Essentials for a Health Occupational Therapist

Hey y’all! As most of y’all know, aside from blogging I also work as an Occupational Therapist. Over the past few months, I’ve transitioned over from a full time OT at a skilled nursing facility to a PRN therapist around town here in Austin, TX. For those of you who missed my post about why I quit my full time job, you can read about it here. Currently, I do mostly home health occupational therapy, and also a little work in nursing facilities around town. Since I recently transitioned to the home health setting, I thought it would be fun to share with y’all a list of my top 10 essentials for a home health therapist!

Because I am a home health occupational therapist, I need something to carry around when going to homes that is functional. When I saw that they make a backpack that doubles as a chair, I immediately had to jump on this purchase. I recently purchased this backpack chair (it’s finally back in stock y’all!)! Now, I’m going to share my list of top 10 essentials for a home health occupational therapist.

Here are my top 10 essentials for a home health occupational therapist:

this backpack chair
gait belt
blood pressure cuff (I do use a manual one that they gave me, but here is an automatic one), pulse oximeter, thermometer
lysol disinfecting wipes. They also have these packages here that may be a little easier to carry around.
gloves
mini antibacterial hand sanitizer
3 pack goniometers
UPDATE: I no longer use the panda planner, and I have purchased this one that is WAY BETTER!! I like this one better because it includes a vision board, monthly reflection, monthly view for the month with action steps, desired goals, ideas/gratitude/mind map section– its AMAZING y’all!
theraband, theraputty, dumbbells
I also keep puzzles, beads, string, and balloons I can use for therapeutic activities.

Hope y’all enjoyed this post and the list of my essentials for a home health therapist! I’m going to share below pictures of my backpack and how all of my supplies fit in:)

PS..also sharing my favorite scrubs and shoes to wear while working 🙂