When you get your first job as a licensed occupational therapy practitioner, you usually aren’t thinking about additional occupational therapy specialties right off the bat. Your primary focus is just trying to keep your head above water. You are thrown into unfamiliar territory, and as a result you spend the first few years of your […]
For graduate students who are just barely diving into their OT school studies, concrete and unchanging topics such as medical terminology are much more understandable than intangible concepts. At least, in some programs, we can physically see and touch the terms through cadaver labs and dissection. It is why the medical model is so nice […]
Occupation-based interventions: It may seem like common sense to use these as occupational therapists. After all, our title has the word “occupation” in it, for goodness sake! Unfortunately, assembly-line therapy has reduced the use of occupation-based treatments in favor of exercises that make point of service and high productivity the main objective versus providing quality, […]
Is it possible to care for a patient when you know they really do not need occupational therapy services? Unfortunately, this is a common ethical dilemma occupational therapists face on the job. There are times where you will find yourself torn between advocating for a patient but you know they are not appropriate for therapy. Typically […]
Energy conservation techniques (ECTs) are also referred to as work simplification techniques, and both terms are very much within the realm of occupational therapy practice. In order to clear up a common misconception, let’s state right off the bat that promoting ECTs is not synonymous with promoting the “art of laziness.” Rather, energy conservation techniques […]
As occupational therapists, we are instructed to constantly think outside of the box when coordinating and designing therapy intervention. We come to better understand our patients/clients if we strongly acknowledge our patient’s goals and lifestyle needs within their environment. However, we are unable to fully comprehend individuals’ lifestyles and cultural influences by sitting in one […]
Brain damage has devastating consequences on an individual’s daily function and quality of life. Movement restrictions, emotional changes, behavioral problems, and communication deficits differ in severity but drastically reshape a person’s life as well as those of their close family and friends. In this post, you’ll learn about one of the most frustrating disorders that […]
Our OT brains are all about task analysis, the ability to completely break down an activity and view the minute details that others don’t see. It is a thought process that is ingrained into our brains starting day one of occupational therapy school. Downgrading and upgrading interventions in a simulated scenario are much easier than […]
Unless you have a background in addressing mental illness, occupational therapists find the mental health field to be an intimidating realm of treatment. Those with a lack of familiarity with the subject tend to immediately concentrate only on the abnormally aggressive behaviors, while ignoring the wider range of dysfunction that plagues a large portion of […]
There are an estimated 282,000 people in the U.S. who currently have a spinal cord injury (National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center: Facts and Figures at a Glance, 2016). If you’re a practitioner working with one of the many patients with a spinal cord injury (SCI), you know the diagnosis presents unique challenges. Depending on […]