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 was located on AOTA's website. It is about the role of occupational therapy in palliative care. The article defines palliative care, occupational therapy, and how the two are connective. The areas of occupation are outlined, and the role of OT in these occupations. The author discusses the importance in not only providing physical comfort to clients in delivering palliative care, but providing psychosocial comfort as well. The article highlights meeting psychosocial and emotional needs of clients as well as families of clients and their caregivers.

This article is not about student supervision, but occupational therapy assistant supervision. The article was located on the AOTA website and provides a model state Regulation for supervision, roles, and responsibilities during the delivery of occupational therapy services. The purpose of the model is to provide a template for use by state agencies and occupational therapy regulatory boards when drafting or revising regulations to govern the clinical supervision of occupational therapy assistants, limited permit holders, and aides. The model is intended to help safeguard the public health, safety and welfare by establishing guidelines that are consistent with professional standards and accepted practice in the profession. I think this is a good model to have in place to guide state regulation policies.

I found this article on the British Association of Occupational Therapists and College of Occupational Therapists website. The post is to open up a discussion after Karen Middleton, Chief Health Professions Officer, challenged health care professionals and associations to have the Big Conversation on Professionalism. I think this is a nice challenge, and incentive for professional organizations/associations and all medical health care establishments to discuss professionalism and their expectations and standards from employees.

I came across the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists Code of Ethics in my search. The code of ethics begins with a preamble to define occupational therapy and beliefs occupational therapists have about their professional duties. They include beliefs on occupation, the person, the environment, overall health, and client centered practice. The code of ethics then outlines ethical expectations for members of the CAOT, and makes reference to the Canadian Occupational Therapy Practice Framework. This is interesting to compare to the American Occupational Therapy Association, and see where we can make improvements based off of what is presented by CAOT.

This is an article by Maureen Hayes Fleming found in AJOT about how clinical reasoning is different in occupational therapists than it is for medical doctors. The article discusses findings from an ethnographic study of occupational therapists working in large teaching hospitals. The findings suggest both professions utilize hypothetical reasoning in their decision making process. Occupational therapists and doctors differ in their goals for patients, which may result in different treatment ideas/opinions.

http://www.otevidence.info/
This is a web-resource I located that outlines the steps to evidence-based practice. It talks about relevant databases that may be used to find articles, and how to appraise literature in order to determine how beneficial it will be in treating patients. I think this is a really good site to offer as a resource for occupational therapy practitioners that have been in the field for a long time that did not necessarily get enough exposure to research and evidence based practice in their curriculum. It gives a nice overview of what evidence based practice is and how to apply it in their careers.

http://www.healio.com/health-professions/journals/otjr/%7B6c30196a-882a-43aa-b4eb-66e037b7aaa2%7D/psychosocial-issues-in-rehabilitation-bringing-the-unconscious-to-consciousness
This article, by Patricia Jean Precin, discusses the importance of addressing the psychosocial needs of clients when practicing occupational therapy. The author argues health outcomes are poor and prolonged when psychosocial needs are not addressed, and that health of the mind and body are key to success. She discusses the importance across several settings. For example, occupational therapist that work with elderly patients facing end of life decisions are advised to be there for support and reflection in order to face end of life. Another example was treating cancer survivors and addressing psychosocial factors associated with obstacles they face. Precin addresses the lack of reimbursable time occupational therapists have in addressing psychosocial issues, and argues a push for reimbursed psychosocial services for occupational therapy.

http://www.sjsu.edu/occupationaltherapy/Fieldwork/fieldworkdocs/Fieldwork_Manual_update_for_Level_II_7-12.pdf
I came across San Jose State University's Supervision Manual for Clinical Fieldwork Instructors. The purpose of the document is to help create a successful collaboration between the academic program, fieldwork supervisor, and student. The manual is designed to provide information about San Jose State University fieldwork requirements, AOTA's requirements, and to provide the clinical supervisor with resources and models for fieldwork, and to orient the clinical coordinator and supervisor to the process of establishing a student program. Samples of the forms typically utilized by San Jose State University Occupational Therapy Department to communicate with fieldwork sites are also included in the document. This reminded me of the FEAT forms we had to fill out, and I thought this was a really nice Idea to help connect the fieldwork supervisor, academic program, and student in an experience that is so dependent on positive collaboration between the three.

http://occupational-therapy.advanceweb.com/Student-and-New-Grad-Center/Student-Top-Story/5-Steps-to-Achieve-Professionalism.aspx
This article, located on Advance for Occupational Therapy Practitioners website, outlines five steps to professionalism in the workplace. First is dressing appropriately, second is using appropriate grammar, third is accepting challenges and approaching them head on, third is showing respect for others, and lastly is accepting accountability for mishaps and mistakes. I think all of these are applicable not only in the field of occupational therapy but across all fields. These are definitely qualities to have in order to represent the profession of occupational therapy once we enter the work force.

http://jme.bmj.com/content/24/3/193.full.pdf
This article, titled Ethical dilemmas in occupational therapy and physical therapy: A survey of practitioners in the UK national health service, was written to identify ethical dilemmas experienced by physical and occupational therapists in the UK and compare contexts, themes, and principals across the two groups. Data was collected via structured questionnaires. More ethical dilemmas were reported in the mental health setting by occupational therapists (most likely due to the increased OT to PT ratio employed in this setting). Occupational therapists reported most ethical dilemmas involving difficult/dangerous behavior in patients and unprofessional staff behavior, while physical therapists reported most ethical dilemmas involving resource limitations and treatment effectiveness.

This is an article by Cheryl Mattingly in AJOT about clinical reasoning in occupational therapy. This article expresses a little bit of a different take on defining clinical reasoning. The author discusses common definitions of clinical reasoning that are most often associated with scientific data and theory. However, Mattingly states these textbook definitions do not give enough credit to the understanding and knowledge that comes through patient interaction and experience with different patients from different backgrounds over time. She argues therapists do not use a simple theory or set of data and apply it to our patients because our profession is more humanistic than many professions.