Study to become an Occupational Therapy Assistant at our Hopkinsville Ross campus.

The Occupational Therapy Assistant Associate of Applied Science degree program can prepare you for the opportunity to help improve the quality of a person’s life and ability to perform daily activities through rehabilitative exercises and activities. Working as part of a rehabilitation team and under the supervision of an occupational therapist, you will find occupational therapy assistants in a variety of settings including hospitals, nursing homes, outpatient clinics, home health care, early intervention, school systems, and psychiatric hospitals.

The goal of occupational therapy is to help clients return to every day activities such as work, play, leisure, and home activities. In order to accomplish this, occupational therapy assistants think creatively to help clients with disabilities.

What is an Occupational Therapy Assistant?

Occupational therapy assistants work alongside and under the supervision of occupational therapists. They assist occupational therapy clients as they relearn and develop typical daily life skills like eating, getting dressed, working, driving, etc. Occupational therapy assistants can be found in a variety of settings and working with many different types of patients.

Some choose to work with the elderly in their homes, nursing homes, or clinics. Others work with children, helping them to expand their skills in accomplishing fundamental activities. Still others may decide to work with patients that have disabilities that challenge their ability to perform necessary tasks.

Occupational Therapy Assistant Fieldwork

Students enrolled in the Ross Occupational Therapy Assistant program are required to successfully complete two different fieldwork components. The first fieldwork experience is a one week full time observation based experience in a psychosocial setting. This one week fieldwork is scheduled during the same month as Intervention in Mental Health allowing students to apply academic principles to real world settings. Once students have completed all academic courses, students are required to complete two 2-month full time fieldwork experiences.

This fieldwork experience allows students to follow and learn from experienced, well respected occupational therapy assistants and occupational therapists. Not only do students build necessary clinical skills, but more importantly gain valuable patient interaction skills. In summary, the four months of fieldwork allows students to apply academic principles to real patient care. The combination of the academic coursework and the fieldwork experience serve as an appropriate starting point for students to pass the certification exam allowing them to be practicing occupational therapy assistants.

Certification for Occupational Therapy Assistant Graduates

Once a student successfully completes the Occupational Therapy Assistant program at Ross, they are eligible to take the Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA) exam through the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT). In order to be able to work as a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant, graduates must take and successfully pass the exam.

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.

NBCOT Certification Examination Performance: For information pertaining to the most recent OTA graduates on the national certification examination, please refer to https://www.nbcot.org/Educators-Folder/SchoolPerformance.

Occupational Therapy Assistant graduate information for Ross College Hopkinsville, KY, and Ross College Quad Cities, IA

The total number of graduates from Ross College – Quad Cities/Bettendorf, Iowa, campus for the Occupational Therapy Assistant program during the three-year period of 2019-2021* was 41 with an overall graduation rate of 82%.

The total number of graduates from the Ross College – Hopkinsville, Kentucky, campus for the Occupational Therapy Assistant program during the three-year period of 2019-2021* was 37 with an overall graduation rate of 74%.

Graduate Performance Information

Graduation Requirements, Tuition and Fee

Graduation Requirements

An Associate of Applied Science Degree will be awarded to each student who successfully:

1. Complete all program requirements in the specified time.
2. Have earned all credits required by his or her program within the maximum program length (1.5 times the number of credit hours in the program).
3. Have a cumulative grade point average 2.00 or higher with no less than a final grade of a D/1.0 in any individual course.
4. Have satisfied the residency requirement.

* There is an optional technology kit that would add $395.00 to the cost of the program if selected. Published fees for the program are subject to change

Cohort Rate

Ross College Official 3 year Cohort Default Rate (for all campuses under the main campus of Ross Medical Education Center – Brighton, MI) for 2019 is 3.8.

The Associate of Applied Science in Occupational Therapy Program at Ross College – Ross College Hopkinsville and Ross College Quad Cities locations accredited by The Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (Acote).

Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education 6116 Executive Boulevard, Suite 200 North Bethesda, MD 20852-4929 (301) 652-2682 acoteonline.org