The Occupational Therapy Program is part of the College of Allied Health Sciences at East Carolina University. The East Carolina University College of Allied Health Sciences was established in 1968 and now offers Bachelor's degrees in Clinical Laboratory Science, Health Information Management, Health Services Management, Rehabilitation Services, and Speech and Hearing Sciences. Graduate programs are offered in Occupational Therapy, Rehabilitation Counseling, Vocational Evaluation, Substance Abuse and Clinical Counseling, Speech-Language Pathology, Physical Therapy, and Physician Assistant Studies.

The Department of Occupational Therapy graduated its first class in 1974. The Department's educational curriculum follows guidelines established by the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) and has been designed around the belief that professional level coursework must be based on a solid liberal arts general college background. The curriculum is also designed to provide students with the opportunity to integrate classroom learning with clinical experience and therefore includes several supervised, practice-oriented, fieldwork courses.

What is Occupational Therapy?
Occupational therapy is the therapeutic use of work, self care, and leisure/play activities to increase independent function, enhance development, and prevent disability. It may include adaptation of tasks or the environment to achieve maximum independence and enhance the quality of life.

Occupational therapy is based on the belief that occupation (participation in work, self-care, and play/leisure) is essential to health and well being, and that occupation can be used to enhance development and function as well as prevent disorder and disability. Occupational therapists work with individuals of any age who are affected by developmental problems, psychosocial issues, physical problems, the aging process, poverty or cultural differences.

Professional occupational therapists perform evaluations, plan interventions strategies, implement the intervention strategies using occupation, and evaluate the outcomes. Work settings include hospitals, rehabilitation centers, home health, schools systems, long term nursing facilities, industries, private practice, prisons, mental health and community centers.

What does an Occupational Therapist do?
The certified occupational therapist (OTR) evaluates individuals and develop programs that include the provision of direct services, consultation with programs or agencies, and education. The OTR supervises technical personnel such as the occupational therapy assistant (OTA) who may assist in evaluation, program development and implementation of services.

What degree should I hold?
Educational Preparation Needed: Entry level professional level education (to become an OTR) is presently at either the baccalaureate or masters level. All programs will be moving to the masters level by the year 2007. The education for the assistant occupational therapist is at the associate degree level. Clinical fieldwork is completed at the end of the coursework and the professional level (OTR) requires 24 weeks of full time work while the assistant level requires twelve weeks full time.

Where does an OTR work?
Occupational therapists may work in hospitals, rehabilitation or mental health programs, schools, nursing care facilities, community settings, private clinics, and physicians offices, or even in industry preventing work related dysfunctions.

What personal skills will be necessary?
Personal Skills necessary for success as an occupational therapist include:
-a strong commitment to serve people,
-interest and understanding of the social and biological sciences, and
-skill in sensitive and effective communication.

What is the salary of an Occupational Therapist?
Salaries for entry level occupational therapists in North Carolina may range from $21,000 to $25,000 for the OTA and from $34,000 to $45,000 for the OTR depending on location and responsibilities.

Who should study OT?
If you enjoy meeting challenges and solving problems, as well as being creative, you'll find outstanding career opportunities in the growing field of occupational therapy. Occupational therapy is a health care profession based on the belief that occupation through work, leisure, and self care activities can be used to prevent both physical and psychosocial dysfunction and to enhance function and health.

For more information, see the American Occupational Therapy Association's web page.

Occupational therapy is a profession of many dimensions. The faculty of this Program believe there is a unifying paradigm that ties the wide diversity of occupational therapy practice together. This unifying paradigm consists of three basic themes; 1) the use of occupation as a unique health giving tool, 2) the interactive view of man and his environment, and 3) the importance of common values in the profession. Furthermore, the faculty strongly believe that research and service are essential to support the viability of these values within the profession.

Occupations are meaningful person-centered activities. Often viewed as work, leisure/play, and/or daily living tasks, occupation is the dominant activity of human beings. These areas of occupation influence the biological, psychological, cognitive and social nature of each individual during the process of normal human development not only creating unique individuals, but influencing human cultural evolution as well. Basic to this concept of occupation are certain assumptions. First, is the assumption that human beings have an occupational nature. That is, occupation is essential to the human species and the need to engage in purposeful occupation is innate and related to health and survival (Wilcox, 1993). Being part of the human condition, this occupational nature consists of underlying performance components and therefore is a determinant and a product of development. A disruption of performance components may affect the individual's interaction with his/her environment and thus results in lost potential, stress to the individual, and decreased quality of life. Further, because impairment or disability may disrupt the occupational nature of man, this magnifies the condition of the impairment or disability and further disruption evolves.

Another assumption is that occupation, used as a therapeutic tool, may promote health or well being. This is the basic dynamic of occupational therapy. Professional guidance by an occupational therapist toward participation in purposeful and meaningful occupation is restorative and can prevent or stop the loss of ability and facilitate the performance of occupational roles. The therapeutic element becomes the interaction of the individual's performance component (the underlying capabilities of engaging in occupation) and the form of the occupation. It is essential in the therapeutic use of occupation that the process be relevant to the uniqueness of the individual and his/her cultural heritage. Moveover, it requires the individual's personal experience of meaningfulness.

The second theme of the Program's philosophy is the idea that the individual functions within a context and is seen as both a product and producer of his environment. People are believed to have motivation to engage in occupation and strive toward competence. Concurrently, the social, physical, and cultural environment "press" the individual to engage in occupation. This perspective attempts to focus on the interdependent aspects of the person and the environment, realizing that both have adaptive capabilities and limitations. Further, rather than focusing on the end products of these interactions, the focus is on enabling the individual to experience competence within his or her environment.

The third theme of the Program's paradigm is the existence of common values shared by the faculty. Values are believed to influence practice and clinical reasoning of occupational therapists and therefore need to be explicit and emphasized throughout the program of study. If individuals are viewed with dignity, respect, and seen as unique sociocultural human beings, we believe that occupational therapy should: 1) be person-centered, 2) consist of meaningful occupations, 3) maximize function with individualized intervention, 4) prevent impairment and enhance wellness, 5) consider the whole person within his/her environment, and 6) help a person gain a sense of self, self worth, and/or life satisfaction.

The faculty believe that an effective curriculum must achieve a balance between technical skills, theoretically based knowledge, service learning, and scientific inquiry. For example, students must be able to understand theoretically how to use occupation as a health giving tool to enhance quality of life. They also need to learn the underlying performance components and how to perform and teach the occupational activities such as dressing, communication, or leisure skills, and investigate the outcomes of occupational therapy intervention. Additionally, the faculty are committed to developing professionals who are life long learners and able to implement independent inquiry. Thus, because of the holistic nature of the profession and the Program's philosophical view, the Program constantly strives to achieve a balance between technical skill acquisition necessary for satisfactory performance on the job, theoretically based knowledge which will result in the student's ability to solve clinical problems in an adaptive and flexible way, a sense of commitment to the community, and the utilization of research skills and knowledge.

Finally, the faculty believe that along with the technical, investigative, and theoretical knowledge, students must learn to be competent in the art of using caring relationships in a helping and ethical manner. We believe that students benefit from significant role taking experiences. Therefore, service to the communities is seen as essential to the student's learning. There is an expectation that students will participate in variety of roles that serve the community, as role modeled by faculty performing service in a diversity of settings.

Competence in the art of use caring relationships and occupation implies a high level of problem solving and clinical reasoning abilities which must be instilled and taught to occupational therapy students within the educational program within a relatively brief period of time. The use of a developmental model of clinical reasoning will be the Program's basis of providing the grounding for the development of clinical reasoning with facilitation of the more complex levels of clinical reasoning applied when students indicate the readiness. The facilitation of clinical reasoning must individualized based on the fact that students have a diversity of learning styles and come to the program with a variety of life experiences. The occupational therapy faculty strive to promote the student's individual learning in the necessary skills and abilities for an entry-level professional and facilitate personal growth through the structure of the curriculum, course objectives, and fieldwork experiences including those unique to eastern North Carolina.

In summary, the occupational therapist is a competent and caring expert in the use of occupation. With knowledge based in physiological, cognitive, social, and psychological dimensions, the occupational therapist fosters self determination in the patient or client. The therapist acts as an agent of change by engaging people in occupation that is meaningful and adds satisfaction to the individual's life. This Program's goal is to facilitate development of a professional mastery in the use of occupation, balanced with technical, theoretical, service, and research abilities, with the perspective "that man, through the use of his hands as energized by mind and will, can influence his state of health." (Reilly, 1962)

Reference
Reilly, M. (1962). Occupational therapy can be one of the great ideas of the 20th century medicine. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 16, 1-9.

Wilcock, A. (1993). A theory of the human need for occupation. Occupational Science: Australia, 1, 17-24.

The Occupational Therapy program is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA),
4720 Montgomery Lane,
PO Box 31220
Bethesda, MD 20824-1220
(301-652-2682)

Graduates of the program are able to sit for national certification examination for the occupational therapist administered by the National Board for the Certification of Occupational Therapy (NBCOT),
800 S. Frederick Avenue
Suite 200
Gaithersburg, MD 20877-4150
(301-990-7979)

After successful completion of this exam, the individual will be an Occupational Therapist, Registered (OTR).

Please note: A prospective student who has a felony conviction should know that he or she may not be eligible to take the national certification exam. Please go to the following website for more information about this. http://www.nbcot.org/webarticles/anmviewer.asp?a=77&z=15

American Occupational Therapy Association

AOTA is a national professional society established in 1917 to represent the interests and concerns of occupational therapy practitioners, and to improve the quality of occupational therapy services. Benefits of membership include advocacy for the profession, continuing education opportunities, toll-free information and consultation, on-line services through AOTA's web page, monthly subscription to American Journal of Occupational Therapy, access to advertised jobs in OT Practice, discounts on professional publications, professional liability insurance, and access to grants, loans, and scholarships.

North Carolina Occupational Therapy Association

NCOTA is the state organization for occupational therapy in North Carolina. Membership benefits include a bimonthly newsletter, discounts to local conferences and continuing education, and a discounted membership for the first year of their professional careers.