Please know the difference, or else you seem silly, not knowing why you are even applying for an OT school. This question also tests you how much you know about OT.
PT increases their patients’ mobility and movement potential, whereas the OT used goal-oriented treatment to increase their patients function and independence. For example, if a patient with a hip replacement comes to a rehabilitation center, the PT would increase the patient’s mobility by training t he patient to walk in both even and uneven floors and coaching the patient to climb up and down the stairs. On the other hand, the OT would teach the patient to do his ADLs, such as toileting, dressing, bathing, teeth-brushing and eating, even though the patien is weak from having the hip replacement and have hip precautions.
*If you want to sound extremely smart, you can also use
activity analyses to stand out.
Furthermore, OT and PT have very different perspectives on activity analyses.
Considering that PT focuses on the movement, the PT will look at the patient’s peripheral nervous system, the motor areas in the brain, muscles and bones.
The OT not only looks at these things, but the OT also looks at patient’s cognition, such as cognition and attention,
to see if the patient does have the mental ability to succeed in doing the activities they need.