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I thought it would be beneficial to provide the steps to take in order to obtain an OT license, since most of us will be taking the certification exam and applying for a license. We are allowed to practice before taking the NBSOT exam, but OTs practicing under a temporary license are required to have supervision by a licensed OT. A student who has graduated from an accredited OT program, but has not passed the certification exam, may practice under a temporary license. However, they must practice under the supervision of a licensed OT in both the evaluation process and the intervention process. To obtain a license, these are the steps that are required: Graduate from an accredited OT or OTA educational program, complete fieldwork requirements, apply for and pass the NBCOT® Certification Examination, and apply for a license and pay a fee for each state/jurisdiction in which you wish to practice.

This assessment is based on observation of a patient in a more natural environment/setting and looks at if they initiate expected activities such as, turning off appliances, closing doors when they leave, doing dishes, prepping dinner.. etc within 15 min of expected time. This is looked at and recorded each day of the week. In acute care this is just not very applicable, as we don't watch patients all day, every day of the week and the Vets are in an unfamiliar setting where they likely won't initiate such activities even if cognition is unimpaired. Even the activities that do occur in the hospital setting, such as eating lunch, don't apply very well because the score is acquired by adding up how they did each day of the week and it is not very practical to see a patient every day for the entirety of their lunch for a week straight. This may be a nice assessment for the nursing home to use in some instances.

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 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.

This website offers some insight into professionalism and how to apply professionalism to one's everyday work experiences. The article discusses topics such as the definition of professionalism, integrity, accountability, emotional intelligence, and building expertise.

This PDF document serves as an instructor's resource to clinical reasoning, why it is important, as well as the process to implement clinical reasoning into practice. The resource was written for nurses but can apply to occupational therapists as well. According to the authors, clinical reasoning describes the process by which occupational therapy practitioners collect cues, process information, come to an understanding concerning a patient's problem/situation, develop a plan and implement interventions, evaluate the outcomes, and lastly reflect and learn from the experience. Within healthcare, clinical reasoning is vital because those with effective clinical reasoning skills are better able to detect impending deterioration in patients and are also able to pinpoint what is impacting their ability to function at their prior level. This two skills enable therapists to provide more effective treatment and often they receive better functional outcomes from their patients. The clinical reasoning cycle outlined in this resource begins by considering the patient and their situation. The occupational therapist must then collect cues/information from the patient, their family, and the environment itself. The therapist must then process the information, identify the problems, establish therapy goals, take action through treatment intervention, and evaluate treatment outcomes. The final step includes reflecting on the process and learning from any mistakes or misconceptions in order to grow and mold into a more experienced clinician.

This is an instructional pdf file that discusses clinical reasoning in general terms, why clinical reasoning skills are important for health care personnel, examples and practical applications of clinical reasoning, and critical thinking habits to apply to one's everyday practice.

This is a pdf that explains evidence based practice in general terms and how it applies to occupational therapy. This certainly would provide a good basis for us as we are currently applying what we learned in our coursework to our clinical experiences. In today's healthcare market, there truly is a demand for evidence-based practice to justify reimbursement.

This resource defines evidence-based practice, why it is important within the healthcare arena, and the process of integrating evidence into everyday practice. According to Sackett et al. (1996), evidence-based practice is best defined as "the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients". Individuals often mistake evidence-based practice as utilizing results from studies to guide treatment. However, evidence-based practice is more of an integration between client expertise, best available research evidence, and the patients' preferences and therapy goals. Through the use of evidence-based practice occupational therapy practitioners can better meet the needs of their patients.

This is a power point presentation by Sally Bennett, from the Division of Occupational Therapy School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Queensland Australia. The power point is an introduction to evidence-based practice in occupational therapy. The presentation provides a definition of evidence-based practice, why EBP is important, the process of EBP, how EBP has changed delivery of health care delivery, and why it is important to occupational therapy.

This article is analyzing the knowledge and confidence of EBP in OT students. A convenience sample of occupational therapy students from a private university completed a survey designed to measure students' knowledge and confidence in EBP. The survey consisted of the Knowledge of Research Evidence Competencies (K-REC) and the Evidence-Based Practice Confidence (EPIC) scale, as well as demographic questions. The participants in this study were confident in their ability to implement certain components of the EBP reference model. They demonstrated the most confidence in asking patients about their needs, conducting a literature search, and determining if the evidence applies to their client's situation. The participants were least confident in their EBP skills associated with using statistical procedures and statistical tests to interpret study results.

The study evaluated an occupational therapy nutrition education program for children who are obese with the use of two interactive games. A quasi-experimental study was carried out at a school Brazil. A convenient sample of 200 children ages 8-10 years old participated in the study. Data was collected through interviews, observation, and focus group, comparing two interactive games based on the food pyramid (video game and board game) used individually and then combined. Both play activities were efficient in the mediation of nutritional concepts, with a preference for the board game. The attention strategy was most applied at the video game. It was concluded that both games promoted the learning of nutritional concepts. It was also confirmed that the effectiveness of the games was also affected by the child's environment. This study needs further research and should be addressed with a larger sample size.

Now that we have had a chance to experience clinical reasoning and understand how important it is. I found this little PDF file that explains how each type of clinical reasoning goes into the OT process. For example, how procedural reasoning guides treatment however, interactive reasoning guides therapy. Its a really neat clean cut explanation of why it is important to touch on each type of reasoning during the OT process with each client.

This article is by the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapy and it is a good refresher over clinical reasoning (especially the different types of clinical reasoning) and why it is so important to develop this skill and apply it in practice. Additionally, it provide some tips for students and for fieldwork educators in this area.

This article discusses the ethics behind OTs taking on an advocacy role, both as an advocate for their clients and also empowering clients to advocate for themselves. The OT code of ethics requires OTs to be advocates through the principles of beneficence, justice, and veracity. It is important that OTs understand laws and regulations and how to apply them to clients needs. Understanding this legal language is important as it can dictate who and how we treat. The incorporation of evidence based practice is also essential in advocacy efforts as it adds to credibility and can help strengthen a case for a client and their need for services.

This AJOT article is titled Intervention Planning Facets-Four Facets of Occupational Therapy Intervention Planning: Economics, Ethics, Professional Judgment, and Evidence-Based Practice. The article discusses four basic principles of occupational therapy and offers the perspectives of occupational therapists in applying these principles to everyday practice.

This article discussed how professional judgement, ethics, EBP, and economic constraints are interrelated in OT practice. Each need to be considered during intervention planning, however, some therapists may find this difficulty. A literature review found that overall there is a lack of evidence supporting OT practice and that it can be difficult to integrate research findings into treatment. One question mentioned was should clients be quantified and reduced to variables as each person is unique?. Practitioners need to remember that research provides guidance for interventions, rather than step by step how-tos. It is up to the OT to use their judgment and experience to incorporate it.

OT should be science driven and therapists should be able to apply the most up to date evidence to their practice and treatment plans. This resource provided by AOTA helps to breakdown evidence supported interventions that have been shown to improve client outcomes in a variety of different settings/populations. Evidence supported ideas are provided for pediatrics, specifically early childhood, mental health, sensory integration and sensory processing. It is also provided for gerontology, rehabilitation and disability, adults with serious mental illness, and work. This is a good resource if you need a starting point for a treatment plan to give general ideas of EBP.

This article discusses the various research opportunities available in area of adult stroke victims. Through the last 12 weeks, I have encountered a significant number of patients with CVA at the nursing home. I found the article extremely relevant to current occupational therapy practices due to the nature of treatments regarding CVA's. I think that it is critical for more research to be done, to help OT's better understand the nature of strokes and the best practices to treat them. AOTA developed a table to help researchers, students, and clinicians that summarizes various research opportunities on stroke patients. I believe this can be a helpful tool for OT's looking for innovative ideas and research to help apply to field work.