Approved Provider Program Categories
Guidelines: Professional Development Activities may focus in one or more of the following 3 categories:
1. Occupational Therapy Service Delivery: The process of service delivery is occupation-centered, and applied within the profession’s domain to support the client’s health and participation as delineated in the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework.
- PD activities may focus on:
- Evaluation: Provides an understanding of the client’s occupational history and experiences and analysis of occupational performance.
- Intervention: The use of occupations and activities, preparatory methods and tasks, education and training, advocacy, and group interventions to facilitate engagement in occupations to promote health and participation.
- Outcomes: Determinants of success in reaching the desired end result of the occupational therapy process. Outcome assessment information is used to plan future actions with the client and to evaluate the service program.
- Note: Courses focused solely on preparatory methods and tasks such as exercise, manual therapies, or complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) interventions must demonstrate an explicit connection to occupation-focused practice, which includes client ability to participate in desired activities of daily living in context.
2. Professional Issues: Topics are acceptable for AOTA CEUs when they pertain to the practice of occupational therapy.
- PD activities may focus on:
- Administration & Management: Planning, organizing, controlling, and directing the activities of an organization to achieve desired outcomes in occupation-centered practice.
- Legal, Legislative, Regulatory & Reimbursement Issues: Coding and reimbursement, documentation, licensure and scope issues related to occupational therapy practice.
- OT Education: Development, delivery, or administration of occupational therapy education and continuing professional development, including experiential components of occupational therapy education programs.
- OT Research: Clinical and academic activities that support scientific procedures and processes to gather data and generate knowledge that enhance the profession and clinical practice of occupational therapy.
- Supervision: Ensuring the safe and effective delivery of occupational therapy services and fostering professional competence and development.
- Contemporary Issues and Trends: Potential role of occupation in addressing societal issues.
3. Foundational Knowledge: Topics are acceptable for AOTA CEUs when they pertain to diagnoses or conditions encountered by OT practitioners and provide medical information, background, or context relevant to occupational therapy practice.
- PD activities may focus on:
- Human Body, Development, and Behavior: Diagnoses & conditions, biological and physical sciences, neurosciences, kinesiology, biomechanics, human development, behavior and social sciences needed for occupational therapy service delivery.
- Sociocultural, Socioeconomic, Diversity Factors, and Lifestyle Choices: Understand the impact of sociocultural, socioeconomic, and diversity factors, as well as lifestyle choices in contemporary society to meet the occupational needs of persons, groups, and populations.
- Social Determinants of Health: Determinants of health for persons, groups, and populations with or at risk for disabilities and chronic health conditions.
- OT History, Philosophical Base, Theory, and Sociopolitical Climate: Occupational therapy history, philosophical base, theory, and sociopolitical climate and their importance in meeting society’s current and future occupational needs as well as how these factors influence and are influenced by practice.