Career profile Occupational Therapy Aide

Table of Contents

• What does an Occupational Therapy Aide do?
• What is a typical salary for an Occupational Therapy Aide?
• What personality traits are common among Occupational Therapy Aides?
  • Career Interests
  • Values
  • Psychological Demands
• What education and training do Occupational Therapy Aides need?
  • Typical educational degrees
  • Required knowledge and expertise
  • Important abilities
  • Critical skills

What does an Occupational Therapy Aide do?

Occupational Therapy Aides under close supervision of an occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant, perform only delegated, selected, or routine tasks in specific situations.

In addition, Occupational Therapy Aides these duties include preparing patient and treatment room.

What kind of tasks does an Occupational Therapy Aide perform regularly?

Occupational Therapy Aides are often responsible for overseeing or executing some or all of the following tasks:

• Encourage patients and attend to their physical needs to facilitate the attainment of therapeutic goals.
• Report to supervisors or therapists, verbally or in writing, on patients' progress, attitudes, attendance, and accomplishments.
• Observe patients' attendance, progress, attitudes, and accomplishments and record and maintain information in client records.
• Prepare and maintain work area, materials, and equipment and maintain inventory of treatment and educational supplies.
• Transport patients to and from the occupational therapy work area.
• Instruct patients and families in work, social, and living skills, the care and use of adaptive equipment, and other skills to facilitate home and work adjustment to disability.
• Assist occupational therapists in planning, implementing, and administering therapy programs to restore, reinforce, and enhance performance, using selected activities and special equipment.
• Demonstrate therapy techniques, such as manual and creative arts and games.
• Manage intradepartmental infection control and equipment security.
• Perform clerical, administrative, and secretarial duties, such as answering phones, restocking and ordering supplies, filling out paperwork, and scheduling appointments.
• Supervise patients in choosing and completing work assignments or arts and crafts projects.
• Adjust and repair assistive devices and make adaptive changes to other equipment and to environments.

The above responsibilities are specific to Occupational Therapy Aides. More generally, Occupational Therapy Aides are involved in several broader types of activities:

What is an Occupational Therapy Aide salary?

What personality traits are common among Occupational Therapy Aides?

Interests

Career interests describe a person's preferences for different types of working environments and activities. When a person's interest match the demands of an occupation, people are usually more engaged and satisfied in that role.

Compared to most occupations, those who work as an Occupational Therapy Aide are usually higher in their Social and Realistic interests.

Occupational Therapy Aides typically have very strong Social interests. Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

Also, Occupational Therapy Aides typically have moderate Realistic interests. Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.

Values

People differ in their values, or what is most important to them for building job satisfaction and fulfillment.

Compared to most people, those working as an Occupational Therapy Aide tend to value Relationships, Support, and Achievement.

Most importantly, Occupational Therapy Aides strongly value Relationships. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and work with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment.

Second, Occupational Therapy Aides strongly value Support. Occupations that satisfy this work value offer supportive management that stands behind employees.

Lastly, Occupational Therapy Aides moderately value Achievement. Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment.

Psychological Demands

Each occupation brings its own set of psychological demands, which describe the characteristics necessary to perform the job well.

In order to perform their job successfully, people who work as Occupational Therapy Aides must consistently demonstrate qualities such as cooperation, concern for others, and dependability.

Below, you'll find a list of qualities typically required of Occupational Therapy Aides, ranked by importance:

What education and training do Occupational Therapy Aides need?

Occupational Therapy Aides often have training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Occupational Therapy Aides usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with this occupation.

Educational degrees among Occupational Therapy Aides

• 2.2% did not complete high school or secondary school
• 12.3% completed high school or secondary school
• 16.0% completed some college coursework
• 48.6% earned a Associate's degree
• 16.3% earned a Bachelor's degree
• 4.0% earned a Master's degree
• 0.5% earned a doctorate or professional degree

Knowledge and expertise required by Occupational Therapy Aides

Important Abilities needed by Occupational Therapy Aides

Occupational Therapy Aides must develop a particular set of abilities to perform their job well. Abilities are individual capacities that influence a person's information processing, sensory perception, motor coordination, and physical strength or endurance. Individuals may naturally have certain abilities without explicit training, but most abilities can be sharpened somewhat through practice.

For example, Occupational Therapy Aides need abilities such as oral comprehension, problem sensitivity, and oral expression in order to perform their job at a high level. The list below shows several important abilities for Occupational Therapy Aides, ranked by their relative importance.

Critical Skills needed by Occupational Therapy Aides

Skills are developed capacities that enable people to function effectively in real-world settings. Unlike abilities, skills are typically easier to build through practice and experience. Skills influence effectiveness in areas such as learning, working with others, design, troubleshooting, and more.

Occupational Therapy Aides frequently use skills like service orientation, speaking, and social perceptiveness to perform their job effectively. The list below shows several critical skills for Occupational Therapy Aides, ranked by their relative importance.

What is the source of this information?

The information provided on this page is adapted from data and descriptions published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration under the CC BY 4.0 license. TraitLab has modified some information for ease of use and reading, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment, and Training Administration has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

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