This is a great read that includes information analyzed by public health professionals that could be used when discussing the value of OT with doctors and hospital executives. The authors looked at services offered at over 5,500 hospitals for patients with heart failure, pneumonia, and acute myocardial infarction (Important Medicare DRGs that impact hospitals' risk to pay part of patient bill should they be readmitted). They found that OT was the only individual service that was significantly negatively correlated with readmission rates. The authors also discuss why this is, due to the services we offer in acute care. Very good read - it was featured in OT Practice last month!

This review out of Cincinnati Children's is a great resources for the updated evidence on using weighted and compression tools in practice for proprioceptive input. This is especially useful if you are entering a pediatric rotation, as I get a lot of questions from speech and physical therapy clinicians and students about using these items in their sessions for children with sensory needs.
Brevoort, K., Brennan, A., McQuiddy, V., Reder, R., Vonderhaar, K., Gilene, M., & Kiger, M. (2012, February 9). Best Evidence Statement (BESt): Use of a Weighted or Pressure Device to Modify Behavior in Children with a Sensory Processing Disorder. Retrieved from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center: file:///C:/Users/jgdou/Downloads/ot-pt-best-autism-weighted-vest-pdf%20(2).pdf

I hope you all find this blog interesting. This OT advertises herself as having an "unfiltered" opinion on topics in OT. In this post, she discusses some of the challenges and benefits of supervising a COTA and students. She has some useful information and experience on the topic and it offers a lot to reflect on. https://theanonymousot.com/

As we enter our final months as "students," I think it is interesting to see our peers' opinion on professionalism. A large part of fieldwork has been implementing professional behaviors in collaborating with our educators and those from other disciplines, so it is interesting to see how I am performing compared to the standards of others. http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1154&context=ojot

This article is a couple of years old now, but is a great outline and reflection on how important ethics is to our profession. If you are an AOTA member, you can download the article here:http://ajot.aota.org/article.aspx?articleid=1934864. It is really uplifting to hear how our future colleagues advocate for inclusion!

I saw this post in an email from OT Practice and looked up some of the blogs so I could keep up with all things OT. There are some great suggestions for how to use better clinical reasoning when deciding which activities to do with children and how each activity will add to the child's function in daily activities. Read at https://theenthusiasticlife.wordpress.com/2015/09/14/why-and-how-do-pediatric-occupational-therapists-play-games/