Deciding to embark on a career in Occupational Therapy in the U.S. is making a decision to be employed in a growth industry that bears both intrinsic and reasonably extrinsic rewards. If you thrive in a role where you derive gratification from helping others function to the best of their ability, despite their potential or actual health limitations; then a career as Occupational Therapist or an Occupational Therapist Assistant may well be your profession of choice. As an Occupational Therapist (OT) or an Occupational Therapist Assistant (OTA), you will work within a multidisciplinary team to provide preventative or rehabilitative health care for clients in relation to their workplace and general daily activities. The OT specifically, creates a treatment plan that responds to the impact an occupation or activity may have or has had on a client’s health, or similarly, the impact a health limitation or impairment has on the client performing a work related or otherwise activity. The strategies designed and implemented by the OT and OTA collaboratively, prevent injury and/or help the client recover or maintain optimum health, and therefore independence in his or her daily life. Such plans may include developing a scaffolded exercise regime, facilitating or teaching the treatment plan to the client, devising strategies for coping with or compensating for physical, developmental, emotional or mental limitations, monitoring and recording amelioration or deterioration of the client’s condition, and simply assisting the client with daily activities. You will deal with a range of health challenges and impairments that vary in degree from severe to mild. Your place of work will most likely be in a health-care facility such as hospital or nursing home but may also include assisting the client in a more independent environment such as a at school, home, or a community center.
In developing the treatment plan, the OT is called upon to engage his or her imaginative qualities and technical and technological skill. Apart from possessing insight and empathy as to a client’s daily challenges, the Occupational Therapist will often need to design or adapt equipment and environment specific to the client’s needs, and teach the client how to function with the apparatus or alteration. The OTA has the hands-on responsibility of helping clients execute the activities as devised and specified by the OT, and assisting the OT with treatment materials and equipment preparation, and clerical tasks. To sit the Occupational Therapist Registered OTR® examination and be employed as an Occupational Therapist, you must possess at least an entry-level master’s degree obtained at an institution accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE). Your undergraduate degree will most likely have been a major that refers the human condition such as psychology, biology, anthropology, or liberal arts. Many institutions provide for a proportion of the program to be completed online or on a part-time basis, but all programs require completion of full-time 24-week supervised fieldwork experience component. A doctoral degree will require further fieldwork and more in-depth study. Although possession of a doctoral degree does not guarantee higher remuneration, the higher degree of expertise may grant specific employment opportunities not open to master’s degree holders. For a list of ACOTE accredited occupational therapist master’s-level schools and programs, please visit: http://www.aota.org/Students/Schools/EntryLevelOT/38119.aspx and likewise, visit: http://www.aota.org/Students/Schools/EntryLevelOT/Doctoral.aspx for doctoral-level programs.
To be eligible to sit the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) Certification Examination for Occupational Therapy Assistants, you must be at least an associate’s degree graduate of an institution accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE). As with OT educational requirements, occupational therapy assistant schools provide for a proportion of the program to be completed online or on a part-time basis such as in a weekend educational program. The OTA will also complete a supervised fieldwork experience component, which is 16 weeks full-time in duration, but may be completed on a part-time basis. For a list of ACOTE accredited occupational therapist assistant schools and programs, please visit: http://www.aota.org/Students/Schools/EntryLevelOT/38117.aspx
Licensure and certification requirements vary from state to state, but as a general rule CPR certification, and background and medical checks are a prerequisite for the field experience component of training. Owing to an increase in demand for occupational therapy services on account of an aging population, expanding school-age population, and increase in people living with debilitating illness or limited function, remuneration and employment prospects for both Occupational Therapists and Occupational Therapy Assistants are positive. The national inter-quartile range of OT wages as of May 2008 ranges from $55,090 to $81,290, and for an OTA it is between $48,730 and $58,810. It is worth noting that due to the overhead expenses of operating occupational therapy programs, opportunity for Occupational Therapy Assistant employment may be slightly better than for Occupational Therapists.
Wow, that’s a mouthful..