Brooke Abzug

I think it's a combination of factors. Growing up, I'm really fortunate to have a lot of influential role models in my life, both men and women. My father started his own business, my grandmother started her own business, and just seeing how they were able to start things from the ground up and run with it. I also saw how my mother and my father, my grandparents had loyalty to their companies, and that's not something you see every day with this generation. Having such great role models, seeing how some of them founded their own businesses and became very successful, or who either worked for themselves or other companies and demonstrated great loyalty, showed me that it is very possible to find a career you love and be able to be successful in a job that's enjoyable to you. So that was very motivating to me. I think also the strong education that I was blessed with going to the public education schools that I did in K-12, and then being able to - my family plays such a high priority on academics, and that was instilled in myself, my brother, and then going to a top-ranked university for both my undergraduate and doctoral studies.

Some things that come to mind are to say yes to opportunities that align with your core values and what motivates you, to make sure that you're always putting your best foot forward and being kind and respectful to others, and knowing that you'll most likely cross paths with everyone again. It's great to see how potentially you might help someone one day, a colleague in the profession, and then years later, you might run into them again, and they might be able to help you in some way. So always having strong networking and being a person that, when someone comes across your name in the future, they think of you favorably - wow, that person really was a hard worker, and I would want to be their teammate again - and striving to be that kind of employee, worker, or colleague.

I would tell them specifically that they are capable of doing anything they set their mind to, and if a barrier exists, then it is possible, and I encourage them to figure out how to overcome that barrier. Not just overcome it, but turn it into a success story, and flip it around. If something was originally challenging, figure out how you can overcome it and use it to your advantage.

One opportunity is continuing to advance myself in providing individualized, evidence-based care to my clients and patients, because technology and evidence research is always occurring, so to be able to stay knowledgeable about all the new opportunities that exist in patient care and how to implement that research - because after school, things continue to advance, and we're not in the classroom anymore. Another exciting opportunity that I just started this year is now that I'll get that final promotion to be the Occupational Therapist 3, I'm responsible for teaching 2 hours worth of continuing education credits to the whole healthcare system, anyone who would like to come from any of the facilities. I just did that for the first time, teaching two one-hour classes, but learning how to continue to teach to my colleagues in a way that will best serve them is very different than when I educate my students at the university, because the students are obtaining their entry-level degree and have never practiced before, whereas my colleagues are experienced and knowledgeable. So it's a unique experience trying to figure out what I can teach a colleague that I have expertise in that could be beneficial to someone who has been practicing potentially longer than I have. One challenge is insurance can sometimes be strict, and that can put constraints on the frequency and duration of services that we would like to provide. When we do an evaluation for a patient, we use our clinical reasoning to decide how many times a week and how many weeks we think it would be appropriate for them to attend outpatient services at our facility, but unfortunately, due to insurance and contracts and things beyond my control, sometimes we're not able to provide as much services as we would like to because their insurance won't cover it. Another challenge is scheduling - in the world of outpatient pediatrics, we cater towards after-school and after-work times, so trying to balance and maintain occupational and work-life balance while being mindful that my hours are later than potentially other, more traditional jobs, because we want to cater towards those after-school, after-work times, and they're so highly coveted for appointments.

I think ethical is a very important one, along with being passionate, driven, and fun. I value being friend and family oriented, and ideally having a work-life balance. I think those are the values that come to mind as most important to me.