"Criticism on the job should be considered highly valuable by any employee and I take criticism to heart no matter who it comes from. I had a parent of a child I was working with talk to me about their thoughts on the treatment of their child. Not realizing that my therapy sessions were causing frustration with the child after we were done, the parent thought that taking things slowly with the child was of utmost importance. Taking the feedback to heart, we adjusted the plan for the patient and the parent was very thankful and said the child was responding more positively following our sessions."

As an Occupational Therapist, you will receive feedback about your work from everyone on your team, even your patients. Regardless of how reasonable or accurate the observations may be, do your best to respond thoughtfully. Be humble and don't take it personally. Depending on who the criticism is coming from, you will want to approach it differently. If it's coming from a doctor or colleague, you will want to respond respectfully. The key is to stay calm and never express frustration towards the person. Give an example where you stayed professional when someone gave you negative feedback.

"As a person that is continuously looking to improve in my career, I take criticism to heart and appreciate any feedback that comes my way. After a recent patient was discharged from our skilled nursing facility, my manager gave me feedback on my interaction with the family with the patient. The daughter of the patient had complained on my approach to explaining the therapy the patient would need once he returned home. She thought my approach was not personable and more of a text book approach. I welcomed this feedback from my manager to help improve for the next time I had to work with a family. I had let the personal side of the job move to the side in order to be e
ducational in manner and I have focused more on the personal side of things since then."