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North Carolina Occupational Therapy Aides
What is the definition of an aide?
"Unlicensed personnel" means individuals within an occupational therapy setting who provide supportive services to the occupational therapist and the occupational therapy assistant and who function only under the guidance, responsibility, and supervision of the licensed occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant to provide only specifically selected client-related or non-client related tasks for which the unlicensed personnel has been trained and has demonstrated competence.
What can an aide do?
Non-client related tasks include clerical and maintenance activities and preparation of the work area or equipment.
Client-related tasks are routine tasks during which the unlicensed personnel may interact with the client but does not provide skilled occupational therapy services. The following factors must be present when an occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant delegates a selected client-related task to the unlicensed personnel:
What are the responsibilities of the OT when delegating to an aide?
The occupational therapist must oversee the development, documentation, and implementation of a plan to supervise and routinely assess the ability of the unlicensed personnel to carry out client and non-client related tasks. The occupational therapy assistant may contribute to the development and documentation of this plan.
When performing delegated client-related tasks the supervisor must ensure that the unlicensed personnel:
What type of supervision is required?
Unlicensed personnel or volunteers may be supervised by occupational therapists or occupational therapy assistants.
Documentation of Supervision
The supervision of the unlicensed personnel must be documented and include:
Citations
21 NCAC 38.0103
21 NCAC 38.1102
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