a great way to learn where you want to specialize while preparing for a rewarding career as an OTA. If you’re ready to dive in, check out Joyce’s OTA program today.

Explore All Healthcare Career Paths at �������������

From our renowned OTA program to our nursing pathways—whether you’re beginning your healthcare journey with our ASN program, pursuing a 3 year BSN degree or accelerated BSN program, advancing through our RN to BSN program, or reaching higher with an MSN degree, discover which healthcare volunteer and education opportunities align with your career goals by exploring our nursing school.

However, healthcare students also have options for lending their skills where they’re most needed. Here are a few opportunities for volunteering while you’re still in school.

Related resource: 5 Volunteer Ideas for Aspiring Occupational Therapy Assistants

Opportunities Abroad

The image of a globe-trotting doctor or nurse helping underserved populations in distant locales is a powerful one, and plenty of healthcare professionals are inspired by visions of bringing care to the far reaches of the globe. Doctors Without Borders is probably the example that immediately comes to mind of healthcare professionals bringing care worldwide.

Fortunately, several programs offer for nursing students. The kind of work you can do abroad is as varied and wide as the field of nursing itself. Public health and health education are certainly common, but if you have a specialty such as optometry or pediatrics that you want to explore, you likely can. What’s more, the range of places you can work is immense.

Working abroad also means you can be assigned to a large hospital, a small clinic, a school, an assisted living facility, or some other place in need of your work. Your time abroad might even introduce you to areas of healthcare that you didn’t know you were interested it. You could end up working on a public hygiene campaign in a developing country and decide you want to use those same skills in the States.

When you get back, you’ll be a better student and eventually a better nurse because of what you saw, did, and learned during your time away. That experience will stay with you for the rest of your career and life.

Related resource: Characteristics of Professionalism in Healthcare

Opportunities at Home

If you’re not interested in flying to Tanzania or Sumatra, plenty of volunteer opportunities exist closer to home. Draper, Provo, and Salt Lake City all offer a variety of .

If you’re looking to flex your caregiving muscles before graduation, you could volunteer in a senior center or work with children. Coaching youth sports might not seem very much like nursing on the surface, but it will help you develop the on-your-feet, high-energy attitude you’ll need for your shifts. If you want to hone your administrative skills, you could volunteer with the library system or the election board. Animal shelters are an option too. Providing care and attention to dogs and cats isn’t all that similar to what nurses do, but it can be rewarding.

Regardless of what you choose, take the opportunity to turn it into a resume builder. Note the skills you’ve gained and the experiences you’ve had, and perhaps get a letter of recommendation from the volunteer coordinator. Anything to help you get that future healthcare job!

Related resource: How to Balance Nursing School With Work and Family Life

When Disaster Strikes

Disasters are probably the single most dramatic opportunity for any healthcare worker. When earthquakes, hurricanes, or tsunamis hit, that’s when workers and volunteers have to scramble to make sure the affected population is adequately cared for.

The American Red Cross offers classes and Even if you don’t get to actually work on a real disaster situation, it will prep you for a future moment when calamity hits your community and suddenly every healthcare provider has to spring into action. Hopefully those are skills you’ll never actually have to use, but when the worst happens, you can be among those most prepared for it.

������������� has taken a proactive approach to nursing education during the COVID-19 pandemic. As colleges adapted to social distancing protocols, Joyce students were gaining valuable clinical experience volunteering in the Medical Reserve Corps (), a federal network of volunteers sponsored by the Salt Lake County Health Department that was actively deployed throughout the Salt Lake valley to combat the spread of COVID-19.

Joyce Students Stepping Forward

Led by Jill Dubbelman and other dedicated faculty, Joyce’s senior capstone nursing students volunteered with the MRC, getting hands-on experience in the field with extensive PPE training and a crash course in FEMA disaster coordinating. “Students have provided numerous hours supporting quarantine sites, by giving medical care and more. These students have tested thousands of individuals across the valley and donated thousands of hours toward this response to COVID-19.” reports Bryan Lewis, emergency planner for the .

He goes on to say that “the MRC task force is assisting with multiple operations, including identifying ‘COVID hot spots’ and testing these areas, offering COVID-19 testing and screening at multiple locations for free, and going to numerous long term care facilities, homeless and refugee communities and providing education, screening and testing for individuals. Other areas the task force is supporting include providing medical support at quarantine and isolation facilities for individuals who have nowhere to go.”

Getting Involved with the Medical Reserve Corps.

When COVID-19 was identified in January of 2020, Bryan Lewis knew he needed to take action quickly to get medical volunteers and supporters mobilized in response to the global health crisis. “I started quickly researching organizations and reaching out to organizations with medical programs, and one of the programs I came across was (Joyce).”

After coordinating with clinical instructor Jill Dubbelman, a plan was set in motion to mobilize the capstone nursing students into strike teams for the Medical Reserve Corps. Jill worked to quickly train the student teams in PPE and lab testing to get them prepared for work in the field. “We tested 122 homeless people our first day while testing at a day shelter. The health department and 4th street clinic could not believe we did so many in one day.” says Jill.

Between April and November, “over 77 (Joyce) students and faculty gave a combined of nearly 10,000 hours (to the MRC)” — an ever-growing number as students continue to volunteer. “The students, super excited, quickly jumped to the plate and went above and beyond and assisted in multiple medical operations such as quarantine and isolation support, and COVID-19 screening and testing.” says Bryan.

Students Impacting Their Community

Joyce students have worked tireless hours to help fight against the spread of COVID-19. The strike teams they created have administered more than 30,000 tests, which has helped augment the medical response in quarantine and isolation facilities. They have helped improve testing capacities significantly according to Bryan, “at 1 facility we tested 500 people in under 3 hours with the students’ help, and we can now test 1 patient every 2-3 minutes per team. (Joyce) allowed us to more quickly and efficiently reach out to populations that needed us the most, such as homeless populations, without these students it would be difficult to test these populations. These students improved our testing capabilities significantly, and freed the health department up to perform other essential tasks such as contact tracing.”

When it comes to how the MRC has helped make an impact overall during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bryan says, “The Medical Reserve Corps has been instrumental in the response to COVID-19. The MRC has identified hot spots, performed screenings, provided medical support, and performed thousands of COVID-19 tests throughout the valley. Without the Medical Reserve Corps work, I do not believe we would be where we are currently…”

Above and beyond the call of duty, students are finding other ways to make life a little easier for the populations they are serving through the MRC. Nursing instructor Jill Dubbelman shared a few stories about how the students lended support, “Amanda Murdoch and others have donated clothes and crayons, coloring books and games to the shelter when they found out there were children there.” While other students like Camille Camocaho, offered to translate Spanish “and was a big help with her shelter because there were Spanish speaking patients she could help.” Even during the long hours focused on testing people throughout the Salt Lake valley, a few students lended a hand when they saw that a couple of kittens needed rescuing. Student nurses Nicole, Bret, Paige, and Stephanie “were testing at the men’s resource center at night with Bryan and they had to call in a fire department to save the kittens.”

What Students are Saying

“I really got to know my fellow classmates and instructors. I gained stronger and new relationships, which made COVID19 easier to cope with. It also taught me skills I wasn’t planning on gaining!

Although hours were required for capstone, I still volunteered with MRC after completion of hours and actually just got a job with them! It is nice to know that I can make a difference in the community.” – Mikayla Gibson, Student (ADN)

“My experience with the MRC has been eventful and unforgettable. I have learned to adapt quickly and be reliable. It has also been incredibly fun and rewarding and I have been able to form great friendships.

I have loved the autonomy of participating in the MRC and the feeling of actually doing something to improve and serve my community. It is so rewarding to know that I am contributing to the success of my state through this pandemic. Serving others is the most important part of nursing in my eyes, and I am being provided with ample opportunities to serve by being a part of the MRC.” – Alta Findlay, Student (ADN-BSN)

“It has been amazing to work with the health department and other nurses. The patients are nothing short of kind and respectful.” – Samantha Brimley, Student (ADN)

“Joining the MRC put me on the front lines of the COVID pandemic and I have enjoyed every minute of it. We work hard, we work fast and are committed to giving the best care and finding results in the most efficient manner during this time.

It’s been very enjoyable to be able to be a part of such a big part of our world history. Every day we are deployed out to test for illness, and I’m grateful every day to be a part of the medical profession. I’m very proud of the work that we all do in order to help control the spread of COVID as well as other everyday healthcare work. It has really opened my eyes to an entirely new, community-based side of healthcare.” – Anna Tremea, Student (ADN-BSN)

“It felt great to take part in such impactful work as a student, it was such an honor. We had patients and other people looking to us for answers. I felt like everything I had learned in school up that point was finally falling into place and that I could actually help people. It was so fulfilling!” – Jessica Reilly, Student (ADN)

Our Plans for the Future

As the pandemic continues to affect our local communities throughout Utah, Joyce and the MRC are committed to providing necessary testing and medical support to those affected by this global crisis. Through the hard work and dedication of its committed faculty, Joyce is continuing to pave the way for their capstone students to get out of the classroom and into their communities, where they can get hands-on clinical experience and gain valuable skills that will prepare them for a successful future in nursing.

If you are interested in joining our robust and active student community, check out our nursing programs and schedule an appointment to speak with an Admissions Advisor. Whether you’re beginning your healthcare journey with our ASN program, pursuing a 3 year BSN degree or accelerated BSN program, advancing through our RN to BSN program, or reaching higher with an MSN degree, you’ll join a community of nurses dedicated to making a real difference. Start your journey at our nursing school today.