What an occupational therapist really does
You help people get back to the everyday things that matter to them, like dressing, cooking, working and living at home, after illness or injury.
FieldHealth
Preparation (O*NET Job Zone)Extensive preparation needed
What the work involves
What fills a typical week for occupational therapists, built from O*NET occupation data.
- Assess what a patient can and cannot do in daily life and set realistic goals with them
- Run therapy sessions built around real activities such as dressing, bathing, cooking and handwriting
- Pick and adjust activities so they are hard enough to build skill but not so hard the patient fails
- Recommend home changes and adaptive equipment such as grab bars, tub benches and reachers
- Train family members and caregivers to help safely
- Write evaluations, daily notes and progress reports
- Meet with the rehab team to plan discharge
What the days are like
What people in the job know
- Paperwork is nearly as important as therapy itself. Task rank 2, importance 93: complete and maintain required records; rank 6, importance 86: evaluate progress and write progress reports (O*NET Tasks)
- You are hands on and physically close to patients most of the day. Physical Proximity: 68% very close (near touching); Using Hands to Handle, Control, or Feel Objects: 41% continually (O*NET Work Context)
- You have a lot of say in how you plan your work. Determine Tasks, Priorities and Goals: 59% a lot of freedom (O*NET Work Context)
- Exposure to illness is a daily reality in clinical settings. Exposed to Disease or Infections: 59% every day (O*NET Work Context)
- Training families is a core part of the job, not an extra. Task rank 7, importance 86: train caregivers to meet patients' needs during and after therapy (O*NET Tasks)
How people get into it
Job Zone 5: extensive preparation. 86% of O*NET respondents say a master's degree is required. The usual path is a bachelor's degree, then an accredited master's or doctoral OT program with supervised fieldwork, the national NBCOT certification exam, and a state license.
The Firstday trial, easy to hard
Three simulated tasks with AI coworkers who message you, react to your work and coach with questions. Nobody scores you.
What the trial can't show: This trial cannot show the physical, hands on side of OT: guarding and assisting a patient during transfers and bathing, fabricating splints, handling therapy materials, or observing subtle movement and cognition in person. Patient performance is described in text. You act as an OT student on Level II fieldwork under a licensed supervising OT. It also cannot show settings beyond inpatient rehab, such as schools, mental health or outpatient hand therapy.
Reading about it is one thing.
Find out how the work feels to you before you spend on a degree, course or job change. Your first trial is free.
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Job details on this page are built from O*NET OnLine, 29-1122.00. This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.