What Is It Like to Be an Occupational Therapist Assistant

Summary: OT is a good career because information technology offers a flexible schedule, comfortable bacon and the ability to choose where you work. While it's true y'all may have to deal with setbacks and manage tough situations, you'll likewise go to help people and make a difference. If you lot're looking for a rewarding job in healthcare, condign an occupational therapy assistant is a nifty career option.

Occupational therapy is a expert career choice for anyone who wants to get into the healthcare field and work directly with patients to brand their lives easier. A unique healthcare career that empowers you to change lives and make meaningful connections, working equally an occupational therapy assistant (OTA) will allow y'all to improve patients' overall quality of life.

OTAs become to know their patients closely, sometimes even working in their homes, and treat them on an private basis according to what is about important to them.

If you're looking for a career in the wellness field that is generally depression stress, can offer high job satisfaction and is fulfilling, and so a career as an occupational therapy banana might be right for you.

To assist y'all decide if OT is the right career path for you, we'll first explore all the reasons why OT is a good career and and then explicate the personality types best suited for working in OT. Nosotros'll then go into the various aspects of the profession and why St. Catherine Academy's Online Occupational Therapy Banana program is a great option to assist you enter this rewarding field.

five Reasons OT is a Expert Career

First things first: Why is OT such a good career? OTA is consistently listed as one of the best healthcare jobs, and for a good reason. Generally speaking, at that place is a high growth, depression stress and a great work-life balance in the field. U.Due south. News and World Report establish that a career as an OTA has above boilerplate upwardly mobility, such as more opportunities for advancements and salary increases.

ane. OTs Tin can Choose Their Work Setting

OTs can work in various settings: pediatric outpatient clinics, skilled nursing facilities, hospitals, adult outpatient clinics, school systems or rehab facilities, to name a few. Y'all have the ability as an occupational therapist to completely change your career at the drop of a chapeau by changing settings.

The multifariousness doesn't stop there. OTAs tin can do their jobs from myriad other settings, including:

• Homes
• Therapists' offices
• Workplaces

2. OTs Savour a Comfy Salary

OT is besides a career with a steady paycheck where y'all can live comfortably. Occupational Therapy Administration made a median salary of $60,220 in 2018. The best-paid 25 pct made $71,820 that year, while the lowest-paid 25 percent made $fifty,510. Your salary may vary depending on what land you work in, but all in all, a career every bit an OTA offers financial stability.

3. You Won't Get Bored as an OT

A career every bit an OTA ways you get to choose which practise area is the best fit for y'all, and you tin always switch it upwardly, too!

Certified occupational therapy administration can work within these occupational therapy practice areas:

• Children and Youth. OTAs work with children at risk for developing disabilities, improving their motor skills, cerebral skills and sensory processing to minimize the potential of developmental delays.
• Productive Aging. OTAs assist dementia patients through behavioral interventions (aka handling plans), addressing personality changes that are concerning their families and caregivers.
• Health and Health. OTAs help people with arthritis, teaching them how to manage inflammation or identifying orthotic devices that assist them command pain, which improves their self-esteem.
• Mental Wellness. OTAs teach individuals with Down syndrome how to gain their independence through self-care activities such as eating, dressing, and playing.
• Rehabilitation and Disability. OTAs assist people overcome physical challenges, recommending mobility changes to everyday equipment such as adding foot straps to bicycle pedals.
• Piece of work and Industry. OTAs help employees with piece of work-related lower back injuries through supervised therapeutic exercises, work reconditioning and on-site interventions.

4. OTs Have the Ability to Get Creative

As an OTA, you'll be continuously challenged to tailor treatments to your patients. This means thinking out of the box and getting creative with readily available materials. Sometimes this means repurposing household items or using everyday objects as tools.

In this video, you tin can run into how a typical OTA telehealth video session might run and how one OTA used paper to fill her patient's need in a fun way.

Some other OTA took inventiveness to the next level with this uncomplicated strategy she created and often uses with children with difficulty writing numbers.

If you're a creative thinker who loves problem-solving, so a career as an OTA is for you lot.

five. OT Has a Positive Job Outlook

Occupational therapy is one of the summit healthcare fields in the United states of america today, and the OTA profession is in loftier need.

This trend doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon, either. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) anticipates that employment for the profession will grow by 32% betwixt 2019 and 2029.

With so many different practise areas and occupational therapy settings, the need for well-rounded OTAs volition continue to grow.

Current U.S. trends reflect that issues that require occupational therapy as handling continue to climb. Considering of the following Centers for Illness Control and Prevention statistics, the demand for OTAs keeps getting college with the following groups of people:

• The number of children diagnosed with developmental disabilities is increasing: From 2009 to 2011, xvi.ii% of children were diagnosed with a developmental disability (including viii.5% with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and 1.ane% with autism spectrum disorder). From 2015 to 2017, 17.8% of children were diagnosed with a developmental disability (9.5% with ADHD and two.5% with autism).
• The percentage of people with diabetes is alarming to say the least. Well-nigh 10% of Americans have diabetes, and around a third of adults are considered pre-diabetic. Not only that, the number of immature Americans diagnosed with diabetes is on the rise.
• In the United States, someone has a stroke every twoscore seconds. That's 795,000 people a year who will endure a stroke, of which about 25% will endure some other.
• The number of Americans 65 and older is expected to grow through 2060. Additionally, the boilerplate life expectancy is expected to increase from 79.ane in 2017 to 85.6 in 2060, when it'south anticipated there will be effectually 95 1000000 Americans older than 65 (compared to less than 50 million in 2016).
• America is facing a growing obesity epidemic. As of 2018, 42.4% of adults and 18.5% of children in the U.South. were considered obese, and the numbers aren't getting any ameliorate. In fact, the prevalence of obesity is increasing. This presents considerable challenges for public health, such as increased disease risk.

Who Do Occupational Therapists Work With?

All of the to a higher place issues cistron into what an OTA can help with. An OTA could be instrumental in helping a child on the autism spectrum deal with the stress caused by social situations, like going to school. In diabetes and obesity cases, occupational therapy can help identify habits that could be modified for a healthier lifestyle.

Stroke survivors often endure the loss of skills or coordination, and occupational therapy can assist survivors regain abilities and even minimize the gamble of some other stroke.

And for the growing number of senior citizens, occupational therapy can assistance them maintain independence and live happily at home longer.

Personality Traits Suited to Becoming an OTA

Becoming an OTA can have a ton of amazing benefits, just it's important to actually understand the field and make sure it'southward the right fit for you.

If yous have the following personality traits, a career equally an OTA could be perfect for you!

To farther understand what being an OTA entails, consider the following points on the good, the bad and the ugly of working in occupational therapy.

While condign an OTA can offer a versatile, flexible, and engaging environs where yous can brand a difference in people's lives, it can besides have challenging moments.

The Good: Occupational Therapy Assistants Experience Task Satisfaction

If helping people is your passion, OT is the right career path for yous.

Most occupational therapists have an immense amount of job satisfaction about every day– almost every twenty-four hour period considering you will have the occasional bad or overwhelming day. In full general, yous can expect to leave work knowing you accept made a meaning difference in someone'south life because ofttimes clients are emotional about their progress. Every bit an occupational therapist, you lot have the opportunity to help people go their lives back when they cannot do it on their ain.

The Bad: Working with People Can Be Hard as an OTA

Occupational therapists piece of work with people of all ages and with a variety of impairments. Even though a career as an OTA can be very rewarding, the fact is that you're human and your patients are human being and that means sometimes things don't become perfectly. Here is how 1 OTA explains information technology:

"Sometimes you'll be unable to assist people, no matter how successful their surgery was, no thing how diligent the patient is with their exercises, no matter how frequently you see the patient each week. It is heartbreaking when you, your patient or the patient's family put in so much attempt into therapy and you reach an obstacle y'all can't overcome.

This could exist irreparable nerve impairment, excess scar tissue formation, lack of bone healing or a pre-existing cardiac status making them a poor surgical candidate. People will ofttimes feel sorry, confused or discouraged."

Existence an OTA means existence able to accept these kinds of situations and be as positive as y'all tin can to help despite these setbacks. The way you handle these hard days could change someone'due south life or inspire them to find the will to keep going.

The Ugly: What Occupational Therapists Do in Tough Situations

No task is just butterflies and rainbows, and OTAs are no exception to that. Any task in the medical field is likely to have some non-so-exciting aspects to it, so it's important to be prepared and sympathise how these less pleasant tasks factor into the bigger picture in OT. Every bit one OTA puts it:

"There are some ugly and messy parts of occupational therapy. Nosotros ofttimes have to deal with bodily fluids and functions. Every bit OTs working in inpatient settings, we often teach people how to perform toileting once again. This is not very glamorous at times. People often have trouble with wiping themselves and you will demand to assist them. It can exist a muddied chore.

After surgery, people are oftentimes nauseous. I've had to hold buckets or trash cans for patients to vomit in. When patients don't experience well, they can be grumpy or in bad moods. You absolutely shouldn't take it personally. Put yourself in their shoes and take their comments or denial to participate in therapy with a grain of salt fully.

In my current job as an outpatient therapist, I deal with a lot of wound care. This includes wound packing, cleaning discharge from infected wounds, removing dying tissue (that sometimes doesn't smell the best) and dealing with blood. I find wound care interesting and a welcomed claiming, simply this is in an 'ugly' aspect of OT for many.

If you're looking to become an occupational therapist or an occupational therapy assistant, it'southward important to know and anticipate these 'ugly' types of situations, as y'all'll go out at the finish of the 24-hour interval knowing you've made a difference."

At present that y'all understand the different aspects of OT and what can make it challenging, the silver lining is that it is oft a rewarding and fulfilling career with major benefits. Read on for more reasons why OT is a practiced career and what a career in OT entails.

What A Career as an OTA Looks Similar

While the OT evaluates and develops treatment plans for clients and patients, the OTA puts those plans into activity, pedagogy patients how to overcome the challenges of performing daily activities considering of an injury, illness or disability.

As the name implies, occupational therapists are ultimately responsible for the care clients receive. They conduct the initial client meeting to decide his or her needs and goals, and then develop a treatment program. For this reason, OTs must hold a bachelor's and main's degree, though it'southward likely the role will eventually crave a doctorate degree.

Depending on the size of the practice, the OT may work with the client directly to implement the treatment plan, or he or she may mitt the treatment plan off to an OTA to carry out.

The OTA is usually responsible for taking notes on the client's progress, any challenges faced and reporting those to the OT.

Considering OTAs don't operate with the aforementioned autonomy level as OTs, it's possible to become an occupational therapy assistant with an acquaintance's degree.

Still, this shouldn't be interpreted to mean that OTAs are simply order-takers. In many cases, OTAs must rely on their knowledge of occupational therapy interventions, anatomy and body mechanics, psychology, and psychosocial approaches to care to change treatment plans as needed and provide the physical and emotional support needed to be successful. As a result, creativity is a must.

How to Become an OTA

While having higher feel is helpful, it's not required to be eligible for St. Kate'south xvi-calendar month Online OTA Program. We accept students of varying didactics levels, from high school graduates to master's degree holders. If you lot have the drive to help people and a creative mind, we want to talk to you!

Students interested in entering the St. Kate's OTA program typically come every bit Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) occupational therapy assistant students one or two semesters earlier get-go the OTA sequence of courses. LAS occupational therapy assistant students take prerequisite requirements and complete most of their liberal arts and science cadre requirements before get-go OTA program courses.

Access to St. Kate'south Online OTA Program

An admissions counselor will assist you lot develop an enrollment plan that works toward one of the 3 start dates offered and work with you to create an academic program.

The support from your admissions advisor doesn't end after you've enrolled. They'll be at that place every pace of the way. "The bookish support I received was pinnacle-notch. I had a handful of people I take built a rapport with that I could call any time I needed support." —Reina, Class of 2020.

While we offer an OTA program that starts in Jan, May and September, our university accepts and responds to applications on a rotating basis.

This means you become to enjoy the following benefits:

• A longer than usual awarding catamenia
• A quick acceptance decision
• Less competition if you apply early

Just call up, the longer you delay your application, the more hard it becomes to get into the plan for your preferred start date.

Admissions Requirements

While you don't demand higher experience to apply to the program, we practise have a few minimum requirements yous'll need to encounter for access. They include:

• A high school diploma or passing GED® exam score
• A minimum cumulative loftier school GPA of 2.v, or
• College credits with a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.five, if applicative

Occupational Therapy Assistant Prerequisite Courses

In add-on, we likewise require the successful completion of four prerequisite courses for admission into St. Kate'due south Online OTA programme.

You can take these prerequisite courses online through our university, which will come in handy later when you brainstorm to use the online platform in our program. The prerequisites will simultaneously assistance you familiarize yourself with our modules while preparing you for the program. You can complete the courses independently of or in conjunction with the OTA program's liberal arts and science courses.

Skills Lab Partner

Part of the plan will include skills labs where you'll get hands-on feel in a controlled environment. You'll complete your eight scheduled skills labs in an avant-garde rehabilitation setting that features all the standard tools of the OT trade.

Our skills labs take a student-to-instructor ratio of 12 to ane to ensure you lot receive personalized instruction and firsthand feedback in a close-knit clinical education setting.

Our program has a great payoff, just the curriculum can be rigorous. Some advice: "Exist very organized to go along up with assignments. Definitely look ahead and do some assignments early lab week, especially if y'all travel," Reina says.

Building off your skills lab experiences and fieldwork plays a critical function in your OTA education, helping you transition from student to practitioner.

During the program, you'll complete 720 hours of supervised fieldwork in diverse areas of occupational therapy. Divided into two levels, Fieldwork I and Fieldwork 2, the experiences give you direct access to clients of all ages and situations in real-globe rehabilitation settings.

You'll go through these major steps with a cohort of peers who share your passion and drive to help others. These will be people yous can count on for support and may plow into long-lasting connections, every bit Reina institute during her fourth dimension in the plan: "I accept met some of the best friends of my life within my cohort. Great people."

Ready to Explore Your Time to come in Occupational Therapy?

If changing lives is what you were called to practise, occupational therapy could be a good career path for you. Telephone call today, or fill out the form to have an admissions counselor contact you, to find out how you can earn your Associate of Applied science in OTA from St. Kate's in as few every bit 16 months.

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Source: https://otaonline.stkate.edu/blog/is-occupational-therapy-a-good-career/

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