Group items tagged

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 exert is specifically from the VA handbook in regards to supervision specifically for health professionals and trainees. This resource provides a strict breakdown of the supervision requirements for supervisors and trainees. It is clear through this policy that strict guidelines are to be followed within this system and this is what I have experienced in my time there. I was intrigued however, that supervisory roles are seen as an educational experience. The following tenet was the first under supervisor regulation--" Supervision is an educational experience provided by a qualified supervising practitioner with a trainee. This relationship is evaluative, extends over time, and has the simultaneous purposes of enhancing the professional functioning of the trainee while monitoring the quality of services delivered. Supervision is provided through observation, consultation, directing the learning and activities of the trainee, and role modeling". I feel that this really stressing the educational importance of being a supervisor.

As individuals age, communication often times becomes more difficult due to loss of hearing and eye sight. This PDF document provides information in a classroom format, with learning objectives and simple follow-up questions, to help students and clinicians alike to better understand the psychosocial needs of older adults. The document discusses how our views on aging also impact the patient that we are encountering on a daily basis. It is our task to provide the resources needed to these individuals to gain satisfaction and a sense of wellbeing. Lastly, the document provides ideas and information of alternate ways of thinking, communicating, as well as myths both positive and negative to better assist us in our learning process.

This article can help those who work with elderly individuals to identify common psychosocial needs among this population, in hopes of providing better care.

This article can help those who work with elderly individuals to identify common psychosocial needs among this population, in hopes of providing better care.

This qualitative study adds to the limited knowledge of OT practitioners in the rural settings.The study gave view points that OT's in the rural setting are not just generalists. This search went under the category of professionalism as this is a behavior that changes with the setting and population that you deal with.

This qualitative study adds to the limited knowledge of OT practitioners in the rural settings.The study gave view points that OT's in the rural setting are not just generalists. This search went under the category of professionalism as this is a behavior that changes with the setting and population that you deal with.

This test could be used in acute care. This assessment offers a hospital version (MET_HV) that would be appropriate in the VA setting. This test was developed for use with a wider range of participants than the original version; it has more concrete rules, simplification of task demands and space provided on the instruction sheet for the patient to record the information they were to collect. There are 12 separate subtasks within four sets of simple tasks. These four task sets are as follows: 1. The patient must complete six specific errands (purchase 3 items, use the phone, collect and envelope from reception and send a letter to an external address), 2. The patient must obtain and write down four items of designated information (e.g. the opening time of a shop on Saturday), 3. The patient must meet the assessor outside of the hospital reception in 20 minutes after the test had begun and state the time, 4. The client must inform the assessor when he/she finishes the test. The test cannot be administered to patients confined to bed due to the nature of the questions. The test would be difficult to complete on patients instructed to only get up with help as they would have to have a nurse available at the time they need to meet some of the task requirements. Both validity and reliability have been established for this test for various populations (see citation for specifics).

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 website provides a contact address for the purchase of this developmental profile. I found this to be an invaluable resource during my level II fieldwork, but found that it was difficult to order in print until I found this website.

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.

This article discusses in detail the clinical reasoning skills that are expected from occupational therapy fieldwork students by the end of their fieldwork experience.

This source talks about clinical reasoning of OT students who are completing their fieldwork rotations. The author discusses behavioral objectives for 2 out of the 7 performance areas: Evaluation and Screening and Intervention. I believe this is a good resource for students on fieldwork.

The purpose of this document is to provide occupational therapy fieldwork educators with a description of behavioral expectations of students at each level on the one to four point rating scale of the FWPE

This study was performed to identify the ability for individuals to adjust following spinal cord injury and acute rehabilitation treatment using the PAIS, the psychological adjustment to illness scale. Although this article is dated 1991- I feel that it has extreme relevance to the population. Specifically results of this study were extremely variable, some individuals were able to adjust without difficulty while others reported extreme difficulty with the major life change. I feel that this can be applicable to any traumatic injury--even outside of spinal cord in that experiences and adaption can be very individualized and should be approached as such. (Exactly why OT's approach to individuality and looking at the person as a whole is so crucial following a traumatic injury)

This article highlights the increased pressure placed on occupational therapists to utilize evidence-based practice when working with patients. The main purpose of this article is to provide occupational therapy practitioners with the knowledge and skill sets to utilize evidence to support their treatment and provide the best possible care to their patients. According to the authors, evidence-based practice requires occupational therapy practitioners to synthesize their clinical expertise, with the best evidence available to them through systematic review, as well as considering their patients' values and preferences. This article presents a framework that occupational therapy practitioners can utilize in order to create a more evidence-based practice. The first step includes asking clinical questions and then searching the literature in order to discover answers to the question. When gathering research information the occupational therapists must then place the research in hierarchies, deciphering what studies are more reliable and valid and what studies will provide better support to answer your clinical questions. This part of the process includes critically appraising the research to decide which studies are strongest and have the most sound evidence to support the clinical question. Throughout the entire process it is important for the therapist to utilize their clinical judgment in order to make the best decisions, as evidence-based practice requires a collaboration between research, clinical expertise, and patient preferences.

Bennett, S., & Bennett, J. (2000). The process of evidence-based practice in occupational therapy: informing clinical decisions. Australian Therapy Journal. 47, 171-180 This is a very helpful article from the Australian Therapy Journal that describes the process of evidence-based practice in occupational therapy. It emphasizes the importance that our profession now has placed on building our foundation in evidence-based practice and how we must have "sound evidence" to back up our treatments and interventions. The article discusses the framework to use with evidence-based practice, clinical questions to ask in research and the types of evidence to focus on at this point in time for our profession. This is a very valuable resource for newcomers to the profession as well as individuals who graduated in the past without the research component who may be interested in research at this point in time. Bennett and Bennett (2000) walk the reader through how to search for evidence based practice articles and then how to critically appraise them. It addresses the clinical importance and validity and how to know when you have a good study. Finally, it helps you to gauge how to know when you can use the evidence for individual clinical decisions.

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.