How to Answer: What type of chronic conditions have you helped your patients monitor?
Advice and answer examples written specifically for an Occupational Therapist job interview.
26. What type of chronic conditions have you helped your patients monitor?
How to Answer
As an Occupational Therapist, you will work with patients that suffer from chronic conditions like arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure or even asthma. Tell the interviewer how you recommend your patients conserve energy, reduce or prevent pain, simplify the activities, and improve the safety in their life. Your interviewer will be trying to get a better feel for the types of patients that you have experience with. It is important to know if the job you are interviewing for works with specific populations and tailor your answer to that population.
Entry Level
"Knowing throughout my schooling that I wanted to focus on working as an Occupational Therapist in a school setting, I have read and attended seminars on many of the conditions that effect children in a school setting like autism and attention deficit disorder. During my internship, I worked closely with several autistic children in a middle school setting and was able to develop individualized plans for them to help in daily living skills and assisting them in the classroom setting."
Answer Example
"I have had a lot of experience helping clients that suffer from chronic conditions. I'm currently working with a patient that has diabetes. We have written up a plan that has the patient testing as often as their physician has required as well as meal planning and an exercise schedule."
Experienced
"Throughout my career working as an Occupational Therapist, I have worked with patients with all sorts of chronic conditions. My experience in working with people that have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease and dementia has been extensive in recent years and make me an excellent candidate for this position. I work closely with both patients and their loved ones to assess home living life and suggesting modifications for the patients to live as independently as possible with these conditions. Knowing that conditions for these patients can change quickly, I thrive on the focused time with each patient."