Occupational Therapists
Certified Hand Therapist (CHT),
Occupational Therapist (OT),
Pediatric Occupational Therapist (Pediatric OT),
Registered Occupational Therapist (OTR)
What they do: 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.
- DemandHigh
- state Avg. Salary $$$$$$89,550Download Career Flyer
What do they typically do on the job?
- 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.
Personality
Interests
Career interests describe the perspectives and interests of people who enjoy the type of work involved in this career.
Discover what your interests are by taking the Interest Profiler Quiz
Knowledge
People who want to pursue this career have knowledge in these areas.
Health
Therapy and counseling
Medicine and dentistry
Math and Science
Psychology
Biology
Business
Customer service
Arts and Humanities
English language
Abilities
Whether you have received formal training or not, these types of abilities are helpful in this career.
Verbal
Communicate by speaking
Communicate by writing
Ideas and Logic
Make general rules or come up with answers from lots of detailed information
Notice when problems happen
Attention
Pay attention to something without being distracted
Skills
People who want to pursue this career have skills in these areas.
Basic Skills
Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements
Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions
Social
Looking for ways to help people
Teaching people how to do something
People and Technology Systems
Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one
Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it
Work Values
Work values describe how your core beliefs align with those commonly needed for this career.
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. Corresponding needs are Co-workers, Moral Values and Social Service.
Achievement
Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment. Corresponding needs are Ability Utilization and Achievement.
Working Conditions
Occupations that satisfy this work value offer job security and good working conditions. Corresponding needs are Activity, Compensation, Independence, Security, Variety and Working Conditions.
Does this sound like something you'd like to do?
1. Do some research
- Identify how your interests, values, and strengths match this occupation
- Talk to someone who works in this field or spend a day job shadowing
- Use the colleges and training directory to explore programs related to this career
2. Plan your next move
- Talk to your college and career counselor or school admissions staff
- Visit Idaho Launch
- Search for available Occupational Therapists jobs on Idaho Works
Data for NSI career cards comes from the following: Idaho Department of Labor, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, O*NET, MyNextMove, and Career OneStop