Citation of Interview: Interview with Karen Savage, History 150 Spring 2020, Conducted by Josh Savage, April 5, 2020.

Brief Biography

The person I am interviewing is Karen Savage she is my mom. She is from Visalia, California where she grew up with two brothers. She studied occupational therapy at San Jose State University and she moved all around the country for work after college but eventually settled in Virginia with my dad. She is an occupational therapist for a home health company called Amedysis, where she travels locally to patients’ homes so they don’t have to go to outpatient therapy. She has been an occupational therapist for roughly 25 to 30 years and has worked for three different companies in my lifetime. This makes her a great candidate for “gender in the workplace” because she has seen how the industry has changed over that amount of time. Another thing to keep in mind is that as a therapist she is on the inside of the medical situations. Sometimes she has to act as a go between for the doctor and the patient so she sees both sides of that. Also, her job is considered essential during these times of the COVID-19 pandemic. This means she is still working and going into patients’ homes to treat them as they come home from the hospital which can be very dangerous.

Research

“Gender discrimination in the workplace includes discrimination when hiring, firing, promotions, job classification, benefits, pay, sexual harassment, sex stereotyping, etc. The Federal Government made this illegal in 1964 under Title VII.” This is the definition I found in one of the interviews for gender discrimination. “With the progression into the later period of the 20th century, women started to gain more equality in the workforce. The equal pay act was enacted, and women began to work in job roles that were previously dominated by males.” This more encompasses my mom because she was in the late 20^th century and early 21^st but the roles were still dominated by male or female in particular jobs. “One of the greatest hallmarks of the latter half of the 20th century and into the 21st century has been the significant progress that has been made in the area of gender equality, particularly in regards to employment opportunity. This progress is prominently noticeable in the field of medicine. Gaps that once existed in medical school education, training and residency opportunities, hiring practices and compensation have closed considerably, giving women an improved footing in medical practice and in medical education.”

“Occupational therapists treat injured, ill, or disabled patients through the therapeutic use of everyday activities. They help these patients develop, recover, improve, as well as maintain the skills needed for daily living and working.” I found this about occupational therapy and I am going to open with it and then ask my mom about it leading into my first question. Like I said above in the biography, my mom has doing this for 25 or more years. She has seen many changes in how things are done in the occupation and especially more recently with the coronavirus pandemic.

 

Citations from Research

“Occupational Therapists : Occupational Outlook Handbook.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4 Sept. 2019, www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/mobile/occupational-therapists.htm.

“Sex Discrimination At Work.” Fighting for Women’s Equality, Equal Rights Advocates, 2019, www.equalrights.org/legal-help/know-your-rights/sex-discrimination-at-work/

2019 & 2020 Interviews, https://canvas.jmu.edu/courses/1700432/modules/items/23248285. Accessed 23 Feb. 2020.

Jefferson, et al. “Women in Medicine: Historical Perspectives and Recent Trends.” OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 8 Mar. 2015, academic.oup.com/bmb/article/114/1/5/246075.

 

Transcript

JS: I’ll be doing this interview on social change in the workplace. Will you please state your name for me?

KS: Karen Marie Savage.

JS: From my research, I found that occupational therapist treat injured ill or disabled patients to the therapeutic use of everyday activities. They help these patients develop, recover, improve, as well as maintain the skills needed for daily living and working. But can you explain in your own words what an occupational therapist really does?

KS: occupational therapist, that word comes from anything that helps occupy your time. So an occupational therapist, the best way I try to describe it to people is anything that we can do to help people get back to being as independent as they can be with their activities of daily living. So whether that’s bathing, dressing, eating, transferring, getting to the bathroom, depending on what area you work in just getting them back to being as strong as possible.

JS: How long have you worked in this profession? And have you always worked in the same area that you do now?

KS: I have been an occupational therapist for about 25 years. And no, I currently work in home health and have been doing that for about 10 years. But prior to that, I did rehab skilled nursing facility, even before that hospital setting, but now the home health

JS: What made you want to pursue this career path? And did you have any influences that made you choose it?

KS: I first learned about occupational therapy. My first job at a high school was I worked for a occupational therapist that was a hand therapist. And I was a did medical transcription and like a, we have tech. And that’s where I learned about one of the many branches that occupational therapy can be a part of, and that got me interested in it. And then I went to school in San Jose State in California to get my degree.

JS: What ways have the requirements and certifications changed over time to become an occupational therapist?

KS: When I did this years ago, their requirement was about four to five years of schooling. Then you had a six month internship. And then you took your boards to be certified as an occupational therapist. A registered occupational therapist. And then with that each state has licensure requirements, that you have to get continuing education units and credits that you have to renew every couple of years and then same every three years for being renewed for your national certification. But back then it was a Bachelor of Science only. And now it is a master’s degree that is mandatory.

JS: In your time working in this field of occupational therapy. Do you feel that the gender breakdown like the ratio between male and female workers has changed if at all?

KS: Um, it’s always been a very strong female based but I think probably within the last Maybe 10 to 15 years there’s been more males also, as the profession has grown, and there’s so many different areas that people can get into with occupational therapy, there’s pediatrics geriatrics school system, hospital hospitals, outpatient, there’s the special specialized hand therapist, home health, outpatient, there’s so many different areas that I think that a lot more men have been also

JS: In what ways, if at all, have gender roles ever influenced your decision making at all in your career?

KS: Probably the biggest thing since we’re working with patients in such personal areas such as bathing, dressing, toileting, those types of things. Probably most of the time, female patients prefer having a female therapist, especially when working on bathing, dressing, getting to the bathroom, those types of things. For the male patients, a lot of times they prefer having a male therapist. Especially when we’re working with the older generation, or patients with different ethnicities and and religious beliefs and backgrounds if there’s specific genders that they prefer that they work with.

JS: Can you describe the differences, if any that you may see in the roles of men and women within your profession?

KS: Um, probably one of the biggest is a lot of times if there’s a heavier patient that is needing like max assist or maybe a Cisco one or two people. A lot of times that is where the patient or people are familiar with and wanting a man to help them with easier for transfers versus having a female. That’s probably, like I mentioned before, the same thing with the males preferring male therapist and the women preferring female therapist, I do find that a lot of times and sometimes more than supervisory roles, or higher up positions. There are still some things with men in those positions. But other than that, nothing really.

JS: Was occupational therapy a flexible job for raising a family?

KS: Yes, one of the reasons that I chose to switch to home health is it gave me much more flexibility for being able to have two kids being in school with sports and different programs and being able to attend those things. So that it let me make my own schedule versus working in like a hospital or an office type setting where you were there seeing patients from Monday through Friday. If you needed a day off during the week, then you had to work a Saturday or Sunday to cover to get that time. The Home Health gave me much more flexibility.

JS: Have you noticed any gender disparity over the course of your career in this profession, like any quality at all?

KS: Um, probably not. Other than like I said before, the stereotype of Oh, it’s a heavy patient or a large big patient, so we need a man or male to go when they need help to do these transfers to get them moved easier versus having a female come in?

JS: And how is your work adapting in this moment of social change with the Coronavirus and everything that’s going on in the country today?

KS: Seeing as I’m considered an essential employee, lots of changes, screening tools with phone calls prior to making visits, making sure that folks have or their family members have not been exposed, have not traveled, have not been in contact with anyone that has potential with the virus, very close monitoring of phone calls every day to monitor what their temperature is if they’re having a sore throat if they’re having a cough and making sure that all those symptoms get reported. Actually now we have to start doing that ourselves. We have to do a daily check of our temperature and record it and answer the same kind of questions to make sure before we go out seeing patients much stricter and education and teaching on hand washing, frequent hand washing, not touching your face, not touching your eyes, wearing masks and gloves and other protective equipment when working with patients, cleaning surfaces, cleaning all of your bags, taking limited items into this home when you go into work with the patient. Making sure that again family members and and people are following all the rules with social distancing and not having a lot of people in the house or visitors that the patient’s not going out and exposing or getting exposed. Just a lot more education and a lot more precautions and instruction on precautions to try to keep everybody safe.

JS: I remember you telling me the other day about a story that you almost might have had to be quarantined coming home from work early. Can you elaborate on that a little bit?

KS: We had a particular patient that had a lot of respiratory issues to begin with some bronchitis, pneumonia and things of that sort. had prior to my visit found out that the daughter had flown out of state and then also she had a sister visiting from New York, which was a highly concentrated area that was already having a ton of cases of the Coronavirus. That information was kind of disclosed while I was there with the visit. Myself already being immunocompromised, being diabetic and just knowing not wanting to put myself at risk. I chose to wear a face mask and gloves and things As it turned out, this patient later that day got sent to the hospital and for respiratory issues and having some other things that came up, and anybody that had come in contact with her, had to come home and be on quarantine. I fortunately only had to be home for that one day because once I had notified them that I had worn masking glove and my own kind of preparation. I was cleared from that. So even then the company was taking every precaution as soon as we got back that her test was negative than those other employees that had come in contact with her in the last two weeks were released and were able to go back to work.

JS: Thank you that is going to conclude our interview. Thanks again mom, Love you.