Over nineteen years at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals, Kelly Quinn, MSOT, OTR/L, CBIS, has worked with patients of all ages and diagnoses. From childhood to the working world, she takes pride in getting people back to whatever brings their life joy and meaning.
“I’m very passionate about occupational therapy and the things we can do for people and the way we can help people get back to the things they need and want to do,” Quinn said.
Quinn found her home at Madonna even before her college graduation.
“I did my level two clinical rotation as a student at Washington University in the Specialty Hospital years ago,” Quinn said. “I did three months there and then worked in Missouri in early intervention and came back and worked at Madonna for my first job here.”
Specializing in pediatrics, Quinn spent more than 15 years caring for Madonna’s youngest patients. When the pediatric program consolidated into one unit on the Omaha campus, she began to look for her next adventure. She found it through Madonna’s Work Re-Entry program.
“Work re-entry really focuses on helping people who have been injured or ill get back to the meaningful pieces that help us to be who we are, which includes what we do for a living,” Quinn said. “Virginia Schweitzer started the work re-entry program many, many years ago and deserves a ton of credit for starting this program. I saw that as an opportunity to step in and get back to some of the programmatic work I was doing in pediatrics and be able to contribute to the program world again. It’s a great fit for an OT. That return-to-work component is a big deal for a lot of folks who are recovering.”
Quinn says her favorite parts of her role as an occupational therapist are helping people achieve things they didn’t think they could do and staying in contact with former patients.
“It’s graduation season, so I’ve seen some of my former patients graduating this year,” Quinn said. “They’ve gotten married, they’ve had children. It’s just a wonderful thing to see progress, not only during their rehab time but also in their life roles beyond rehab. It’s very rewarding.”
For young people just starting their careers in therapy, her advice is to never stop learning and growing.
“You will meet families that will change your life,” Quinn said. “You will meet patients that really impact you as a person and make you better, make you stronger and keep you connected. Find a mentor, ask for help, and keep learning. Keep knowing that everything you do is meaningful, and that God gave you a gift to help people. Using that gift in the best way that you can is important.”