Is Occupational Therapy a program filled with females?

[brady23]

As we all know, nursing is full of females, and there are very few males in the program.

 

But one of my classmates stated that Occupational Therapy is also full of females, and I never knew this to be the case. Is this true?

 

Not that it will be affecting my decision, just curious.

[PurpleOT]

Yes! Mostly females will be in the OT classes, also true for PT but to a lesser extent. I'm always on the lookout for male OTs at work, trying to spot them lol

[brady23]

http://www.caot.ca/default.asp?pageid=1162

 

But if you are a male in the profession I think it sets you apart and is a unique perspective you can bring to your practice. Just because the large majority of practitioners are female doesnt mean their patients are!

 

Holy, those numbers are so LOW! That has to be even worse than nursing.

[Pink Tulip]

Yes it's filled with females, just like nursing. I don't think you get as much of the catty attitudes and rumors going around the workplace though like nursing has. We only have 1-2 OTs working together (maybe a rare 4 at a large hospital), so the whole female thing doesn't catch up until you go to conferences and realize that almost every speaker and member is female!! Haha. It's just how it's ended up.

[SheepE]

Anyone got stats for PT? =)

[dabby]

There were lots of males at the interviews for McMaster, so I assume PT must have a more equal male/female ratio than OT (Holy 94%)??

 

Or maybe more males are applying now? Weird how these things go, isn't it? Because I wouldn't say there is anything about this that I find particularly "feminine", aside from the fact that I guess there are a lot of women practicing, haha.

[seeingthelight]

LOLOL, “I don't think you get as much of the catty attitudes and rumors going around the workplace though like nursing has”. Pink Tulip, I’ve seen your posts on this forum and I can tell you’re a really cool person – you’re WAY ABOVE this comment haha! You’re a healthcare professional now – you’re way above making negative generalizations about another health discipline lol. I think when you get a large number of women working together for long shifts, there are definitely more opportunities for “catty attitudes and rumors” to arise haha, but it’s like ANY job (even outside of healthcare), that sort of culture is workplace-dependent. Some units or facilities have more of a toxic work environment than others – it really depends on the culture that’s developed in that SPECIFIC unit haha .

[Pink Tulip]

LOLOL, “I don't think you get as much of the catty attitudes and rumors going around the workplace though like nursing has”. Pink Tulip, I’ve seen your posts on this forum and I can tell you’re a really cool person – you’re WAY ABOVE this comment haha! You’re a healthcare professional now – you’re way above making negative generalizations about another health discipline lol. I think when you get a large number of women working together for long shifts, there are definitely more opportunities for “catty attitudes and rumors” to arise haha, but it’s like ANY job (even outside of healthcare), that sort of culture is workplace-dependent. Some units or facilities have more of a toxic work environment than others – it really depends on the culture that’s developed in that SPECIFIC unit haha .

 

That's what I was referring to - nurses tend to spend 12 hours together and deal with a lot of negative attitudes from patients and others so of course it may be more common for them to be that way. I wasn't blaming them, just saying that you're less likely to be involved in those situations if you don't have that many people. I don't think nurses are catty by nature, and if anything it's their unsupportive environment that makes them that way (patients, families, other professionals not giving them the respect they deserve). I just read a lot of their forums and they sure like to talk about those kinds of issues that seem to come up a lot, which is why I mentioned it. It wasn't a bashing nursing comment, just something to take note of because like I said, as an OT you only work with 1-2 other OTs. Compare that to the 50-100 nurses working together (or more, I don't even know their staffing numbers), and of course there is more possibility because we're all female and more of us doesn't always make it better (haha!)

[seeingthelight]

Haha, amen to that, sista! Ok, thanks for the clarification. I think sometimes when people read a comment, it can trickle into their subconscious and manifest itself in other ways. Haha, that makes more sense - I felt that comment seemed out of character for you, compared to your other posts .

[person14]

for western class of 2014, ot program had 8 males out of 56 people. pt has around 8 too, maybe 10 at most.

[Kovington]

Our class at UofT has 6 males out of 84 students. We even have a male OT support group!

[physio2med]

My PT class at UdeM in 2008 had 8 males to 62 females.... I just realized I don't know ANY male OTs!