This article discusses the impact of an educational intervention in DVD format focused on strengthening the mental health practices of occupational therapists working with older adults in long-term care settings. Thirty occupational therapists were selected to participate in the pretest-posttest design. The therapists completed a knowledge and attitude questionnaire, as well as completed chart reviews of therapists' caseloads three months prior to watching the videos. After watching the DVD and three months had past, the therapists participating in the study completed the same knowledge and attitude questionnaire and chart reviews once more. The results showed a 20%-30% increase in correct answers on the questionnaire. The chart reviews also showed that therapists spent increased time addressing patients' mood, depression and cognitive impairments, as well as conduct more screenings for depression and cognitive impairments. The conclusion stated that educational interventions with therapists could significantly increase the quality of mental health practices in occupational therapy.

This is a resource produced by the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland. This information gives guidance for supervision of assistants and students. The resource is divided into five chapters with references and appendices also provided. Chapter one provides an introduction and rationale for the need of such as resource discussing supervision in occupational therapy. Chapter two gives definitions for what professional supervision is and is not in occupational therapy, as well as modes, functions and dual approaches in supervision. Chapter three discusses the components of supervision policy in occupational therapy. Chapter four gives an in-depth discussion of intervention strategies to enhance supervision. The final chapter provides a conclusion to the resource. References and Appendices follow with samples and discussion about a project process. This resource gives great information about supervision and allows the readers to gain a perspective of occupational therapy in Europe.

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 article examines ethical issues in long-term care. One key component of solving ethical issues in long-term care settings is continually reexamining the beliefs and assumptions of the elderly in this setting and how occupational therapy services will affect them. One area that we must consider to make ethical decisions is the changes in medical technology and the demographics of the residents in these long-term care settings. The next point the article discusses is the concept of autonomy and how the current autonomy paradigm is poorly suited to guide occupational therapy's decisions regarding older adults in long-term care. The concepts of autonomy inadequately describe the realities of aging populations according to this article. The third concept is to create a new approach of autonomy by consulting the individual and taking into account the elderly's freedoms while they are residing in long-term care facilities. Another model that must be incorporated into developing ethical guidelines for long-term care settings is the partnership model, which states that family and important resources should be included in the daily living activities and critical health care decisions of the residents. Approaching occupational therapy with these concepts in mind will allow for better quality of care and increased ethical guidance.

The number of residents in long-term nursing facilities with dementia and cognitive impairments is continuing to increase each year. Many studies have shown decreases in quality of life for residents with these diagnoses. This article studies the effects of animal assisted therapy compared to human interactions on social behaviors and engagement among elderly patients with dementia in a long-term care facility. Patients were randomly divided into two groups, a group with human interactions and a group with animal assisted therapy. The study was conducted over a two-week period of time. The human interaction group consisted on one-on-one time with general conversation and reading and looking at pictures in the newspaper. The animal assisted therapy group consisted of petting, brushing and talking to the dogs. Data was collected using the Demographic and Pet History Questionnaire and the Social Behaviors checklist. The results showed that animal assisted therapy had a positive impact on social behaviors and increased engagement in activities, while also decreasing incidents requiring staff members.

This article discusses a new method for evaluating students' competencies and performances during clinic experiences. Due to the increasing demand for higher education and increasing clinical experiences for medical professions, more and more student are required to participate in on-site learning experiences in order to obtain their degree. Unfortunately, there is a lack of literature to support assessments to accurately determine occupational therapy students' level of learning and progress during on-site teaching scenarios. The author of this article discusses an in-depth analysis of a new assessment developed for occupational therapy on-site clinical experiences. The assessment includes a five-point scale with 42 items in six domains. These domains include communication, documentation, safety and judgment, evaluation, intervention and professional behaviors. The five points range from dependent to self-directed. Professional literature and reasoning for domain and scale development are included in the article. The author concludes by stating that further research development and psychometric development needs to be completed in order to effectively incorporate the assessment into current clinical sites. The authors encourage occupational therapy programs to use the assessment and collaborate with the authors to further contribute to these areas of development.

Lateral epicondylitis, also known as tennis elbow, is one of the most commonly treated diagnoses we treat in the hand clinic I am currently placed for my level II rotation. This article aims to look at treating these patients with evidence-based practice and the occupational adaptation model. The occupational adaptation model is a process of adaptively responding to occupational challenges, through internal adaptations and preparations for adaptations to future occupational challenges. As occupational therapists, this model allows us to find ways for patients to continue mastering their occupations in their own unique way. In hand therapy evaluations, for lateral epicondylitis, a major focus is discovering many biomechanical measurements such as ROM, pain, sensation, strength and components of functioning. This article tells us that we should also be incorporating the OA model and discovering the client's occupations and challenges associated with those. This allows us to incorporate some occupation-based activities into the patients' treatment plans. Hand therapists should be finding ways to incorporate the psychosocial aspect of occupational therapy with the biomechanical aspects. The author explains that studies have shown that patients receiving combination of therapeutic exercise with ADL activities demonstrated statistically significant improvements in all measured parameters (pinch strength, total active range of motion, opposition, etc,) compared to groups only receiving therapeutic exercises. There is a challenge in hand therapy to bridge the gap between mechanical expectations with the holistic, client centered care of occupational therapy. In conclusion, therapist must work to educate other practitioners and work toward a blend of occupation-based and biomechanical-based treatments when working with lateral epicondylitis patients and other hand therapy patients.

This was a study that looked at more effective ways to train students in wheelchair transfers with more dependent patients. Typically, the curriculum allows for transfer practice using other peers. This study occurred in a high-technology laboratory with SimMan technology and mock hospital suite. The SimMan replicates what a dependent transfer patient would be like. The mock hospital suite simulated an acute care setting, complete with medical equipment, vital signs, lines and drains in place. Scenarios were developed for the students with the assistance of practicing occupational therapists. These scenarios included an acutely ill patient, a critical medical management event that occurred during bed-to-wheelchair transfer and occupational need. Students completed 66-88% of transfer items correctly and showed that simulated scenarios were more difficult that practitioners rated them. Student rated this simulation as an effective, more realistic teaching tool. Students attributed this kind of simulation as a positive contribution to curriculum and promoted greater procedural and clinical reasoning skills.

This study aims to discover the impacts of an occupational therapy driving intervention with returning combat veterans. A single-subject design with three phases was used and conducted by a certified driving rehabilitation specialist. The three phases included a baseline pre-test, intervention with three 1-hr training sessions, and a post-test. Participants were recruited from several VA clinical in northern Florida. Inclusion criteria for participants included service in OEF or OIF, presence of a mTBI or orthopedic injury with PTSD, participation in driving prior to medical condition, valid driver's license residence in community, score of a least 24/30 on Mini-Mental State Examination. Outcome measures included the OT-CDRS and Optec 2500 for visual abilities, Useful Field of View for visual attention and processing speed, MMSE for general cognitive abilities, Trail-Making Test Part B for shifting, foot tap test for peddle control in car and right lower extremity ROM. One subject was selected and showed improvements in outcome measures. The subject showed improvements in visual search skills post-intervention. Patient also showed improvements in his appropriateness of searching skills post-intervention. Patient was also shown to improve on his on-road communication skills and recognition of need to inform other road users of intended actions. Although there were improvements in the veterans driving abilities, the threats to internal validity pose limitations to the study. The investigators intend to use data and address limitations in the hopes of conducting a random-controlled trial with more participants.

This article aims to use a qualitative descriptive study to describe occupational therapists experiences and improvements in work after adopting the Occupational Therapy Intervention Process Model (OTIPM). The OTIPM is a client-centered, top down, occupation-focused OT model of practice. The assumptions of the model are that every person is unique, has the will to engage in meaningful occupations, occupations are the primary therapeutic means and engagement in occupations in the central focus in OT. The study was conducted in an acute care hospital in Sweden starting in 2001. They were selected because the therapists wanted to improve OT services and promote evidence-practice in their hospital. The participants participated in a total of six semi-structured focus interviews in which the occupational therapists were asked to describe their experiences of the long-term improvements in work, attitudes toward improvements work and thoughts on how this improved work impacts the goal to change to a more sustainable and evidence-based OT practice in their setting. The first three interviews were in 2006 and the last three were in 2011. The interviews were analyzed and broken down into common themes among therapists. The first theme is that the therapists found their thoughts and actions were transformed on an individual and group level after adopting the OTIPM. The second theme discovered how the therapists dealt with conflicting feelings and attitudes toward change. The final theme describes a shared professional culture. In conclusion, the investigators discovered from the 10-year study and testimonies of Swedish therapists that the use of OTIPM can lead to the integration of evidence-based knowledge that has long-lasting achievements in practice.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/11038128.2013.872183?journalCode=iocc20 I found the article through a SSU library search. The content may not show up on this site, but if you log into the library and search the article you will have access. Here is another resource as well.

In my rotation, we have treated a few stroke patients after BTX-A injections using splinting and a few other treatment methods. This article discovers the comparison of adhesive taping vs. daily manual muscle stretching and splinting after injections. A single-blind randomized control trail with 70 patients was conducted with patients experiencing wrist and finger flexor muscle spasticity post-stroke. After receiving the injections, patients were randomly divided into two groups. Group A consisted of adhesive taping. Adhesive taping is first placed on forearm and fingers and left for 10 days with daily checks. The tape provides traction on hypertonic muscles. Group B consisted of patient's receiving manual muscle stretching of injected muscles for 30 min and passive articular mobilization of wrist and fingers to maintain muscle length. Custom palmar splints with made for each patient and positioned for maximum stretching. Outcome measures used to to measure spasticity consisted of the Modified Ashworth scale, related disability with Disability Assessment Scale and finger positions at rest. At the end of the trial, it was discovered that patient in Group A, adhesive taping, had a significantly decrease in spasticity scores. Some limitations included lack of placebo group and longer follow-up data.