Entrepreneurship

Through my Administration of Recreational Therapy course, I was introduced to the foundational concepts of management in regard to recreational therapy. The course modules included information on creating departmental budgets, marketing, staff development, clinical supervision and the key skills to successfully run a recreational therapy department. Through lecture, class discussion, coursework that directly aligned with the course modules I attest that this course equipped me with the skills and knowledge to confidently lead a recreational therapy department in the future.

 

I practiced many skills takings this course; how to create a line item a budget, market a program, create policies and procedures and so much more. The most important take away I have learned from this course is how to effectively be a leader. Being a leader is not defined by being given a title and sitting in an office, it's about influence. Being a leader means pouring into your staff and fostering a healthy meaningful work environment. As a leader, I believe that coaching, maintaining morale and being a good role model is essential in an RT department.  A leader is an efficient and organized planner who is on top of documentation, setting agency goals, and providing structure. These leadership qualities trickle down to the quality of care for our clients which is why I deem it so important. Well prepared staff and leaders lead to quality programs and overall outcomes. 

 

The main projects I completed during this course was an RT department plan, department budget, and a marketing plan. Through the RT department plan I learned how to develop an RT department from scratch. I was given a fictional department and designed goals, a mission statement, conceptualization, investigation and designed interventions for the facility. This assignment demonstrated the necessary things needed when creating a department and why. The assignment that followed was the RT budget. This assignment was through excel. I organized the operating budget, line items, operating expense and revenue to calculate the funds needed to create my fictional department. This assignment informed me on how to create a budget based on an agency's fiscal year for the best distribution of funds for equipment needed for a department to run. Last, I created a marketing plan for an adaptive yoga program. I identified the target external and internal market for my program. Additionally, I designed image and action goals for the program. Then, I developed the plan and implementation of the adaptive yoga program. This assignment taught me how to properly advertise a program and evaluate its results. 

 

This course has impacted me because it allowed me to view RT from a different perspective. Through my other coursework I was viewing RT through the eyes of a recreational therapist, not a recreational therapist manager. The career path of recreational therapy may not always be linear, opportunities are unlimited. With this, this course equipped me to be prepared for these possibilities. I know that if a management position were to present itself to me within my RT career that I would be confidently prepared due the expectations within this course. I would come equipped with the technical, clinical and communication skills needed to successfully run a department. 

 

An assignment I am most proud of from this course is my Recreational Therapy Department Plan. Through this assignment I designed a department plan for a fictional dementia care unit which I model after the leisure ability model. My mission statement included that the creation of this department was to provide “a holistic approach that surrounds creative, immersive and interactive therapy techniques to achieve client goals and objectives” (Alston, 2025). This assignment helped me demonstrate my leadership skills I have learned through this course. I created a detailed analysis based on the clients I would serve and fostered an agency appropriate intervention to be included. All the resources and facilities needed within this department were then broken down to be included within the RT budget next. I have attached a sample of this assignment below.