If you’re a new graduate paediatric OT, you’re probably feeling Term 4 in your bones right now. Caseloads are full, families are tired, school reports and transition planning are looming, and the kids you see are running on fumes. So are you.
I’ve been an OT for a long time now, and I’ve watched a lot of new grads come through their first year and experienced OTs hit a wall again and again. Term 4 is the stretch that tests people. It’s also a big opportunity, because what you do in the next ten weeks shapes how you walk into the new year. So, here’s my advice for setting your self up for success.
Managing your burnout alongside your clients’ burnout
Burnout in paediatric OT is real, and it’s often quiet. You spend your days regulating other people (kids, parents, teachers), and there’s not much left for your own regulation.
A few things I’d encourage you to do:
- Notice the early signs. Dreading sessions you usually enjoy, feeling irritable with families, or dragging notes into your evenings are all early flags.
- Co-regulate without depleting yourself. You can’t pour from an empty cup, but you can build small resets between sessions: a proper drink of water, a walk to the car, five minutes with no screen.
- Adjust the goals, not just the pace. When a child is burnt out, it’s often clinically right to ease back on demands and focus on connection, regulation and what’s working. That’s good practice, and it gives you a breather too.
- Protect your admin time. Book it in as if it’s a client session. Notes and reports done in work hours are one of the best burnout buffers there is.
- Use your supervisor and peers. If you don’t have regular supervision or a peer to debrief with, find one. This matters more than almost anything else in your first years.
- Talk about the load. If your caseload feels unmanageable, raise it early rather than powering through.
If you’re struggling beyond ordinary tiredness, please speak with your GP or a mental health professional. I can’t stress this enough, looking after yourself is part of being a good clinician.
If you’re looking for burnout advice for your paediatric clients, I wrote a blog on that very topic not to long ago. It dives into how to monitor for therapy burnout (especially as it pops up later in the year) and how you can support families through this period. Read it here!
Use your remaining CPD hours wisely
By Term 4, most of us are looking at our CPD log and doing some quick maths. In Australia, OTs need to meet the Occupational Therapy Board of Australia’s CPD requirements each registration year (check the Board’s current requirements and your own renewal date so you know exactly where you stand).
Rather than cramming random webinars in at the last minute, use your remaining hours strategically:
- Look back at your year. Which cases stumped you? Which areas did you feel least confident in: feeding, toileting, sensory processing, handwriting?
- Pick learning that changes your practice. Five hours of learning you’ll actually apply beats twenty hours you forget.
- Choose quality over quantity. Look for CPD that’s evidence-informed, practical and made for paediatric OTs at your stage.
- Document as you go. Write a short reflection after each activity on what you learned and what you’ll change. That’s your evidence, and it’s also where the learning sticks.
Depending on how many hours you have left AND where you feel you may have some clinical gaps, we’ve got the course for you:
- Need a full refresher on paeds basics (and some big CPD hours)? Check out our Essentials Paediatric Course for 14 hours of paediatric OT learning with everything from sensory processing through to report writing.
- Need an hour crash-course to support your communication with parents and carers? Our Parent Coaching Masterclass is an our hour of power that dive deep into working with families on those tougher topics.
- Need support on emotional regulation? We’ve got you covered with our Ready to Regulate Masterclass, which is a tight 45 minutes that goes well beyond what your uni textbooks would’ve covered about emotional regulation, self-regulation and explaining these concepts to families.
Build your clinical toolkit with quick-reference resources
One thing I hear constantly from new grads is “I know the theory, but what do I actually do on Tuesday at 2pm with this family?”
That’s why we created the New PossibilOTs Foundations Series, downloadable clinical reference resources covering feeding, dressing, hygiene and toileting. Each one is built around a consistent framework so you can find what you need quickly:
- The four lenses that contribute to the concern you’re seeing
- Task breakdowns so you can analyse where a child is getting stuck
- Guidance on working with families
- Clinical reminders and scope notes, so you practise safely and confidently
The hygiene resource includes my START framework, a practical way to structure your thinking when a family walks in with a hygiene concern. If you have a toileting or feeding caseload building up heading into the new year, these are made for the moments when you need a clear starting point.
Get organised for the new year (before the rush)
The first weeks of Term 1 are always chaotic. If you set up a few things now, you’ll thank yourself later.
- Audit your caseload. Who is close to discharge? Who needs a re-evaluation? Who would benefit from a short block of intervention rather than open-ended therapy?
- Tidy your templates. Update your report templates, session plans, parent handouts and email scripts while things are quieter.
- Sort your resources. Clear out what you don’t use, and note what you wish you had. That list is your shopping list for next year.
- Plan your first month. Sketch out Term 1 goals, review dates and any CPD you want to schedule early.
- Revisit your professional goals. Where did you want to be by the end of your first year, and what would you like to be true by the end of your second?
Use the quieter holiday period for clinical improvement
The school holidays are the ideal time for the reflective work that never fits into a busy term. If your clinic has a slower patch, or you have some leave, treat it as protected thinking time.
Some ideas:
- Review a few de-identified cases and ask what went well, what you’d do differently and what evidence supports your approach.
- Pick one clinical area to go deeper on and read, watch or study it properly.
- Reflect on your feedback, from families, supervisors or colleagues, and turn it into one or two concrete goals.
And my most important piece of advice: rest.
Use the summer holidays to genuinely rest. Improvement doesn’t come from a clinician running on empty, and a proper break is part of your professional development.
You don’t have to figure it out alone
The first years of paediatric OT are steep. The best thing I can tell you is that you’re not meant to work it all out on your own. That’s why New PossibilOTs exists: to give new grads clear, practical, supportive resources, and a community that gets it.
Whether you’re looking for CPD that fits your stage, quick clinical references or a place to start building the confidence to say “I’ve got this,” we’d love to support you.
