Occupational Therapist

Assess, plan, and organize rehabilitative programs that help build or restore vocational, homemaking, and daily living skills, as well as general independence, to persons with disabilities or developmental delays. Use therapeutic techniques, adapt the individual's environment, teach skills, and modify specific tasks that present barriers to the individual.

O*NET reports this occupation under titles such as: Assistive Technology Trainer; Certified Hand Therapist (CHT); Early Intervention Occupational Therapist; Home Health Occupational Therapist; Industrial Rehabilitation Consultant; Occupational Therapist (OT); Pediatric Occupational Therapist (Pediatric OT); Pediatrics and Acute Care Occupational Therapist; Registered Occupational Therapist (OTR)

Tasks

• Test and evaluate patients' physical and mental abilities and analyze medical data to determine realistic rehabilitation goals for patients.
• Complete and maintain necessary records.
• Plan, organize, and conduct occupational therapy programs in hospital, institutional, or community settings to help rehabilitate persons with disabilities because of illness, injury or psychological or developmental problems.
• Plan and implement programs and social activities to help patients learn work or school skills and adjust to handicaps.
• Select activities that will help individuals learn work and life-management skills within limits of their mental or physical capabilities.
• Evaluate patients' progress and prepare reports that detail progress.
• Train caregivers in providing for the needs of a patient during and after therapy.
• Lay out materials such as puzzles, scissors and eating utensils for use in therapy, and clean and repair these tools after therapy sessions.
• Consult with rehabilitation team to select activity programs or coordinate occupational therapy with other therapeutic activities.
• Design and create, or requisition, special supplies and equipment, such as splints, braces, and computer-aided adaptive equipment.
• Recommend changes in patients' work or living environments, consistent with their needs and capabilities.
• Develop and participate in health promotion programs, group activities, or discussions to promote client health, facilitate social adjustment, alleviate stress, and prevent physical or mental disability.
• Provide training and supervision in therapy techniques and objectives for students or nurses and other medical staff.
• Help clients improve decision making, abstract reasoning, memory, sequencing, coordination, and perceptual skills, using computer programs.
• Conduct research in occupational therapy.

Knowledge

• Therapy and Counseling
• Psychology
• Customer and Personal Service
• Medicine and Dentistry
• English Language
• Education and Training
• Biology
• Sociology and Anthropology

Skills

• Active Listening
• Monitoring
• Reading Comprehension
• Writing
• Speaking
• Critical Thinking
• Active Learning
• Learning Strategies

Abilities

• Oral Expression
• Written Expression
• Problem Sensitivity
• Deductive Reasoning
• Inductive Reasoning
• Oral Comprehension
• Written Comprehension
• Information Ordering
• Speech Recognition
• Speech Clarity
• Fluency of Ideas
• Originality
• Near Vision
• Category Flexibility
• Selective Attention
• Finger Dexterity
• Far Vision