Occupational Therapist in California Job Description

Nowadays, occupational therapist job openings are widely available in several medical and health care settings in California. Some of the common areas include hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and home health agencies, acute care institutions, nursing clinics and long-term facilities.

What is an occupational therapist?

An occupational therapist is a person who assists patients towards achieving self-reliance. As the term implies, the occupational therapist helps patients in order to regain and develop the activities of daily living and other skills that the patient does before or skills that the patient haven’t performed.

Duties of occupational therapist

• The occupational therapist job starts in charting a plan with patient’s rehabilitation according to their trauma suffered and disability. The improvement in doing various tasks is related to the patient’s daily living. After making a plan, the occupational therapist will then work on the plan so as to improve voluntary or motor functions as well as reasoning abilities.
• The process towards the improvement on the abilities of the patient holds several aspects and functions which generally depend upon the disabilities suffered. For instance, if the client is suffering from disabilities due to an accident, then the occupational therapist will find ways towards regaining the motor functions of the patient until they become normal or closer to the condition before the incident.
• If the patient has sustained a serious injury and is medically diagnosed with inability to bring back certain functions in the body, then the occupational therapist should chart out any program that may facilitate the patient’ transition to a whole new lifestyle. The therapist’s chart will usually consist of several instructions upon doing things in a new manner so as to compensate for patient’s new disability.

Conditions of work

Occupational therapists mostly work with different people of all backgrounds and ages and help them in improving their ability to perform activities of daily living as well as their working environments.

Educational Requirements

In order to become an occupational therapist, candidates are required to obtain an associate degree with any related courses and should be able to successfully pass a national certification examination provided by their state. After passing the exam, candidates will then hold a license issued by their state in order to practice as an occupational therapist.

Occupation and Progress

A career as an occupational therapist is extremely valuable with high compensation and remuneration benefits like completion bonuses, paid housing, travel expenses, insurance and health benefits, retirement savings plan, and many more. However, the salary range differs substantially upon the location of the facility, educational background, certification, specialization and work experience.

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