This article outlines five key areas that separate a professional from an employee. According to the author, exemplifying professionalism means talking the talk and walking the walk, with the attitude and behavior of possessing the appropriate skill, confidence and integrity needed within your career. In order to demonstrate professionalism within the workplace one must realize that character counts; it is important to uphold ethical standards even when no one is watching. Secondly, an individual must have a positive and enthusiastic attitude within the workplace. A professional will also always strive to achieve more, to achieve excellence. In addition, professionals demonstrate competency within their field, they are the best at what they do. Lastly, a professional always upholds the code of conduct outlined by his profession everywhere he goes.

This web resource outlines the seven principles of the Occupational Therapy Code of Ethics as well as addresses the difference between ethical distress and ethical dilemmas. The resource also outlines the steps to ethical decision making. This web resource serves as a NBCOT study guide concerning the many facets of ethics.

This article defines various aspects of emotional and social problems that may be present within older adults. These psychosocial issues are not only prevalent within the geriatric population but are also associated with higher morbidity rates and can drastically influence the progression of disease, daily functioning, and mortality. The article defines some of the repercussions that may occur when older adults are under psychosocial stress. Thus it is important as occupational therapy practitioners to pinpoint and address these needs early in order to help older adults, and anyone for that matter, achieve psychosocial health, as decreased psychosocial wellbeing can greatly influence overall health and quality of life.

This web resource provides flashcards outlining the American Occupational Therapy Association's Code of Ethics and Standards. The resource defines the seven values occupational therapy practitioners should uphold - beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy and confidentiality, social justice, procedural justice, veracity, and fidelity. The resource also defines some of the common jargon utilized when discusses ethics and ethical decisions made within the profession.

This article discusses the turn from a biomedical model to a holistic model within the long-term care setting. According to the author the biomedical model has some limitations, especially in terms of utilizing it within a long-term care facility. More appropriate and more pertinent to occupational therapy, is the utilization of the holistic model. The main goal of providing holistic care in long-term care includes maximizing physical, emotional, mental, social, and spiritual health, function, and well-being. The author concludes the article outlining some of the assumptions that are at the core when utilizing a holistic model.

According to the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapy, approximately 60% of therapists are in a supervisory role and are responsible for providing support and supervision to assure that patient goals are being addressed and met. One study outlined in this article examined occupational therapists comfort level with supervisory roles and found that many occupational therapists do not feel comfortable in a supervisory role. This article outlines three important aspects of supervision that occupational therapists should uphold in order to improve their comfort with supervision and improve the quality of their supervision. Occupational therapists should educate, manage, and support. In order to complete these three functions of supervision it is important to utilize various leadership styles to better reach those whom you supervise.

This article highlights the fact that it is the responsibility of occupational therapy practitioners to provide treatment that has sound evidence to support its use within the clinical setting. With continuous health care reforms, there is a great push for occupational therapist to utilize evidence-based practice when working with patients. In fact, the utilization of evidence in practice produces definable outcomes measures that will soon affect payment for services. By providing evidence-based services, occupational therapists are providing interventions that are both effective and cost-effective and reimbursable.

This article outlines the process of clinical reasoning and provides a framework for clinicians to utilize when attempting to teach clinical reasoning to students. This article was written with a focus on teaching junior doctors how to develop stronger clinical reasoning skills, but the same is applicable to occupational therapy students. Clinicians often know clinical reasoning when they see it but have a difficult time articulating and teaching it to their students. Clinical reasoning requires an individual to integrate and apply a variety of knowledge, weigh the presented evidence, critically think about all facets of the evidence, and finally to reflect upon the process utilized to arrive at the decision. Clinical reasoning encourages personal reflection and experience, which is why it is so difficult to teach to new grads/students that have little to no experience.

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 brief article provides various definitions of professionalism and explains why professionalism is important. The author explains that professionalism is multifaceted. Professionalism can be defined as upholding professional code of ethics, acknowledging patient rights, as well as an awareness of conduct. Professionalism can be verbal or nonverbal, as well as physical or nonphysical. The saying first impressions are lasting impressions explain why professionalism is so important. As healthcare professionals it is very important to always present our best selves. Thus, as the author explains the most important thing is to remember that professionalism is not an option. There should never be a question concerning whether an individual should act in a professional manner.

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 web resource is presented by a registered nurse but provides a broad overview of professionalism within the healthcare arena. The author of this presentation first defines professional as someone who has specialized knowledge within a particular field and who oftentimes has completed an intensive period of academic coursework in order to begin working. A professional is also someone who upholds the ethical standards of their profession. The author then goes on to explain the various facets of professionalism. According to her, demonstrating professionalism includes being a team player, having an awareness of how your mannerisms, words, and actions can affect others, being fully accountable for your actions, using kindness, compassion, knowledge, and direct communication to lead others, as well as learning to master a mindful, calm response to an emergency. Throughout the presentation, the author highlights that although your job may not be easy and at times can be stressful and seem impossible, that is no excuse to be unprofessional. This is something important for us to keep in mind as we begin our career as occupational therapists.

This article provides an interesting perspective concerning professionalism in occupational therapy. In this article the author examines the importance of having your heart, mind, and soul as your driving force in order to demonstrate professionalism. The heart of professionalism involves a belief that what you do to better people's lives and society is so special that no amount of money could measure how important it is to you. The mind of professionalism involves the application of knowledge and expertise that enables a therapist to be empowered and inspired to utilize evidence within their everyday practice to better meet their patients' needs. Lastly, the soul of professionalism includes the special bond therapists have with one another and with their patients, focused on collaboration and creativity, in order to provide the highest quality of care to their patients.

With the increasing age of the baby boomer generation, it is expected that the number of individuals in long-term care facilities will increase. This article was written to help healthcare professionals anticipate the psychosocial needs that the baby boomer generation will have when residing in a long-term care facility. The author defines ten potential factors to look for when working within long-term care settings. For instance, the first psychosocial need the author anticipates the baby boomer generation will have is a desire for social connectedness with others. By anticipating these needs, occupational therapists will be better prepared to help the baby boomers smoothly transition into long-term care facilities.

This resource defines evidence-based practice, why it is important within the healthcare arena, and the process of integrating evidence into everyday practice. According to Sackett et al. (1996), evidence-based practice is best defined as "the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients". Individuals often mistake evidence-based practice as utilizing results from studies to guide treatment. However, evidence-based practice is more of an integration between client expertise, best available research evidence, and the patients' preferences and therapy goals. Through the use of evidence-based practice occupational therapy practitioners can better meet the needs of their patients.

This article discusses an ethical dilemma occupational therapy practitioners may be confronted with during the course of their career. This particular article discusses the conflict of interest occupational therapists may face when they are providing services to a patient and have a financial interest in selling products that patients may benefit from utilizing to maximize their independence in ADLs. Any product transactions should be considered from a business, professional, and legal standpoint to ensure that ethical standards are upheld. Participating in any behaviors that may negatively reflect on the professional standards of conduct outlined by the American Occupational Therapy Association should be avoided. In order to determine whether product transactions are appropriate an occupational therapist should answer the following questions: what types of products are being sold, is the item related to the patient's therapy goals, if so should the product be sold to the patient, and should the therapist hold ownership in the company from which the product is being sold?

Within the last decade there has been a substantial push for healthcare professionals, including occupational therapists, to utilize evidence-based practice. This article outlines some of the many initiatives that have been developed in order to encourage occupational therapy practitioners to use evidence-base practice. While significant strides have been made in order to utilize evidence in everyday practice, there is still a great room for improvement within this arena. The goal for the future is that evidence-based practice will be so commonplace that the phrase will not be prominent; instead it will simply become an everyday part of practice.

This PDF document is the fourth article in a series concerning the steps of how to conduct evidence-based practice. The first three steps include write a clinical question, gather current evidence that might answer the question, and then evaluate the literature to determine what is the best answer in regards to your clinical question. In this article the author discusses the fourth step of how to conduct evidence-based practice, which is communicating the evidence to patients, family members, and other colleagues in regards to how it may impact intervention decisions. In order to effectively communicate to all parties involved the occupational therapist must first conduct an unbiased, comprehensive search to answer the proposed clinical question. The therapist must then be able to interpret the information and articulate it to their patient, their family, and their colleagues in a way that is easy to understand. The author suggests starting broadly and then narrowing down; in other words present the evidence as a whole and then narrow it down to how it can be applied to the patient's case. Above all, it is important to make sure the patient is able to comprehend the information as it is a collaborative work between the therapist and the patient in order to provide the most beneficial treatment.

Throughout the past decade there has been a push for occupational therapy practitioners to utilize evidence-based practice in order to better address their patients' needs. Despite this push for integrating evidence into practice, many occupational therapy practitioners continue to struggle with gathering and interpreting current literature to guide their practice and provide better patient care. This article examines the role of professional expertise in providing evidence-based occupational therapy services. The author of this article outlines five stages that occupational therapists should utilize in order to integrate research evidence with patient care.

This article highlights the gap in current literature regarding the effectiveness of addressing psychosocial needs to improve quality of life. Within the last decade there has been an increased focus on improving quality of life and psychosocial wellbeing for individuals residing within long-term care settings. As upcoming occupational therapists, it is important for us to understand that quality of life is multifaceted and can include physical health, emotional health, social function, and self-worth. With the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services initiative focused on providing more holistic care it will be imperative that occupational therapy practitioners help close the gap between literature and current practice.