Accrediting Body - The Accrediting Council for Occupational Therapy Education.

Activities of Daily Living - Self-care activities.

AOTA Approved Provider Program - A voluntary process of review and approval of continuing education (CE) providers by the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) based on criteria and guidelines that assess a provider's ability to develop and implement CE activities that are relevant to the practice of occupational therapy.

Assessment - The tools or instruments that are used during the evaluation process.

Board - The North Carolina Board of Occupational Therapy.

Client - A person, group, program, organization, or community for whom the occupational therapy practitioner is providing services.

Contact Hour - A unit of measure for a continuing education activity.  One contact hour equals 60 minutes in a learning activity, excluding meals and breaks.  

Continuing Competence - A process in which an occupational therapist or an occupational therapy assistant develops and maintains the knowledge, performance skills, interpersonal abilities, critical reasoning skills, and ethical practice reasoning skills necessary to perform his or her occupational therapy professional responsibilities.

Continuing Education - Structured educational experiences beyond academic degree work that are intended to provide knowledge in a particular area.

Continuing Education Credit - Credit given for a formalized activity in the form of contact hours or continuing education units.

Continuing Education Unit (CEU) - A unit of measure for continuing education.  One CEU is defined as 10 contact hours of participation in a learning activity excluding meals and breaks.

Direct Supervision - Required for all unlicensed personnel and volunteers. It means the Occupational Therapy supervisor must be within audible and visual range of the client and unlicensed personnel and available for immediate physical intervention. Videoconferencing is not allowed for direct supervision.

Entry-Level  - A person who has no experience in a specific position, such as a new graduate, a person new to the position, or a person in a new setting with no previous experience in that area of practice.

Evaluation - The process of obtaining and interpreting data necessary for intervention. This includes planning for and documenting the evaluation process and results.

Examining Body - The National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy.

General Supervision - Required for all OTAs by an OT. It includes a variety of types and methods of supervision and may include observation, modeling, cotreatment, discussions, teaching, instruction, phone conversations, videoconferencing, written correspondence, electronic exchanges, and other telecommunication technology.

Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) - Multi-step activities to care for self and others, such as household management, financial management, and childcare.

Intervention - Treatment.

Intervention Plan - The program established by the OT for the delivery of occupational therapy services. It may also be referred to as treatment plan, individualized education plan (IEP), individualized family service plan (IFSP), plan of care, or other terminology as determined by the occupational therapy service delivery setting.

Level I Fieldwork - Provides introductory level clinical training opportunities.

Level II Fieldwork - Provides clinical training in preparation for entry-level practice.

Neglect of Duty - When a Board member fails to attend a majority of the official meetings of the Board within any twelve (12) month period.

Occupational Therapist - An individual licensed in good standing to practice occupational therapy.

Occupational Therapy Assistant - An individual licensed in good standing to assist in the practice of occupational therapy under this Article, who performs activities commensurate with his or her education and training under the supervision of a licensed OT.

Occupational Therapy - A health care profession providing evaluation, treatment and consultation to help individuals achieve a maximum level of independence by developing skills and abilities interfered with by disease, emotional disorder, physical injury, the aging process, or impaired development. OTs use purposeful activities and specially designed orthotic and prosthetic devices to reduce specific impairments and to help individuals achieve independence at home and in the workplace.

Occupational Therapy Evaluation, Treatment, and Consultation - Include the following:

• Remediation or restitution of performance abilities that are limited due to impairment in biological, physiological, psychosocial, and developmental process;
• Adaptation of skills, process or environment, or the teachings of compensatory techniques in order to enhance performance;
• Disability prevention methods and techniques that facilitate the development or safe application of performance skills;
• Promotion of health and wellness to those who have or are at risk for developing an illness, injury, disease, disorder, condition, impairment, disability, activity limitation, or participation restriction; and
• Interpretation of the physical, cognitive, psychosocial, sensory, and other aspects of performance in a variety of contexts to support engagement in everyday life activities that affect health, well-being, and quality of life.

Occupational Therapy Practitioner - An individual licensed by the Board as an occupational therapist or an OTA.

Occupational Therapy Student - An individual enrolled in an occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant program accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE).

Peer Reviewed - Any written work that is blind reviewed by more than one person.

Practice Act - The North Carolina Occupational Therapy Practice Act found in G.S. 90-270.65 et. seq.

Person - Any individual, partnership, unincorporated organization, or corporate body, except that only an individual may be licensed under this Article.

Points - An assigned unit of measure for each continuing competence activity.

Screening - Obtaining and reviewing data relevant to a potential client to determine the need for further evaluation and intervention.

Service Competency - The ability to provide occupational therapy services in a safe and effective manner. It means that two practitioners can perform the same or equivalent procedure and obtain the same result.

Skilled Occupational - Therapy services when rendered by an OT or OTA means functions that require the exercise of professional occupational therapy judgment, including the interpretation of referrals, screening, assessment, evaluation, development or modification of intervention plans, implementation of intervention, reassessment, or discharge planning.

Supervision - The process by which two or more people participate in joint effort to establish, maintain, and elevate a level of performance to ensure the safety and welfare of clients during occupational therapy. Supervision is structured according to the supervisee's qualifications, position, level of preparation, depth of experience and the environment within which the supervisee functions.

Unlicensed Personnel - Individuals within an occupational therapy setting who provide supportive services to the OT and the OTA and who function only under the guidance, responsibility, and supervision of the licensed OT or OTA to provide only specifically selected client-related or non-client related tasks for which the unlicensed personnel has been trained and has demonstrated competence.

Reference

N.C.G.S. § 90-270.67

21 NCAC 38.0103