This is another research opportunity for those of us who are interested in working with children: early childhood through 5 years. AOTA Evidence Based Project has developed a table outlining specific interventions and indicates either that the evidence is sufficient to support the intervention or that moderate, mixed, or few studies support the intervention and therefore it is a priority research area. This is a great resource for anyone interested in EBP in this area.

This is an interesting research opportunity for those of us who would love to work with older adults especially in the mental health arena. The AOTA Evidence Based Project has developed a table summarizing the research opportunities on adults with serious mental illness. The table provides an overview of the state of current available evidence on interventions within the scope of occupational therapy practice and is based on the systematic reviews from AOTA's Occupational Therapy Practice Guidelines Series.Researchers, students, and clinicians can use this information in developing innovative research to answer important questions within the occupational therapy field.

This document provides a definition for supervision: viewed as a cooperative process in which two or more people participate in a joint effort to establish, maintain and or elevate the level of competence and performance. The authors add that supervision is based on a mutual understanding between the supervisor and supervisee about each other's competence, experience, education and credentials. For me, it was interesting that the authors indicated that supervision is supposed to promote growth, encourage creativity and innovation. Thus, if your relationship with your supervisor does not reflect this then you may want to meet and discuss this document.

This article explores a schematic representation of professionalism developed through a review of the literature and qualitative analysis of information obtained from discussion groups focussed on professionalism. In this paper, the schematic representation of professionalism is presented as well as information about two supported self-study courses entitled, Fostering Professional Development and Becoming a Professional. A professional portfolio guide for the student occupational therapist is also described. Future implications and directions for fostering professionalism is discussed.

This article encourages practitioners to provide interventions that are evidence based. This is important because the advent of health care reform in public and private sectors, the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA; Pub. L. 111-148), and ongoing Medicare reforms, payers and healthcare systems are requiring more and more evidence-based practice (EBP), resulting in definable outcomes that will affect payment.By incorporating interventions that have strong and moderate evidence such as those listed in this article, occupational therapy practitioners fulfill the goals of the triple aim, providing effective and cost-effective services.

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.

Self-perceptions of the everyday consequences of TBI can influence motivation for therapy and emotional adjustment to postinjury circumstances is important to meet the overall needs of patients with TBI.This article explores the Self-Perceptions in Rehab Questionnaire and found preliminary support for the SPIRQ scales' reliability and construct validity. This questionnaire will be useful with TBI patients in our practice.

This article explores the new and expanding roles for occupational therapists in the near future. Outside influences, including consumer-based health trends, medical and scientific developments, and new patient and client needs, are discussed and analyzed according to their impact on internal professional factors such as leadership, management, and business skills.

This article discusses ethos; an important inner voice that inspires individuals and call them back if they stray too far. The author describes and discusses the ethos of the profession in such a way that a new perspective on current challenges is possible. She finally set before her readers the following idea: To advance into the future with the ethos that has characterized occupational therapy since its inception.

This article explores professionalism as an ideal that encompasses widely held expectations of, and and objective standards for evaluating,any field that calls itself a profession. The author seeks to promote professionalism as heart, mind, and soul at all levels so that all practitioners do in the name of occupational therapy will remain right for themselves and good for the world.

I feel that our understanding of the clinical reasoning of COTAs is important, since OTs will be working with COTAs. In this article, participant demonstrated the use of pragmatic, procedural, interactive, conditional, and narrative reasoning. Further research to support these findings and to increase the understanding of the forms of clinical reasoning used by occupational therapy assistants is suggested.

I found this research pyramid interesting. In the campaign to implement evidence-based practice, the current single-hierarchy model of levels of evidence fails to incorporate at parity all types of research evidence that are valuable in the practice of occupational therapy. This article delineates the basic modes of clinical reasoning in occupational therapy.

This article discusses the two most used cognitive assessment tools and how they help in predicting therapy outcome measures. I did my inservice presentation on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and the Mini-mental state exam and how the OTs at Grant can use one or the other using clinical judgement as a standardized cognitive assessment with mild TBI, stroke and other patients who present with neuro deficits. The MOCA has been proven to help in identifying mild cognitive deficits that the MMSE is unable to identify.