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Acute Care Occupational Therapist
Patients arrive in crisis and leave only if someone helps them move, think, and live safely again. As an Acute Care Occupational Therapist, you turn that window into a plan: restore function, protect dignity, and get people home or to the next right level of care. In a community-owned, not-for-profit hospital serving a wide rural region, your work is how the mission shows up at the bedside.
Performance Objectives
- Complete timely occupational therapy evaluations and set measurable functional goals within hospital standards so care starts without delay.
- Deliver skilled treatment that improves self-care, mobility, cognition, and safety enough for a clear discharge recommendation.
- Partner daily with nursing, physicians, and therapy colleagues to shorten avoidable length of stay and reduce preventable readmissions.
- Teach patients and families practical strategies and equipment use they can carry out after they leave.
- Document evaluations, progress, and discharge plans in the electronic record accurately and on time to support care, coding, and compliance.
- Contribute to unit quality work—early mobility, fall reduction, and evidence-based practice—so variation in care declines.
Environment & Resources
You will practice on an acute-care campus that includes trauma, medical, surgical, and rehabilitation services, with air transport for patients who travel long distances. You will work within an interdisciplinary rehabilitation team, use standard therapy equipment and the hospital electronic record, and report to rehabilitation leadership. Caseloads, coverage, and priorities are managed with the team so high-acuity needs are met without working in isolation.
Essential Qualifications
- Master’s or doctoral degree in occupational therapy from an accredited program and NBCOT certification.
- Current New Mexico occupational therapy license, or eligibility to obtain one before start.
- Acute-care experience evaluating and treating medically complex adults, including safe early mobilization.
- Current BLS and the judgment to practice safely in a fast-changing hospital environment.
- Clear communication with patients, families, and the care team, including timely, accurate documentation.
Role Selling Points
- Independent, not-for-profit care rooted in trust, personal respect, anticipation of need, team accountability, and creative problem-solving.
- Real scope: trauma through discharge planning, not a narrow task list.
- A four-season community near mountains, rivers, and open country, with room for a life outside the hospital.
- Care for a diverse regional population, including patients who travel far and those who need financial assistance.
Call to Action
If you want your clinical skill to change how people leave the hospital, apply. Bring your license path, acute-care results, and a commitment to care that treats every patient as a sacred trust.