Should I Be an AOTA Member?

The number-one question my OT friends ask me is whether or not they should be AOTA members.

Honestly, I can’t really help them answer this question without stepping back and taking a look at the big picture.

That means considering how much—and in which ways—they want to invest in their OT careers.

There are so many options out there for professional growth and advancement—but many of them come with a price tag.

Those costs can add up, and there’s no shame in wanting to spend your time and money wisely.

Nobody can do it all (or afford it all!), so I’ve created this guide to help you understand the different ways you can invest in your individual career and the occupational therapy profession as a whole.

I, of course, have my own opinions and preferences, but my goal in this article is not to sway you any which way. I simply wanted to create an informative list of the options at your disposal.

Before we dive deep, check our our video, Should I Be an AOTA Member? Arameh Anvarizadeh’s 2-Minute Pitch

Ok! Ready for more info… Here’s what we’ll cover in this article:

• What are the unavoidable expenses that come with being an OT (e.g., licensure and CEUs)?

• Should I be an AOTA member?

• Should I be an NBCOT member?

• Is it worth it for me to join my state OT organization?

• What are the benefits of investing in additional research platforms?

• Is obtaining an additional certification worth it?

Okay, let’s dive in.

The unavoidable expenses

If you want to legally practice as an OT, as mentioned above, you cannot avoid the recurring costs of license renewal and CEUs. Here’s a bit of explanation around those expenses.

Occupational therapy license

(Cost: $20-$280)

Please, please, please: Do not let your OT license lapse. Ever.

You spent tens of thousands of dollars to obtain your degree. It is absolutely worth the $20 (Illinois) to $280 (Maryland) to keep your license active.

Many of us take a hiatus from treating patients to raise our kids, while others follow non-traditional OT career paths. Some of us even pursue new careers or leave the workforce altogether—but it’s still a very good idea to keep your OT license active.

That’s why I implore you to consider license renewal fees as unavoidable costs.

Most licenses are good for one or two years (with New York being the only state where an OT license is good for three years), and this is usually the same amount of time you have to fulfill the continuing education requirements.

Continuing education

(Cost: $99-thousands)

We’ve established you need a license to practice and, in order to keep your license, you also need to earn a certain number of continuing education units (CEUs) during each renewal period—which will generally run you anywhere from around $99 to thousands of dollars.

(Note that Hawaii and New Jersey don’t require CEUs to maintain OT licensure.)

There are free options, paid options, in-person options, and online options.

Obviously, if you’re looking at this purely from a financial standpoint, the free options are most appealing—but those might not give you the best clinical and professional growth.

Here’s a list of a few CEU solutions to get you started:

• The OT Potential Club – $99/year

• MedBridge Education – $274/year with my promo code (I am an affiliate.)

• Summit Education – $269.99–$319.99/year

If you’d like to grow your career while you earn CEUs, you can take courses that build toward an additional OT certification.

Certification costs vary tremendously, from around $800 for a Certified Aging in Place Specialist (CAPS) certification to $3,000 or more to become a Certified Lymphedema Therapist (CLT). (We will cover this more in-depth below.)

Given the fact that you can literally spend under $100 or upwards of $3,000 on CEUs, you’ll probably want to base your decision partly on whether you plan to invest in the many other optional expenses of being an OT.

And that brings us to…

The optional expenses

Okay. Now that you’ve made peace with the roughly $200–$300/year minimum that you’ll spend to be an occupational therapist, you can start thinking about the myriad of other ways to invest in your professional development.

As I said earlier, how you do so really depends on who you are and what you want!

American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA)

(Cost: $234/year)

The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) is our professional organization. Its aim is to improve the quality of OT, and represent the interests of OT professionals and students in the US.

Annual dues are $234/year (OT) and $208/year (OTA) for the most popular Plus+ membership package, and you can pay monthly, which amortizes the costs.

Roughly 65,000 of the approximately 230,000 occupational therapy professionals across the country are members of AOTA, so you’re in good company whether you decide to make the investment or not!

Is AOTA worth it?

I’ve tried to break down the benefits of membership to help you make this decision, because the answer is, “It really depends on you and your priorities!”

With your membership, here’s what you’ll get:

• You’ll get a free AJOT (American Journal of Occupational Therapy) and OT Practice subscription while you’re an AOTA member, as well as access to all sorts of additional OT-specific mailers, newsletters, and reading materials.

• You’ll contribute toward advocacy and policy efforts on behalf of the OT profession.

• You can connect with other OT professionals through Special Interest Sections and the online CommunOT.

• You’ll save on the cost of registering for the annual AOTA conference. The premium plan includes the cost of registration.

• You’ll get unlimited access to online CEU courses, and you’ll enjoy savings on other coursework and texts sold through AOTA.

• You’ll get several other random discounts on things like life and supplemental disability insurance.

• You’ll get access to the massive amount of members-only content on their website, including the AOTA Salary & Workforce Survey and a Medicare Fee Schedule Calculator.

• You’ll get the warm fuzzies of knowing you’re a member of your professional organization, for whatever that’s worth!

The affiliates of the AOTA

If the benefits are looking appealing, there are a couple more factors to consider.

The AOTA has multiple branches that are set up as their own non-profits. If one of these aligns with your investing passion, you may be able to give directly to that organization. Others require that you join the AOTA to participate.

(Author’s note: We did our best to research and summarize these. If I got something wrong, please correct me in the comments!)

Here is a breakdown of AOTA’s finances and some more information on how these branches are supported by the AOTA.

If you are passionate about national advocacy…

You must belong to the AOTA if you wish to give to the American Occupational Therapy Political Action Committee (above and beyond the 35% of your membership dues). This organization is technically separate from AOTA, but the two are closely associated.

If you are passionate about advancing research…

The American Occupational Therapy Foundation (AOTF) is a non-profit that awards scholarships and research grants. This organization is also closely affiliated with AOTA, but you can donate to the cause without being a member.

If you want to be a member of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT)…

You must be a member of the AOTA (or your country’s national association) if you want to be a member of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists.

The cost for AOTA members to join is:

• Student – $27

• OTA – $30

• OT – $32

• Associate – $60

If you are in it for access to the American Journal of Occupational Therapy (AJOT)…

Don’t throw down your credit card quite yet. In fact, if you’re a NBCOT certificant, you get a free subscription to ProQuest, which in turn gives you access to recent issues of AJOT.

So, if your motivation for joining AOTA is mainly the journal, it might not be necessary (assuming you’re an NBCOT certificant).

If you’re an OT super-nerd and NEED access to the Wilma West Library…

Yup. I’ve paid for this access.

The Wilma West Library houses historical documents related to OT and is accessed through OT Search.

• Individual Members – $75 per year

• Individual Student Members – $45 per year

• Individual Non-Members – $200 per year

If you just want more people to know about OT…

The Fund to Promote Awareness of Occupational Therapy was commissioned by the AOTA, but it is a separate organization. You can donate directly here.

At the end of the day, only you can decide whether you want to join AOTA and its affiliates.

There are compelling reasons to join, and equally compelling reasons not to join. If you want to receive discounts on courses, gain access to AJOT and other publications, and support the political initiatives that AOTA espouses, it’s a pretty small financial investment.

That said, everyone’s financial situation is different, and whether it makes sense for you to join is ultimately up to you.

The National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT)

(Cost: $65 every three years)

The NBCOT is a private non-profit credentialing organization that provides certifications for OT professionals. Its mission and vision are respectable––it’s all about advancing evidence-based care in the occupational therapy world.

And at $65 for three years of membership, it’s not a huge financial investment.

However, the costs can add up as you obtain your required 36 units of professional development during that time.

Furthermore, tracking down those professional development opportunities—and then documenting them—can be, well, a hassle.

Should I be an NBCOT member?

The main reason people join NBCOT is that it gives you that “R” after your license.

It feels nice to sign your name with “OTR.”

Similarly, the NBCOT is the organization that takes you from OTA to COTA.

Professionally, that extra letter looks good. Some employers do try to hire OTs and OTAs who are OTRs and COTAs, because it signifies having met NBCOT’s educational, fieldwork, and exam requirements.

It’s like having a personal brand that says, “I go above and beyond.”

You can also look at this certification as a complement to licensure. Where some states don’t require any CEUs for license renewal, NBCOT proudly tries to level the playing field by ensuring that all OTs across the nation who are certified have fulfilled a baseline continued competency.

Something many folks don’t realize is that with NBCOT certification, you get a free subscription to ProQuest, which gives you an automatic subscription to recent issues of AJOT.

So, if you were going to join AOTA solely for the AJOT access, this might make you reconsider.

A few extra benefits include the Navigator Competency Assessment Platform, which you can use to show your areas of strength and weakness in clinical care. It’s a really cool, humbling system—and in more than half of states in the US, you can use units obtained from the NBCOT Navigator to fulfill your CEU credits.

As with an AOTA membership, determining whether an NBCOT membership is worthwhile really comes down to you and your career goals.

State professional organizations

(Cost: $75/year, if you are blessed to be an OT in Nebraska!)

OTs have the luxury of deciding whether to belong to state organizations, independent of participation in our national organizations.

(PTs, for example, are required to join a state professional organization when they decide to invest in an American Physical Therapy Association membership.)

Each association provides a voice for OT, and is involved in both state and national legislation.

The links and contact information for all state associations can be found here. I won’t go through the fees for each state, but here in Nebraska, an OT will pay $75 for an annual membership, and an OTA will pay $55.

Should I belong to my state OT organization?

You might be tired of hearing me say, “It depends.” But it really does depend.

As I mentioned earlier, advocacy can be its own career path, and if you’re interested in that path, a state membership is invaluable.

At the state level, you’ll have a high touch point with other professionals and opportunities to take on leadership roles much more easily than you would at the national level.

A state membership also provides networking opportunities, special interest group meetings, con-ed options, employment opportunities, and up-to-date info regarding clinical and regulatory developments.

If you’re a new grad looking for jobs—or you’re a clinic owner or compliance specialist—joining your state organization is totally worth it. But for others, the benefits might not justify the cost.

Should I obtain another research subscription?

(UpToDate subscription: $579/year)

As I mentioned above, if you’re an AOTA or NBCOT member, you have access to AJOT. If you’re an NBCOT member, you’ll also have access to an extremely powerful research platform, ProQuest. ProQuest provides full-length, multi-disciplinary articles on a number of topics.

In my opinion, you can get pretty far using a combination of Google Scholar and ProQuest to kickstart your research efforts.

Google Scholar is free to use (but has lots of pseudoscience, so beware!), and ProQuest purchased on its own will cost $299.95 ($199.95 for the first year). See why I’m so excited about the free access I get with my NBCOT certification?

I’ve also found to be incredibly helpful in the past to maintain an UpToDate subscription. UpToDate is the clinical decision support databased used by many doctors, so it can be incredibly helpful to access the same information that they are seeing. But, it comes at steep price-tag of $579/year.

All things considered, if you’re working in research—or give research-based presentations on a regular basis—you might want to purchase additional research access.

Should I pursue an additional certification?

You’ve probably heard of all sorts of additional training and certification options, including ATP, CHT, LSVT Big, CAPS, and more.

Many certifications cost quite a bit of money to obtain in the first place—then additional funds to maintain the cert.

My recommendation is that you check with your employer to see whether you’ll receive reimbursement for training or certification, as well as whether certification will increase your pay grade or somehow impact your growth opportunities.

Unfortunately, in today’s healthcare climate, many employers reduce all of our hard work and education to billable units. If you work for that type of employer, you might find that all your hard work and training is useful and valuable to your patients—but if you have to use all your PTO and break the bank to do it, then it might not feel worthwhile to you.

If that’s the case, you can consider asking a certified coworker to mentor you and teach you some of the techniques you want to learn, rather than spending time and money on the actual certification.

If you’re lucky enough to work for an employer who provides growth opportunities, promotions, or pay increases when you obtain additional certifications, it can definitely be worth it to both your patients and to you.

Another thing to keep in mind is that some certifications cost much, much less to obtain than others.

For example, a Certified Aging in Place Specialist (CAPS) certification can be obtained online for around $500, while an NDT/Bobath certification can cost thousands. (Plus, on-site training comes with associated hotel and travel fees.)

When you consider that some certifications cost less time and money than attending a conference, it does come down to:

• Which certifications will help you most in the clinic

• How much you want that additional training from a clinical and professional perspective

• Whether you’re footing the bill or having an employer pay for it

• Many other considerations for your specific situation

For an overview of OT certifications, check out my post: “Where to Go with an OT Degree.”

Breaking down all the costs

We OTs typically like to be involved, but most of us also live on budgets, so we have to carefully choose how––and where––we invest our time and money in our careers and our profession.

If you did everything we covered above, you could easily spend upwards of $4,000/year. (That’s assuming you’d enroll in the most expensive continuing ed courses, travel cross-country to take them, and pay for all the transportation, coursework, and hotel accommodations yourself.)

If you wanted to do the bare minimum, though, you can probably get away with spending as little as $200–300/year to simply maintain your license and take free or cheap online con-ed.

Assuming you want to land somewhere in the middle, then like most of us, you will have to pick and choose—and hopefully this article has helped you do that!

How do you choose to invest in your career, and what are your reasons? Reach out and let us know!

Disclaimer: Policies and prices are always changing, and this section was written accurately to the best of my knowledge at the time of publication. I did have several other professionals weigh in to ensure accuracy, but if you see any errors or inconsistencies, please let me know in the comments, and I will update this article accordingly!