{"id":551,"date":"2021-08-27T00:02:26","date_gmt":"2021-08-27T00:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/?p=551"},"modified":"2022-08-24T14:07:47","modified_gmt":"2022-08-24T14:07:47","slug":"looking-anew-at-labor-recruitment-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/2021\/08\/27\/looking-anew-at-labor-recruitment-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Healing Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

HEALING WORK<\/span><\/strong>
\nFrom early ambitions to be a doctor to now designing health care facilities, Matt Ottinger remains focused on \u2018care\u2019<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"healing-work-620\"<\/p>\n

By MELODY FINNEMORE<\/p>\n

During high school, Matt Ottinger planned to study pre-med and follow in his dad\u2019s footsteps as a doctor. For his first three years of college, he had his sights set on a biology degree. \u201cAs life happened, I found myself not wanting to be a doctor anymore,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Portland native grew up in a house that had been designed by an architect for his own residence. The architect left the elevations and other design documents in the basement, and Ottinger recalls poring over the drawings with rapt attention.<\/p>\n

\"Matt

Matt Ottinger spent time as a volunteer firefighter in Idaho before moving to Oregon. He now designs health care projects.<\/p><\/div>\n

He switched his major to architecture and participated in a program at the University of Idaho that allowed students to volunteer for Moscow, Idaho\u2019s all-volunteer fire department and live in the station house free of rent for their services. When he graduated, Ottinger continued to volunteer for the department, working as a firefighter and EMT, while working at an architecture firm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt really strong ties to the community and I didn\u2019t want to move to a bigger city like Boise, Portland or Seattle,\u201d he said, adding his wife and her family are from Idaho.<\/p>\n

When a recession eliminated his job in architecture, Ottinger worked with a residential contractor for three years building spec homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was an incredibly valuable experience for me, learning how things were put together and putting hammer to nail,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ottinger then went to work for another architecture firm.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing just one of a couple of firms in a rural area, you took every project that came through the door,\u201d he said, adding his portfolio ranged from a one-room schoolhouse to a museum, a library, churches and homes. \u201cI had to become pretty well versed.\u201d<\/p>\n

After returning to Portland in 2000 he joined Clark\/Kjos Architects, where he gained experience with health care projects. Now a project architect with JRJ Architects LLC, his health care portfolio includes research labs, medical office buildings, ambulatory surgery centers, outpatient centers, Level 1 hospitals and rural Critical Access facilities. He is active in numerous health care-related professional associations and is currently studying to achieve his Evidence-Based Design Accreditation.<\/p>\n

For Ottinger, whose mother, sister and wife are nurses and whose daughter is studying to become one, it seemed a natural progression from his plans of one day becoming a doctor like his father.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great fit. One thing I like about it is that you are working with a dedicated community of clients and you develop long-term relationships with them. That means a lot to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ottinger said his belief in evidence-based design, which centers around creating an environment that reduces patient stays and pain and provides a healthier workplace for practitioners, makes his work especially rewarding. \u201cMy work helps heal people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During high school, Matt Ottinger planned to study pre-med and follow in his dad\u2019s footsteps as a doctor. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18615],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}