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This article is a great article about professionalism during an interview for an occupational therapy position. Although this article is not about clinical professionalism I thought it would be great to share as it gives great advise to us students about obtaining an occupational therapist position after we graduate. The article gives tips and advise to new grads on how to present your self when applying for a position. the article also gives potential questions to ask the employers and potential questions that will be asked of you. The article mentions how you should act in the room and how you should dress to portray a professional demeanor. The article is extremely relevant to us students as we will have to go through the process of obtaining an OT position in a couple of months.

Supervision is an expectation in the field of occupational therapy. This overview shares what an OT is to do when working with an OTA or a therapy aide. Supervision is also required if an OT elects to be a fieldwork educator. The specific roles of the therapist are outlined in this handout.

This article is an example of what one would use if searching for evidenced based practice methods. My current fieldwork experience is in a skilled nursing facility and we frequently use the e-stim for strengthening and pain. Therefore for an article on evidence based practice i decided to search for an evidence based article that would prove what we are doing with the e-stim machine is beneficial. The article is a literature review and seeks to gather the evidence for e-stim and muscle strengthening. The results say that theoretically the e-stim is a complimentary tool for muscle strengthening. However, the e-stim still has little evidence for muscle strengthening and does not show that it is any better than traditional strengthening methods.

This article focused on the importance of having your heart, mind, and soul behind you and your profession in order to present professionalism within the occupational therapy field. The heart of professionalism in occupational therapy, focuses on doing Good Work and/or ensuring that what we are doing is right for us as well as improving another's life. The mind of professionalism in occupational therapy, this idea is centered around working to broaden the scope of knowledge within occupational therapy as well as providing EVP to your clients because they deserve more than the routine BUE exercises. Lastly, the soul of professionalism within occupational therapy, this involves collaborating with other individuals within the profession, critically evaluating, and brainstorming to ensure that the highest standard of practice is being used within the clinics. These three components are interwoven. Therefore, if one piece, the heart, mind, or soul is missing then the level of professionalism you portray decreases.

As we engage our hearts to do Good Work, strive to nourish our minds, and to cultivate the authenticity of our souls we can help make the field of occupational therapy stand out and be a pillar of professionalism. Wendy Wood's article is inspiring and is a good read to give you a little boost.

The author's purpose of this article was to promote professionalism as heart, mind, and soul at all level so that all we do in the name of occupational therapy not only remains right for ourselves and good for the world, but also grows more so over time. He described professionalism as especially important for the well-being of individuals or of society at large, having a value so special that money cannot serve as its sole measure: it is also simply good work. The author was captured by the magic of occupational therapy as a counselor at a summer camp for autistic children, which was a truly inspiring story about how he fell in love with the profession. He emphasized how personal professionalism is; so personal, in fact, that he uses the metaphors of heart, mind, and soul to depict its most vital elements. Any field claiming professional stature must be just as dedicated to cultivating its mind as it is to nourishing its heart, as the two are wonderfully symbiotic. I loved this article, and it truly depicted the meaning of and what it means to be an occupational therapist at a personal level.

This 1991 AJOT article discussed clinical reasoning. The article stressed the importance of not allowing our clinical reasoning to biomechanical and biomedical focused. Rather, as occupational therapists, our clinical reasoning should focus on human world of motives, values, and beliefs.

This document provides a broader definition of clinical reasoning that is associated and expected from occupational therapists. Due to the nature of our profession as being client-centered and a mix of artistic and scientific rationale, OT's are expected to provide clinical reasoning that expands beyond the medical model into a meaning-centered, interpretive model. The reason for this expanded clinical reasoning for OT's is that we are not just looking at an individual in terms of their disability, rather we look at an individual in a holistic manner.

This document provides a broader definition of clinical reasoning that is associated and expected from occupational therapists. Due to the nature of our profession as being client-centered and a mix of artistic and scientific rationale, OT's are expected to provide clinical reasoning that expands beyond the medical model into a meaning-centered, interpretive model. The reason for this expanded clinical reasoning for OT's is that we are not just looking at an individual in terms of their disability, rather we look at an individual in a holistic manner.

This PDF document highlights Kentucky Law regarding occupational therapists supervisory roles. As mentioned under section two, Kentucky Law states that an occupational therapy supervisor must provide at least four hours per month of general supervision for each occupational therapy assistant whom they supervise. Two of these general supervision hours must include face-to-face, direct contact with the occupational therapy assistant. In addition, the supervising occupational therapist must co-sign all documentation within fourteen calendar days of the notation. All supervision must be documented in a log that includes the date/frequency of supervision, type of supervision provided, observation, dialogue, discussion, and instruction provided, as well as the number of supervisory hours worked. The board can perform random audits examining occupational therapists supervision logs. It is important to note that in Kentucky a supervising occupational therapist may not supervise more than three occupational therapy assistants at one time. For those planning on working in Kentucky, this document is useful in outlining supervisory roles/responsibilities of occupational therapy practitioners in terms of supervision.

I feel that is an important document that all of us should look up, read, and study for our individual home states. In Kentucky, an OTR must provide at least 4 hours of supervision a month for each COTA. Within 14 days, an OTR must co-sign all documents. In addition, in Kentucky an OTR can only supervise 3 COTAs at one time.

An employer can have a direct impact on the effectiveness of an employee's performance, similar to our clinical instructors have an impact on our performance within the facility. This article discusses the importance of utilizing a departmental assessment system in practice for new employees and students that is composed of orientation, education, as well as assessment and evaluation. Through an orientation, students and new employees would complete a self-analysis of their known strengths and weaknesses as well as gain knowledge regarding the department's values and expectations. The educational portion of the departmental assessment not only reinforces the importance of CEUs, but also promotes seeking additional training and education in the employee or student's identified areas of weakness. Lastly, employees and students should be assessed and evaluated on their ability to obtain education in areas of weakness, exhibit good critical thinking skills, and make ethical decisions. Through promotion of ethics in the departmental assessment an employee and student will be able to comprehend that the facility not only cares about productivity, but also providing compassionate care.

This is a fact sheet from AOTA which discusses OT's role in community mental health. This is an area in which OTs play an important role as mental health services shift from a a hospital based setting to more community based. It has been shown that OT interventions help to improve outcomes for those living in the community with serious mental illnesses. OT's can help to address the areas of education, work skills, health/wellness, and cognitive remediation and adaption. This document also discusses ways in which OT can help to address community barriers to functioning such as SES, stigma, safety, and housing options.

This resource provides information on how to submit an ethics complaint to AOTA if you believe that someone has violated the OT code of ethics. The complainant must submit supporting document that details the alleged violation including the relationship to violator, when the violation occurred, and what attempts to address the violation were taken. The ethics commission meets once a month to discuss and review ethics complaints. Once reviewed, a final decision can take several months up to a year to be made. During this time, the accused violator can request an appeal to the complaint.

This article provides an OT practitioner's bill of rights that describes ideal circumstances, work conditions, and patient outcomes for optimal success.

Individuals experiencing mental health disorders are susceptible to impairments in occupational functioning due to decreased concentration, memory, thought processes, insight, judgement, decision-making, reality orientation, regulating emotions, understanding perception, motivation, and psycho-motor activity. This is a quantitative study out of the South American Journal of Occupation Therapy that studied the effects of slow vs. fast tempo of music on symptoms of psychosis during occupation. There were 160 individuals with diagnosed psychological disorders in a psych hospital in South Africa. The subjects participated in a leatherwork activity while listening to either fast paced/upbeat music or low tempo/slow music. Attention/focus, ability to follow instructions, directedness towards the activity, and motivation were measured in groups of individuals who had psycho-motor agitation or psycho-motor inhibition psychosis. The study found that listening to music during an activity has the ability to improve all three variables in both agitation and inhibited-motor psychosis. Fast-paced tempo significantly improves attention in individuals with inhibited motor-psychosis. The ability to follow instructions improved in both fast and slow tempo music for both agitated and inhibited individuals. Directedness and motivation did not significantly improve in any of the groups. This study indicates that music can improve the ability to perform occupations and activities in individuals with mental health disorders. Music is very individualized and it may be difficult for OT practitioners to work with groups of individuals when introducing music. IT is important for an OT to gather a good understanding of a patient's preferences and determine if they would be a good candidate for the use of music during therapy. More research is recommended in this area to further determine the effects of music on occupation in this population.

In my rotation I have had an opportunity to work with multiple different stroke patients, and I have seen how aphasia has affected their lives, and this article documents how these individuals are at an increased risk for depression. The goal of this study was to determine whether an early intervention for an individual who has aphasia post stroke, as well as that persons family, leads to better mood and quality of life outcomes for people with aphasia, and less caregiver burden and better mental health for their family members. What was unique to me was that this study/intervention was the first known program tailored for people with aphasia and their family members -Unfortunately, this study is not finished, and is still in progress. However, to me this is also very unique that it was published to let you know that there is a new program being tested, and I think since it is supposedly the first of its kind, it could truly have great psychosocial benefits for individuals with aphasia post stroke.

This article is a qualitative study of an occupational therapist assistant's clinical reasoning. Even though the article is about an occupational assistant, it is still very relevant and relatable to an occupational therapist. I chose this article because the OTA worked in a SNF and this is currently were I am working at. The article found that the OTA used multiple forms of clinical reasoning throughout the day including, pragmatic, procedural, interactive, conditional, and narrative clinical reasoning. Occupational therapists use clinical reasoning with every patient encounter and each therapist may have different clinical reasoning.

This is an AOTA website outlining the role of the AOTA ethics commission. The AOTA Ethics Commission revises and reviews the occupational therapy code of ethics, educates members and the public about the code of ethics, Establishes procedures for code non-compliance, and informs members on code of ethics interpretations. The web page also has links and resources for members if you would ever run into an ethical dilemma and need guidance.

This article is about an occupational therapist who has worked in many settings and discussed the importance of supervision in her career. The therapist stated that she needed supervision from more experience practitioners when she first started working. the article stated that she found an experienced practitioner and discussed her actual cases with the practitioner. the supervisor would go over psychodynamics, therapeutic use of self, and clinical reasoning. The author states that this sort of professional supervision is important to become a well rounded practitioner that the patience best interest in mind.

This article compared neuromotor rehabilitation and OT by determining the amount of functional independence an individual had. Researchers used the Valutazione Funzionale Mielolesi assessment. There was a significant difference in patients who were married and those who were in the experimental group.

I thought this was a great article relating to the psychosocial needs of clients. Working in an SCI unit, a lot of our clients have mobility issues and quite a few of them have service dogs. In reading this article, it discusses how social participation for people with disabilities is an important factor for OT's to consider. This research helps to demonstrate that having a service dog helps clients to increase leisure activities and community participation. It also found that the use of service dogs, allow people to participate more in meaningful occupations.

This PDF document defines professionalism competency as an individual's ability to align both personal and organizational conduct with ethical and professional standards in order to assume responsibility to the patient and community through providing professional level services. This column, developed by the Healthcare Leadership Alliance, outlines four key areas in order to develop competency in professionalism. The first step in achieving competency includes understanding professional roles and norms. This includes understanding both the formal and informal expectations of conduct within the field. For occupational therapists, this would include interacting with other occupational therapy practitioners as well as being actively involved in state and national occupational therapy organizations, such as AOTA and staying up to date with research and trends within the field. Secondly, an individual must be able to establish and maintain working relationships with others. Thirdly, in order to demonstrate professionalism competency an individual must be able to manage time, energy, stress, uphold ethical/professional standards, and develop a sense of personal responsibility and accountability for their work. Lastly, an individual must be able to give back to others and contribute to others growth, whether through mentorships or simply coaching others to reach their potential. Becoming competent in professionalism can be time consuming and require a great deal of dedication; however, as healthcare professionals we should always strive to achieve professionalism.

This web resource outlines West Virginia law regarding occupational therapists supervisory roles. Under West Virginia law, it is the responsibility of the occupational therapist and the occupational therapy assistant to decide the appropriate frequency and quality of supervision to ensure that the occupational therapy assistant is providing both safe and effective occupational therapy services to their patients. A supervising occupational therapist who is supervising an occupational therapy assistant with less than one year's experience is responsible for providing general supervision and must be available as needed by telephone, electronic, or written communication. Additionally, the occupational therapist must provide direct contact supervision to the occupational therapy assistant every two weeks at the work site. The same supervision rules apply to an experienced occupational therapy assistant except direct contact is only required monthly. The occupational therapist must document any type of supervision. This particular document did not mention how many occupational therapy assistants an occupational therapist can supervise at one time. This document is beneficial in highlighting the supervisory roles of an occupational therapist, for anyone considering working within West Virginia.