Occupational Therapy Careers

Occupational Therapy Careers Outlook

Those of you who are interested in occupational therapy careers should know several really important facts about this profession in general, what's the work like, where it takes place and what can be expected as income. People working as occupational therapist are responsible for helping mentally, physically, or developmentally disabled individuals to improve their overall health and ability to live normally in the society. They also help them develop, recover or maintain work skills.

According to statistics released by the US Department of Labor, in the year 2004, occupational therapist held about 92,000 jobs. The larger part of them were employed in hospitals, but there are other work places such as educational institutions, nursing care facilities. Part-timing is also available, but it usually requires a driver's license and a vehicle as you will spend most of the time traveling from one patient to another. The advantage of working part-time is that one might be able to combine two different jobs, and this is proven by the fact that about 10 percent of the occupational therapists had more than one job back in 2004.

Just as any other job, there are certain requirements that one must meet in order to be allowed to pursue a career as an occupational therapist. In USA, candidates must obtain a license, and to do so, they must get it from an accredited educational program and pass a national certification examination. Prior to 2007, a Bachelor's degree in occupational therapy was the minimum requirement for entry into this field. But since 2007, the minimum educational requirement has become a Master's degree or higher.

Have in mind that there is some serious competition for places in such educational programs related to occupational therapy. My advice to you is that you should focus on earning a high overall grade point average in college, above a 3.3 GPA and volunteer or work as an occupational therapy aide. On top of that, certain schools require no less than 150 hours of clinical experience just to get admitted. And you will also need the usually letters of recommendation from occupational therapists or science teachers.

Of course, if you are interested in occupational therapy careers, then perhaps you will most definitely like to know how much the annual salary is. According data released by Salary.com, the income of the middle 50 percent of occupational therapists is between $56,770 and $68,004 on an annual basis. The top 10 percent earn an annual salary of $75,688 or more.

The main role of occupational therapist is to provide care to disabled individuals. Every medical center and community needs a skilled occupational therapist. Psychiatric illness is surely one of the most perplexing diseases of our time. There are a lot of opportunities throughout MA for Occupational Therapists.

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