AOTA member spotlight: Mike Jankowski, MS, OTR/L

Michael Jankowski, MS, OTR/L, is the Occupational Therapy Clinical Specialist at SimplePractice. He met with AOTA Director of Quality, Julie Malloy, MOT, OTR/L, PMP, CPHQ, to discuss his career path.

Julie: Why did you decide to change your career path from pediatrics?

Michael: I’ll be honest, I was starting to feel some burnout in my past position. I think it’s important to talk about that, as it’s a common experience. I needed a change of pace, and I was looking to try something new. I’ve been very fortunate to work in several positions with some wonderful patients and families. As I’ve grown in my career, I’ve set my sights on how I would be able to make even more of an impact. I really wanted to be able to reach a wider audience of occupational therapy practitioners in my next position.

Julie: How did you decide what you wanted to do next?

Michael: I went to CommunOT, the AOTA online community, and saw people having dialogs about this topic. That got me thinking and I started reaching out to other people. I had been a part of several teams at different therapy clinics in the past that had selected Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), so it was an interest of mine. I had talked to someone at a technology start-up in the past as well, and that planted a seed that I was able to follow after my conversations on CommunOT.

Julie: What is your current role?

Michael: Now I am an Occupational Therapy Clinical Specialist at SimplePractice. SimplePractice is a cloud-based Electronic Medical Record that provides integrated scheduling, billing, documentation, and telehealth. My role is to work with the product and marketing teams and look at how we can continue to optimize SimplePractice for occupational therapy practitioners. When I first talked with SimplePractice, I found that my values were closely aligned with theirs. They work on providing therapists support and tools to be successful clinicians and business owners. I love that I get to work as part of an interdisciplinary team, but we are all working toward the same goal of helping our clients so they can help others in their communities.

Julie: How do you use your OT skills in your new role?

Michael: I am the in-house resident occupational therapy expert. I answer questions from customers and different teams within SimplePractice about how to utilize SimplePractice in occupational therapy practice. I utilize activity analysis to break down problems and figure out new solutions. I’ve also found that my experience working in multiple start-up pediatric occupational therapy clinics has been very helpful. But one of my favorite parts of the job is being an advocate for occupational therapy. I get to explain what occupational therapy is to people, how we can help others engage in meaningful and fulfilling lives, and how this can be supported with our products.

Julie: What advice do you have for others looking for new roles in occupational therapy?

Michael: Be willing to take a risk and put yourself out there. I had to work at this myself. You may not see the position you want advertised as an occupational therapy position. You need to familiarize yourself with the field you’re interested in by talking to people and learning more. You also need to build relationships. Not all of your conversations will lead to a job, but they will help you learn and may help you think of new directions to follow.

For any comments or questions, or to share more occupational therapy success stories, please contact quality@aota.org.

Posted: July 29, 2020