Group items tagged

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.

Educational of practitioners in psychology, saying we are lacking in this part of education...Do you agree?!

Educational of practitioners in psychology, saying we are lacking in this part of education...Do you agree?!

According to this author, occupational therapy practitioners lack the appropriate knowledge and education concerning how to address psychosocial needs. The author states that two of the most common complaints occupational therapy practitioners have is motivation and compliance issues with patients, which is directly linked to therapeutic use of self, which is fundamental to psychosocial skills. Having training in psychosocial services is one of the biggest differences that separate occupational therapists from physical therapists. The author highlights that without adequate knowledge in addressing psychosocial needs occupational therapy practitioners cannot effectively treat patients from a holistic standpoint.

This article, found on AOTA's website, discussed an ethical issue that we, as practitioners, will face that I hadn't really thought about. As therapists we will be faced with the issue of treating two individuals who have the same diagnosis and prognosis, but have different insurances! One individual will more than likely get more minutes and resources based on their insurance compared to the other. This is definitely an ethical dilemma I hadn't thought about.

This article, written by the American Occupational Therapy Association, outlines various ethical issues concerning payment for services occupational therapy practitioners may face. For instance, occupational therapy practitioners may encounter situations where two individuals have the same diagnosis but are entitled by differing insurance plans to varying levels of services at different levels of reimbursement. Sadly, differences in insurance plans can pose inevitable differences in patients' care. I have been able to witness this scenario first hand, as some insurance companies will only pay a flat rate for 30 minutes of occupational therapy services for a skilled patient versus another insurance company allowing a patient to receive ninety minutes of skilled occupational therapy services per day, when both patients have the same diagnosis and deficits. It stands to reason that individuals who are able to receive more intensive services will receive a higher level of care as more time can be devoted to addressing deficits. All of the issues presented in this document can pose potential ethical dilemmas for occupational therapy practitioners; however, utilizing the AOTA Code of Ethics can enable practitioners to make effective, ethical decisions in the best interest of their patients.

This article explores the components of practice that make occupational therapy practitioners feel prepared to integrate research into their practice. According to this article, many practitioners in the field feel that they lack the necessary skills required to incorporate innovative research into their practice of occupational therapy. The authors of this article conducted a study to determine what characteristics and behaviors would foster the utilization of research. Eleven occupational therapy practitioners working in stroke rehabilitation participated in the study. The therapists completed a self-report and were interviewed by the authors. The researchers discovered that participants' clinical experience, engagement in continuing education, involvement in research activities and mentoring students all contributed to utilization of research into occupational therapy practice. The authors concluded that research utilization should be enhanced through means of professional development, which will guide practitioners in learning activities, provide opportunities to foster the behaviors discovered in the research study and enhance occupational therapists' capacity to incorporate research into their practice.

This blog is something that all clinicians and students need to read, think about, and discuss with others. The author discusses how she was taught a series of problem solving steps during her education and how they have caused her to become like many other therapists by jumping to solutions before knowing the real problem. Therefore, the therapists discusses all the things she has learned on her own through her various classes that she examines when screening/assessing a patient in order to determine the appropriate problem in order to generate an effective solution.

This posting describes an occupational therapists evolution of clinical reasoning skills as she developed as a practitioner. As an entry-level practitioner she followed the "problem solving process" she was taught in school. This process includes identifying the problems, identifying potential solutions, choosing one identified solution, implementing the solution, reviewing the satisfactoriness of the solution, and if unsatisfied completing the process over and over until a satisfactory solution is met. However, she explains that she quickly realized that too often we as occupational therapy practitioners jump in with various solutions before truly identifying the root of the problem. The author highlights numerous assumptions that can be made as to why we want to jump the gun, so to speak. Some of the top reasons mentioned include the patient lacks insight as to the root of the problem and may identify contributory problems and not the true source, there is no specific step to properly examine the source of the problem, and lastly we often view an individual's needs in terms of deficits rather than examining interactions between the individual concerning values and daily choices and their impact on the environment. The author concludes by providing guidance to upcoming practitioners so that they may not make the same mistakes she previously did. She explains that during the evaluation process she is looking not only at the client and what they define as problems, but also looking at strengths, possible explanations, and areas that can be explored in more detail in order to develop a stronger hypothesis as to the root of the problem. Otherwise she risks applying a solution that doesn't solve the problem, creates other problems, and/or prevents uncovering of deeper areas of concern that are impacting the individual's life.

Documentation is extremely important in the OT profession, and is necessary whenever professional services are provided to a client. The AOTA standard's of practice state that, "an OT practitioner should document OT services and abide by the time frames, format, and standards established by practice settings, governmental agencies, payers, AOTA documents, and external accreditation agencies." This document is based on the AOTA framework and describes and defines the various components of documentation so that OT practitioners have a clearer idea of what documents are and how they can be used to document client services. I believe this document will be beneficial to us as we begin to start our jobs as practitioners and will assist us in the documentation process.

This article is the AOTA's position on how to set professional boundaries with patients. The article provides examples of ethical documents within the the profession of OT, such as the Occupational Therapy Code of Ethics Standards. It then goes on to define professional boundaries and how to set them. Case study examples are provided for how to set professional boundaries, in a variety of contexts.

This is a great article pertaining directly to ethics of occupational therapy practitioners in skilled nursing facilities. The article clearly defines each ethical principal outlined in the AOTA code of ethics and how they relate to practice. The article then has several case studies that give specific ethical dilemmas and solve the dilemma with evidence from the AOTA ethical principals. One specif case study explained how it was unethical to treat a family member to do potential violations of justice and fairness.

This is a great article pertaining directly to ethics of occupational therapy practitioners in skilled nursing facilities. The article clearly defines each ethical principal outlined in the AOTA code of ethics and how they relate to practice. The article then has several case studies that give specific ethical dilemmas and solve the dilemma with evidence from the AOTA ethical principals. One specif case study explained how it was unethical to treat a family member to do potential violations of justice and fairness.

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.

In this article the author discusses what is unique about evidence-based practice for occupational therapy practitioners and what the key issues of utilizing evidence in everyday practice are for both practitioners, as well as the entire field. According to the author evidence-based practice is about generating a research question and finding, appraising, and utilizing various research outlets in order to base clinical decisions and provide the best possible treatment to patients. As the author highlights, it is very important for occupational therapists to truly integrate research evidence with clinical expertise and client factors/preferences in order to provide effective, patient specific services. This push to utilize evidence-based practice is relatively new to occupational therapy and many occupational therapists struggle to devote their efforts to utilizing evidence in their practice. Some of the most common reasons include lack of time and skills to frame the clinical question, limited access to research databases, and difficulty integrating research information into clinical practice. While it may be a challenge it is important for us as occupational therapy practitioners to define what it is we do, while demonstrating that what we do is effective.

This article, written by an occupational therapy practitioner, is more of a call to action for occupational therapists to examine the American Occupational Therapy Association Code of Ethics and reflect upon whether their daily actions and attitudes reflect the Code of Ethics. The occupational therapist expresses that oftentimes occupational therapy practitioners associate upholding ethics with patient care. However, as this author pinpoints upholding ethics extends past patients, but also to students, colleagues, third-party payers, as well as the profession itself. For instance, the author identifies frustration with occupational therapists and the companies that employ them that refuse to take fieldwork students whether due to fear that productivity will suffer, they're too busy, or whatever reason. Regardless of the reason, the author states that an ethical practitioner will find a way to make it feasible because they understand they have a professional commitment to train students.

This study identified practitioner qualities and traits that clients with brain injury see as important. Three themes regarding practitioner qualities emerged from the data: (a) roles of the provider, (b) perceived helpfulness of services, and (c) personal characteristics of the providers. Beneficial provider roles included advocate, friend, mentor, and team member. Perceptions of helpfulness of the services included relevance, meaningfulness, practical application, skill development potential, and whether periodic feedback on progress was provided. Personal characteristics of the provider valued by the participants were clear and honest communicator, supportive, respectful, good listener, and understanding.

This article discusses the professional behaviors of occupational therapy practitioners. The focus is on students in fieldwork and how to gain and perfect this behavior. This article describes the beahvior of professionalism as"a natural developmental process; a process that requires careful nurturing on the part of educators and clinical supervisors". This article further describes and explains this model of learning how to provide and show professionalim as a student and how to carry over to becoming a practitioner. this article is not only helpful for students in their fieldwork experiences, but also relevant and helpful for fieldwork educators and how to provide students with the knowledge to learn to provide this behavior of professionalism to their future patients as practitioners.

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 article discusses three types of clinical reasoning often used with occupational therapy practitioners. These types include scientific, narrative, and pragmatic. The main questions brought up by the authors were what is clinical reasoning and how does it influence practice?, what can we do to increase clinical reasoning skills?, and do views of clinical reasoning work in the reality of practice?. Aspects that influence use of clinical reasoning included the therapists views of OT, therapists life knowledge, ability to carry out treatments, and interest in patients and profession. It is important to understand what types of clinical reasoning are being utilized in particular practice contexts in order to help with the creation of staff and self development models.

This article discusses evidence based practice and how even with evidence it can be difficulty to incorporate new changes into practice. There are several steps that need to be taken in order to properly incorporate new evidence into practice, such as determining relevance to setting, creating new guidelines, and adopting these new guidelines into practice. Due to several barriers, these changes typically do not take place immediately. Some barriers to adopting new research findings into practice include: profession, legislative, administrative, practitioner, patient/patient family, and value/belief barriers.

This article discusses professionalism, and is a speech delivered diruing the 2010 Frances Rutherford Lecture in New Zealand. We as OT practitioners have the responsibility to promote and embrace the principles of our practice. We are responsible for how the public views our profession. Our actions should take root in the principle that taking part in occupations benefits the health and well-being of our patients. The author states that our professional responsibility is to always question and examine our role in healthcare, so that we can grow and practice in the most meaningful way.

This study investigated the validated a clinical reasoning tool to describe OT perspectives in the home modification process. This included the development of a personal factors guideline to aid OT practitioners' clinical reasoning in home modification interventions. Factors to consider range from course of diagnosis and patient's preference to compliance and resources. This article showed how holistic OT is because it looked at home modification based on all client factors/environment to guide clinical reasoning for interventions.

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.