What does a Occupational Therapy Aide do?

Under close supervision of an occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant, perform only delegated, selected, or routine tasks in specific situations. Day to day that includes work like encourage patients and attend to their physical needs to facilitate the attainment of therapeutic goals and Report to supervisors or therapists, verbally or in writing, on patients' progress, attitudes, attendance, and accomplishments.

What skills should a Occupational Therapy Aide put on a resume?

O*NET rates Service Orientation, Social Perceptiveness, Speaking, Active Listening, and Coordination among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.

What software should a Occupational Therapy Aide list?

Software recorded for this occupation includes Billing software, Electronic medical record EMR software, MEDITECH software, Microsoft Access, and Microsoft Excel. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.

What other job titles cover Occupational Therapy Aide work?

O*NET records 21 titles for this occupation, including OT Aide, Rehabilitation Aide, Rehab Aide, and Rehabilitation Services Aide. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

What qualifications does a Occupational Therapy Aide need?

In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 37% reported their level of education as "High School Diploma, or the equivalent". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

Will this resume pass an ATS for a Occupational Therapy Aide role?

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Occupational Therapy Aide resume example

A resume for a Occupational Therapy Aide needs to show the work itself: under close supervision of an occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant, perform only delegated, selected, or routine tasks in specific situations. Day to day that means work like this: encourage patients and attend to their physical needs to facilitate the attainment of therapeutic goals; report to supervisors or therapists, verbally or in writing, on patients' progress, attitudes, attendance, and accomplishments. Recruiters and applicant tracking systems both read for the tasks and tools this role actually involves, so the strongest resume names them in your own experience rather than describing the job in the abstract. Below are the tasks O*NET records for this occupation, the software and tools it uses, the titles it is advertised under, and the skills worth naming if they are genuinely yours.

Also advertised as

The same job is posted under many titles. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

OT Aide
Rehabilitation Aide
Rehab Aide
Rehabilitation Services Aide
Restorative Aide
Certified Occupational Rehabilitation Aide
CORA
Direct Service Professional
DSP
Direct Support Professional
Occupational Rehabilitation Aide
Occupational Therapist Aide
Rehab Nursing Tech
Rehab Services Tech
Rehab Therapy Aide
Rehab Therapy Tech
Independent Living Specialist
Rehabilitation Nursing Technician

O*NET records 21 titles for this occupation in total.

What people in this job call themselves

Titles reported by people actually doing this work, which is often not the title on the job posting.

Certified Occupational Rehabilitation Aide (CORA)
Direct Service Professional (DSP)
Direct Support Professional (DSP)
Occupational Therapist Aide (OT Aide)
Occupational Therapy Aide (OT Aide)
Rehabilitation Aide (Rehab Aide)

What this work actually involves

Tasks recorded for this occupation, in O*NET's words. If your experience covers one of these, it belongs on your resume in your own words.

Encourage patients and attend to their physical needs to facilitate the attainment of therapeutic goals.
Report to supervisors or therapists, verbally or in writing, on patients' progress, attitudes, attendance, and accomplishments.
Observe patients' attendance, progress, attitudes, and accomplishments and record and maintain information in client records.
Prepare and maintain work area, materials, and equipment and maintain inventory of treatment and educational supplies.
Transport patients to and from the occupational therapy work area.
Instruct patients and families in work, social, and living skills, the care and use of adaptive equipment, and other skills to facilitate home and work adjustment to disability.
Assist occupational therapists in planning, implementing, and administering therapy programs to restore, reinforce, and enhance performance, using selected activities and special equipment.
Demonstrate therapy techniques, such as manual and creative arts and games.
Manage intradepartmental infection control and equipment security.
Perform clerical, administrative, and secretarial duties, such as answering phones, restocking and ordering supplies, filling out paperwork, and scheduling appointments.
Supervise patients in choosing and completing work assignments or arts and crafts projects.
Adjust and repair assistive devices and make adaptive changes to other equipment and to environments.

15 tasks are recorded in total; these are the most central.

Example bullets for this role

Built from this occupation's own tasks. The brackets stay empty on purpose: we will not invent a number for you, and a fabricated metric is the fastest way to lose an interview you had already won.

Encourage patients and attend to their physical needs to facilitate the attainment of therapeutic goals, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Report to supervisors or therapists, verbally or in writing, on patients' progress, attitudes, attendance, and accomplishments, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Observe patients' attendance, progress, attitudes, and accomplishments and record and maintain information in client records, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Prepare and maintain work area, materials, and equipment and maintain inventory of treatment and educational supplies, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].

Software used in this role

Recorded for this occupation by O*NET. An applicant tracking system matches the exact product name, so write the tool the way the posting writes it.

Billing software
Electronic medical record EMR software
MEDITECH software
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Office software
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Word
Scheduling software
Word processing software

Tools and equipment

The physical equipment this occupation is recorded as using. Worth naming when a posting asks for it by name.

Adaptive cutlery
Augmentative communication systems
Beading needles
Braille writers
Canes
Communication boards
Crochet hooks
Crutches
Desktop computers
Dressing sticks
Hand weights
Knitting needles

Skills an ATS reads for

Worth naming only if they are genuinely yours. Keyword overlap is one input to a resume's score, not a verdict.

Billing
Electronic medical record EMR
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Excel

What this job rates as most important

O*NET rates every skill for importance to this occupation. These are the highest rated, in order.

01Service Orientation
02Social Perceptiveness
03Speaking
04Active Listening
05Coordination
06Critical Thinking
07Monitoring
08Complex Problem Solving
09Reading Comprehension
10Writing

Knowledge areas

The subject knowledge this occupation draws on, rated by importance.

Therapy and Counseling
English Language
Customer and Personal Service
Psychology
Computers and Electronics
Education and Training
Medicine and Dentistry
Public Safety and Security

What qualifications people in this job have

From O*NET's survey of people doing this work. This is what postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

37%High School Diploma, or the equivalent
28%Associate's Degree
24%Some College Courses

What level this role is pitched at

O*NET places this occupation in “Medium Preparation Needed”. Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.

Common questions

What does a Occupational Therapy Aide do?: Under close supervision of an occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant, perform only delegated, selected, or routine tasks in specific situations. Day to day that includes work like encourage patients and attend to their physical needs to facilitate the attainment of therapeutic goals and Report to supervisors or therapists, verbally or in writing, on patients' progress, attitudes, attendance, and accomplishments.
What skills should a Occupational Therapy Aide put on a resume?: O*NET rates Service Orientation, Social Perceptiveness, Speaking, Active Listening, and Coordination among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.
What software should a Occupational Therapy Aide list?: Software recorded for this occupation includes Billing software, Electronic medical record EMR software, MEDITECH software, Microsoft Access, and Microsoft Excel. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.
What other job titles cover Occupational Therapy Aide work?: O*NET records 21 titles for this occupation, including OT Aide, Rehabilitation Aide, Rehab Aide, and Rehabilitation Services Aide. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.
What qualifications does a Occupational Therapy Aide need?: In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 37% reported their level of education as "High School Diploma, or the equivalent". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.
Will this resume pass an ATS for a Occupational Therapy Aide role?: No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Related roles

Occupations O*NET records as closest to this one, and worth looking at if this search is not moving.

What this page cannot tell you

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer’s ATS is configured, including ours.
This page makes no claim about pay, demand or how many people hold this job. O*NET does not publish that here and we will not estimate it.
Keyword overlap is one input to a resume’s score, not a verdict on you. A resume that names skills you do not have is worse than one that names fewer.

If this is the job you are aiming at, the guide to tailoring a resume covers how to aim one posting properly, and building and exporting a resume here is free.

Occupation data from the O*NET 29.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under CC BY 4.0. O*NET is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. SpartanResume is not endorsed by USDOL/ETA.