Assessing...It's what we do naturally!

Every since I have been introduced to the world of OT I have heard some kind of debate regarding if OTAs should be able to do an assessment or not. Now that I am a bit more familiar with the roles of a COTA I say %100 "Yes", BUT I also think it should depend on the COTA. Things like is the COTA knowledgeable of the what they are going to assess? Also how are their documentation skills? Its one thing to be able to assess a situation or a client in a certain situation, but are you able to report what was seen? As an OTAS it is in my heart to want to chant "...anything you can do I do too", but the reality is that is not true. Most OTs have 4 more years of education and training than OTAs, so they have to pick up something in those years that qualifies them to do more regarding therapy than OTAs. Also we must keep in mind the fact that the OTs have to protect their licensure, so naturally they might be a little hesitant. However on the other hand...as my title says assessing is what we do naturally. Every time we work with a patient something is being assessed. Whether it is how safely a patient is doing a task, how cognitively apped one is to live alone, how safe a client's home is for independent living...the list can go on and on. When we were given this topic to blog about, I immediately thought of a mentor I had last summer. She is a COTA and has been working in the OT field since the late 80's. She started out as an OT aide then went to school and became a COTA and has been for some years now. While I shadowed her at her job there were numerous times when entry level OTs were seeking advice and information from her! Also I recently met another COTA who has been at her place of employment for 23 years and she has been practicing OT longer than that. Now if that's not 2 COTAs that are capable of doing an assessment I don't know who would be! Surely they both are familiar with the type of assessments given at their jobs because they have been there long enough to know how to effectively administer it.

I have included the link to a blog posted by a COTA and he is discussing the same issue. Although his is pertaining to home assessments he and I feel the same about the topic as a whole. I totally agree with him when he stated that we make recommendations on a daily basis for our clients. I'm thinking that came about when discussing interpreting the findings of the assessment, but again we do that on a daily basis anyway! Sure we need to always keep our supervising OT abreast of what we are doing w/ our patients but where does one draw the line so not to come across as self doubting or even incompetent? Bottom line is yes I think COTAs should be able to do assessments IF they prove able to do so.

http://community.advanceweb.com/blogs/ot_3/archive/2011/05/05/home-health-assessments