Helping people get back to work
Name: Nathan Pettigrew (42) Job: Occupational therapist at Southern Rehab, vocational rehabilitation consultant
Q What jobs did you do before this one?
Quite a range of parttime or temporary jobs: hospitalbased occupational therapist, food technologist, taught English in Japan.
Q I Why did you choose this job?
wanted to work with people, helping them to achieve their goals and live their best life. I’ve found Southern Rehab to be a great fit in terms of the company values and the supportive colleagues who help to implement these values in our practice.
Q In How did you get into it and when?
terms of occupational therapy, I worked with a life coach while I was living overseas as I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do when I returned to New Zealand. This helped narrow down my options. When I returned to New Zealand in 2003 I did some more research, including a couple of days following some occupational therapists around in their work.
That clinched it for me.
Q need? What qualifications and training did you
A bachelor of occupational therapy through Otago Polytechnic. There is no special training required for the vocational rehabilitation role, but there are postgraduate papers available to help develop these skills.
Q Good What personal skills do you need?
written and verbal communication skills, a general ability to understand the client’s perspective on their injury and
recovery. An ability to explain medical information in layman’s terms is also helpful.
Q Not Any physical requirements?
really, but some workplaces can have ‘‘difficult to access’’ areas that it is useful to assess. This can mean climbing up on ladders or machinery, walking over uneven ground or slippery surfaces or crawling into small access areas.
Q A What do you do on a daily basis?
lot of phone calls, emails, letters and faxes. Setting up meetings and contacting clients, employers, case managers and other health professionals (GPs, surgeons, physiotherapists etc).
Attending meetings and worksite visits to meet with and check up on clients — this can involve quite a bit of travel as I cover from Balclutha to Palmerston and inland to Middlemarch.
Q Keeping What is the most challenging aspect?
track of a wide range of clients; where they are in terms of their recovery, their next medical review date, ensuring everyone is kept in the loop. I’ve had to develop a few tools to help keep on top of all this!
Q What is the most interesting/memorable assignment you’ve had?
There have been quite a few but ones that stand out are jobs that you don’t necessarily realise exist or don’t know much about; e.g., possum trapper, demolition specialist, miner. You end up having to ask a lot of questions and do a lot of learning in a short time.
Q How has the job changed since you started?
Our team has grown significantly. I work with a range of physiotherapists, nurses, vocational specialists, psychologists, speech and language therapists, social workers etc. Despite the size of the team, we continue to communicate well with each other.
Q What’s something people generally don’t know about the job?
Most people assume you are mostly working with people who don’t want to go back to work, whereas in reality more than 99% of people enjoy their jobs and are really keen to return to work.
Q What are the particular health and safety issues in your industry?
Mainly being aware of potential hazards in workplaces you visit and having the appropriate safety gear to manage these (steel cap boots, hivis vest, safety glasses etc).
Q What are the highs of the job?
Seeing people recover from quite serious injuries and return to jobs they enjoy.
Working with a fantastic team who communicate well with each other.
Q What are the lows of the job?
When people are unable to get back to the work they love due to the extent of an injury.
Q What’s the strangest thing you’ve had to do?
Sorry, can’t think of anything!
Q What is the salary?
It depends on experience and training, but $50,000$70,000plus.
Q Where will you be 10 years from now?
Hopefully still with Southern Rehab, they’re an amazing, supportive team and I feel incredibly privileged to work with them.