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Academic Catalog '12-'13 | Occupational Therapy Assistant

Occupational Therapy Assistant

 

Faculty

Ms. Jan Kress, Occupational Therapy Assistant Program Director
Ms. Tasha Champagne, Academic Fieldwork Coordinator

Description

The Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) program leads to an Associate of Applied Science in Occupational Therapy. This degree educates students to work under the supervision and in cooperation with an occupational therapist (OT) to help people across the lifespan engage in the things they want and need to do through the therapeutic use of everyday activities called occupations.

This major prepares you to work in various settings that include hospitals, rehabilitation centers, schools, sub-acute facilities, psychiatric and community based programs, schools, nursing homes, private practice and other emerging practice areas.

Degree Requirements

Students complete 26 credits of pre-requisite courses before applying to the OTA program. These can be taken at Trinity in either the College of Arts and Sciences or the School of Professional Studies, or credits can be transferred. Students then complete 44 credits of OTA-specific courses, which blend online and on-campus learning.

Prerequisite Courses (26 credits)
BIOL 121
BIOL 122
ENGL 107
HPNU 110 (SPS students) or CRS 101 (CAS students--Health Professionals designated section)
MATH 108
PSYC 101
PSYC 231
SOCY 100

OTA Courses (44 credits)
Semester 1
OTA 100
OTA 110
OTA 120
OTA 124
OTA 130

Semester 2
OTA 114
OTA 104
OTA 134
OTA 128
OTA 138

Semester 3
OTA 204
OTA 210
OTA 234
OTA 238
INT 109 (SPS students) or COM 110 (CAS students)

Semester 4
OTA 291
OTA 292

Program Policies

Questions from non-Trinity students regarding the application process and acceptance criteria should be directed to the Admissions Office. Questions from a current Trinity student regarding the application process and acceptance criteria should be directed to the student’s undergraduate advisor in either the College of Arts and Sciences or the School of Professional Studies or to the Nursing Program Office (202.885.9670).

Students must meet four general requirements to graduate and receive an Associate of Applied Science degree with an Occupational Therapy Assistant major:

1. Successful completion of all program pre-requisite courses

2. Completion of the major program’s course of study (70 credits) including fieldwork experiences

3. All OTA designated courses completed at Trinity

4. Completion of all credits with a minimum cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 2.5..

The Associate of Applied Science Degree

The requirements to graduate from Trinity with an Associate of Applied Science degree (A.A.S.) in health professional programs include the successful completion of the following:

  • A minimum of 70 credits.
  • For students matriculating in after Fall 2002, 45 of the final 60 credits, excluding credits for experiential learning, and all OTA designated credits must be completed at Trinity.
    • All specific course work required for a major program of study in the respective health care program.
    • Completion of all fieldwork requirements

Program Accreditation

The Occupational Therapy Assistant program has applied for accreditation and has been granted Developing Program Status by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), located at 4720 Montgomery Lane, Suite 200, Bethesda, MD 20814-3449. ACOTE’s telephone number, c/o AOTA, is (301) 652-AOTA. Once accreditation of the program has been obtained, its graduates will be eligible to sit for the national certification examination for the occupational therapist assistant administered by the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT). After successful completion of this exam, the individual will be a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA). In addition, most states require licensure in order to practice; however, state licenses are usually based on the results of the NBCOT Certification Examination. Note that a felony conviction may affect a graduate’s ability to sit for the NBCOT certification examination or attain state licensure. Visit www.acoteonline.org for more information about ACOTE.


Trinity reserves the right to change, without prior notice, any policy or procedure, tuition or fee, curricular requirements, or any other information found on this web site or in its printed materials.

Questions may be directed to Virginia Broaddus, Ph.D., Provost at BroaddusV@trinitydc.edu.

For teacher education courses, check Continuing Education  Archived Course Descriptions and Schedules.

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