Hello,
Regarding the BOC examination, I wouldn’t worry about it at all. I never
heard of ANYONE failing it, and as a matter of fact have known a number of
secretaries who have been able to pass it without every having seen a
patient. As long as you know that the leg bone is connected to the foot
bone, and that you use a hammer to pound a rivet and not a screwdriver you
should be ok. I would have to bet that the passage rate is up in the high
90% range. Not much harder than a drivers test. Sure, you can pass the
test, but are you ready to drive with the big boys yet?
Now the practical will be a different story LOL!!! ROTFL!! You may
actually have to know a little something. I heard of a case where someone
actually put a Jeweet Hyperextension orthosis on a patient UPSIDE DOWN and
still passed the exam-Go figure!
Do you want to be a fitter or an orthotist when you are done with your test?
If you want to be a fitter, then you are going down the right path. If
you want to be an orthotist, you may want to question your pathway very
carefully. For the sake of the patients that you treat, you may want to
actually undertake some formal learning to understand the basics. Orthotics
is about a lot more than just bending metal and molding plastic-technicians
can do that with little or no formal training and work circles around
someone with a PhD in orthotics. But you need to take into consideration the
knowledge of anatomy, physiology, pathology, pathomechanics, biomechanics,
psychology, etc that is necessary to successfully and appropriately treat
the people that need our help. Don’t fall for the words of some pied piper
teling you that you don’t need that stuff. Remember that even pharmacists
need to go to school and all most of them do is count pills and put labels
on bottles. That last statement parallels the absudity of thinking that all
an orthotist needs to do is know how to bend metal and take a cast. You can
learn a lot from working under someone, but you can’t learn the knowledge
that helped them make critical decisions unless you open up a few (lots of)
books and build a solid foundation. That is why someone invented school.
They actually have college level programs for orthotics and prosthetics!
Call 703-836-7114 and ask someone there to give you a list of schools that
teach orthotics and prosthetics. Unless you are just in it for a quick
buck, it is probably the most correct thing for you to do if you plan on
working on people.
Nuff said,
John CO
