3. Competence
Effective OTAs need to know what they’re doing, period. Your patients need to have confidence in you and your abilities, and scrambling around to find the right piece of equipment seriously undermines that. If necessary, you need to be able to organize your patients’ schedules as well as your own. You’re there to make your patients’ lives better, and having someone to find a way to help them be independent with their schedule or when they need to refill their medicine is a weight off their shoulders.
4. Communication
To be a good OTA, you don’t just need to know how to explain exercises, walk patients through recovery plans, and clarify medical terminology — though you do need to be able to do it — you need to be able to listen. When a patient tells you about struggles they’ve been having, especially if they don’t know the cause, you need to be attentive and help them zero in on the root problem so you (and your OT) can begin addressing it. As the person who will be directly working with patients most often, you are usually the intermediary between the client and the OT, so make sure you’re communicating well with both!