Motion 3 –the COTA Title Change

I have been a COTA/L working in schools for a very long time. All of my teachers in spec ed classrooms know me and respect my skills. We also have students in mainstream classrooms.  These teachers see the word assistant on my name tag and I am considered an aide.  Once I was stopped in the hallway and asked my credentials. "Do you have a degree? Do you have a license? How are you qualified?" I explained that Yes I am an Occupational Therapy Assistant, but I have an associate degree with many hours of continueing education. I have a state OT license. a state teaching certificate, and I am Nationally certified . My response quieted the rumors that I wasn't qualified. Unfortunately, This issue keeps coming back to haunt me. I have never had an issue with OTRs that I have worked with but in our state organization I had an OT tell me that she worked very hard for HER degree and I only had an associate degree therefore I did not deserve to be called a "therapist".  Obviously I am very much in favor of a name change.

After just having read all of the blogs I must say I definately agree with most of the COTA's here, not including the OTA Rep. to the RA). I also, like everyone else, very busy, but I also have never evn heard mention of changing our title to something more appropriate. I have been a COTA/L for over twelve years and have had to work harder than most to get to where I'm at, and I agree Certified sounds very generic. Because of my experience and broad knowledge in many areas; trauma, work hardening, skilled, neuro, home health, pediatrics, outpt/inpt, hands, NICU    it is definately not very uncommon for me to make more than my OTR's, hourly and/or salary, or even have to educate them daily on my abilities as a COTA and how to properly supervise me.

New grads are more than a little condescending, but experience OTR's do see me as an equal and treat me as such. Now in a school district I deal mainly with teachers, admin staff, and students who all refer to me as either the OT or the Occupation Therapy Provider. I mean I am the one they come to when they want an opinion or help with writing the goals. Don't you OTR's get upset with me now, I do CC everything to my OTR just to CYA. But guess what, they either agree with at first, agree after they say they never thought of it that way before , or just tell me I know what I doing and go ahead and do it and just let them know what happened.

I assist the OTR's and they also assist me. Come on we are really more like aLPN to an RN, but sometimes this title makes me sound like a CNA to an RN. Maybe we should ask our state boards to change in our own state to start with?

I've been hearing rumors about a title change for COTAs ever since I was in school 10 years ago! A title change might be helpful for the consumer. To understand that we are therapists. However, I think  a system needs to be implemented in regard to the level of our individual expertise would be more beneficial to the  COTA / OTR relationship.

I have been practicing for over 10 years and in each position that I hold I gain the respect of my fellow OTRs. Generally I have one supervisor and the relationship is great. Then for whatever reasons that person moves on. Now I have to deal with a new OTR and start ALL OVER AGAIN regaining competence and respect. It would be much easier if we had a system that showed what level therapist we are. For example Level 1 - for an entry level therapist

Level 2 - for someone with 2-5 years experience (less supervision)

Level 3- 6-9 years experience

Level 4 10+ years experience

Just how OTRs are qualified to become senior therapists or specialists, COTAs need the same!

I do not mind explaining to my consumers what a COTA is. I love what I do and our position in the field.  I just hate explaining myself over and over again to new OTRs who honestly, do not understand the role of the COTA!

I am a COTA/L in the state of Illinois,  this is the first I am hearing of the changes,  through a email from Advance, I am also an AOTA member, and have been since '94,  hmmm intersting.  Never really thought about changing the title before,  but it would certainly save some time not have to explain exactly what our role is.  I would like more info on why the changes, so I will have to go to work and do some researching for myself!   I am currently enrolled in a Masters Program (transitional).

tim these money hungry companies are destoring our profession i think what need to change is that we need to from a union and become independent contractors which will increase our salaries but this will never happen due to a lot of therapist are cowards

I have been a COTA for almost 13 years now and I really enjoy the work. I think we should get the name change because a lot of my customers do not understand much about the name initially and once I explain the education involved and the extent of my responsibilites to that of an OTR all are surprised. In almost every person I educate about COTA's are surprised the profession is a degreed profession because of the "certified" at the begining. So many people think of CNA's or Medical assistants as our equals. Many of my customers think the change should subtract "certified" in some way and add "practical", because so many people understand the difference between RN and LPN.

Oh I see. I  am attending college here in Florida and here COTA's have to be licensed. I have a question. Once I complete my education here in Florida  and become a Licensed Occupational Therapy assistant; if I decide to relocate to California will I have to change my status from a licensed OTA to a Certified OTA? How exactly does that work. Thanks!

We are not licensed in California, we are re-certified.  A lot of COTAs don't know that and sign COTA/L.  I had an OTR refuse to co-sign a co-workers note as she said it was "fraud" to do so.  So anyway, right now COTAs are not licensed in California.  

I have a question. Do you really have to call yourselves a COTA? why not just say your a licensed occupational therapist assistant. I feel when some one hears the term "licensed" it usally means you took a state board test. When I hear the term "certified" It sounds as if you only completed a certificate program vs a degree program. I think by saying your an OTA/L is not misrepresenting your self or misleading. Just my humble opinion. Thanks for listening.

John,

It is obvious you are an OTR.  To be honest with you if you were a COTA I would respect your opinion more.  With regard to COTAs advocating for Motion 3, I did so, however it was not easy.  I am an AOTA member but was not allowed to post "access denied" after several attempts.  I did direct my written opinion to R.A. members by e-mail which was forwarded to them by AOTA.  I was also disappointed to see that the person representing OTAs voted no on Motion 3.  That is unbelievable to me.  So I definitely will re-consider my AOTA membership.   PS:  I have a Bachelor's degree and an Associate of Science degree.  I went to school for three years to become a COTA (pre-requisites, full time class schedule and six months of unpaid fieldwork).  I also studied, paid for and past the Board test.  Anyway, I love my job, I respect the OTRS I have worked with but I do feel that there is a glass ceiling for COTAs as far as advancing professionally and AOTA is not helping this by not passing Motion 3.  We cannot specialize in anything without "supervision by an OTR".  Some of us cannot afford to attend a Master's program (or there is none in our area).  So the only other choice to get away from the Assistant title and career limits is to change careers which is sad but may be the only option as I do not feel much support from AOTA and to be frank from most OTRs (who voted to defeat Motion 3).  

John, have you been reading the comments posted on these threads?  If you have, you would see most of your "concerns" have been addressed at some point, aside from the cost, which I believe you have exaggerated (as the laws would not need to be debated or changed just reprinted).  You obviously have never worked as a COTA.  You speak of creating confusion outside the therapy world.  There is a great deal of confusion now.  Patients, families, and health care practitioners constantly equate COTAs with CNAs.  I have never had a patient refuse to work with me, but I have had to spend a great deal of time explaining I DO actually have a degree and a license to work as an OT practitioner.  As far as patients being confused with regards to education level, no one seems to be confused regarding RN v LPN.  But guess what,  they both get to be referred to as nurses.  As far as advocating for our cause, if you had taken 5 minutes to read the posts you would see many weren't aware of the motion until after the fact.  I don't know about you, but I can't afford AOTA right now so I don't get the newsletters or Practice.  Finally, as far as promoting occupational therapy as a whole, I think we would agree OT doesn't get the respect it deserves in the medical field.  Why should it, if our own profession isn't willing to give half of its practitioners the respect of a title earned- a title we don't have to explain every time we meet a new patient or family member (or health care professional for that matter).  I realize our concerns are easy to dismiss by someone who isn't affected on a daily basis by something as simple as a title.  Try thinking about it from the other side, if you could manage to bring yourself down to our level for a minute, that is.

Not to start a flaming thread, but I have a few questions for those COTA's who think a name change is necessary. First, if it is truly that important of an issue to you, why didn't you get more involved Motion 3 as presented by the AOTA Representative Assembly? I know that its hard to stay up to date with all of the new topics they discuss but if you were lobbying for a name change, you missed your opportunity. Its OK for you to want a name change, but its NOT OK for you to not do nothing but complain about it. Change does not just magically happen. Those that seriously want a change need to do things such as advocate their proposal, conduct surveys from COTAs to see what the consensus is, etc. Have you ever thought that some COTAs take pride in those letters and DO NOT want a name change?

Another thing missing from these name change posts are the financial implications that it would entail as mentioned on OTconnections. Think about everything that would need to be updated or changed: (1) Laws related to licensure (2) state health plans, worker's comp laws, and education laws (3) educational programs including websites, print materials, etc. (4) State associations would have to do bylaws changes to change the titles. What starts out sounding like a simple ‘Name Change’ ends up being a very expensive proposition. Do you honestly think that a majority of individuals in the Representative Assembly would consider a minor name change [such as Certified Occupational Therapy Associate (COTA) or Certified Occupational Therapy Practitioner (COTP)] when it would be so costly?

And I ask again, if you change the name from COTA to something else, what do you suggest the OTR should be changed to? To patients and the general public the term ‘registered’, ‘certified’ and ‘associate’ does not inform them which has more education, which requires supervision, or which is ultimately responsible for their plan of care.

Finally, to me the worst part of a name change would be the increase in confusion it would cause to those outside of the therapy field. I think the effort spent complaining about a title change could be better spent promoting OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY as a whole.

It was interesting to discuss this issue with an OTR/L. She told me people usually think she has an Assistant that helps her treat patients, but she feels completely different regarding those comments. The deal is that all of us are OT practitioners following supervision levels set by laws and regulation, but the word Assistant does not imply those supervision levels.  This word just brings misunderstandings around the community and does not go with the job that I perform in a daily basis. The title OT assistant fits more for an OT Aide.

Lindsey-

Hmmm...... Maybe 20 contacts in 6 years regarding important issues?" Doesn't that tell you something? To me it sounds like the word is NOT getting out, and it's time to find another way to contact people. I do regular searches on issues in OT, and never ran into anything regarding the title change proposal. I was lucky enough to find out by attending a seminar at the local community college where the state RA had sent a video.

What if some OT's decide to not be an AOTA member, then how are they supposed to receive information? In order to see anything on the AOTA site, you HAVE to be a member to log in. You must also be an AOTA member to receive OT Practice. And as you might have noticed in a previous post here, there was trouble logging in to the OTConnections site to post any replies. How many OT's are there in the U.S.? And how many are AOTA members? 30%? 50%? If it's any less than 100%, and you post only in OT Practice or on the web site, then the entire profession is not being reached.

As far as my comment about the dues money, your reply was just the type of response I was seeking. Seems like no one has a voice until you upset them.

Tim,

I would like to point out that the motions before the Representative Assembly were posted on the AOTA web site and were in the print edition of OT Practice on February 23, 2009. The RA Task Groups did not begin deliberations until March 3rd, and the Zoomerang survey (a tool that allowed Members to give feedback to representatives) was available well into the third week of March. The full Assembly meeting did not begin until March 30th and is still continuing right now. Each state representative's name and contact information is posted on the AOTA web site and members can e-mail or call them at any time to express their opinion about the direction the Association should go. Additionally, there are other individuals representing various groups that a member could speak with to discuss opinions and voice concerns, such as myself. I am the Occupational Therapy Assistant to the RA.

There have been many opportunities for members to voice their wishes. I asked for feedback for the upcoming RA meeting from OTA Members in the OTA section of the Public Forums on OT Connections. I had one person voice an opinion concerning a motion before the RA this year.

You said: "Why did our state organizations not inform their members of the upcoming actions of the RA?" State representatives as well as others like myself  do our best to schedule meetings, send out "blast e-mails" to our constituents, use OT Connections for feedback and any number of other means to reach out to the members we represent. Given that the motions were printed in OT Practice and that members had the opportunity to respond, I'm not sure what else is expected. I think individual members have just as much responsibility to let their views be known as Reps do to try to solicit feedback.

I have been the OTA Rep to the RA for six years now and in all those years I've gotten very few responses to my requests for input- even when it is an important issue that directly relates to practice as an OTA. I never stopped to count the responses to my requests, but a fair estimate might be 20 or less during the last six years.

I must say, I found your statement "I hope your dues money isn't buying someone nice trips or cars instead of addressing issues that are important." to be offensive. Anyone that volunteers his or her time in any capacity to serve the profession should be commended and not questioned about his or her ethics.

I hope that in the future, you will stop to consider the full ramifications of the words you write prior to posting.

Respectfully,

Lindsey Lawrence, BGS, COTA/L, ROH

OTA Representative to the RA

Dear Tim,

As I advised you before, I attempted several times to post, even attempted assistance in this regard from OT Connections and was unable to.  Repeatedly I received a message "access denied."  We should not be criticized for not posting when we are not allowed to do so.  And I am an AOTA member.  Thank you.  Sincerely, Kathleen

Well put Mashelle-

I love being a COTA, I just don't like all the politics and money grubbing companies trying to get all they can from Medicare. If things keep up like they are there will be no more Medicare soon.

Well, Tim...I agree with you.  I believe there's a shared responsibility to being informed:  you have to be diligent in keeping up with current issues, however, this information must be also be easily accessible.  I only recently learned about this motion via the state rep's article in the state association's web newsletter, which did not come out until it was too late to respond.  Since last fall I have attended at least 3 state licensing board meetings, as well as our annual state conference, and not a word was mentioned.  Had there been a little more "noise" about it (and not just on the blogs) its possible that the response may have been better, from both COTAs and OTs.  So, for those who have serious issues with the title...it looks like you will have to suck it up for the time being.  Look for opportunities to promote your professionalism in positive ways, rather than complain about the career path you CHOSE to pursue.