Occupational Therapy Research Papers

In today’s busy and demanding patient care environment, many health professionals have come to function almost as silos focused on their own performance in a natural effort to make patient care as efficient a process as possible. Many rehabilitation therapy teams have similarly come to working primarily within their own departments but are certainly in a unique position to collaborate with other healthcare disciplines as roles often complement one another. If we as Rehabilitation Therapists can look for commonalities within the scope of practice with other health professionals with whom we work, we can all contribute to making our workloads more manageable, streamlining our systems of care, and, ultimately, improving patient outcomes.

Our …show more content…
Occupational Therapists can, for instance, schedule treatment sessions incorporating self-care activities during a time when nursing staff would typically assist a patient with these same activities. Further, if Occupational Therapists focus on a particular self-care goal on which to collaborate with Nursing, independent performance of that skill can be facilitated during routine nursing care to reinforce gains and strategies acquired in …show more content…
With more effective care coordination, patients are more likely to meet, perhaps exceed, all therapy goals, resulting in greater functional independence at discharge and decreasing the need for family/caregiver assistance at home. Professionally, as providers, we might also find smarter ways to work; in a time of increasing change in healthcare policy and practice this can only help us further our skills and assure the value we provide our patients regardless of what changes may