Occupational Therapists - Essay Example

Occupational Therapists Occupational therapists are medical practitioners who assist patients in improving their capability of performing tasks in living and working environment. They work with patients suffering from emotionally disabling condition, mental illness, physical and developmental issues. With the use of various forms of treatments, they help to develop, restore and maintain their patient’s daily living and work skills. Their main goal is to help clients have productive, independent and fulfilling lives. Some of the duties performed by occupational therapist include; help patients to undertake physical exercise, basic motor function, use adoptive equipment among other duties (American Occupational Therapy Association, 2004). To qualify as an occupational therapist, one should posses a post-baccalaureate degree form a credited university or college, a university of college certification that is deemed equivalent is also accepted. The minimum entry point for an occupational therapist is a master’s degree or higher occupational therapy. In addition, occupational therapists should receive his education form a organistion that has been accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) for him to qualify to sit for the national exam. Occupational therapists practice is regulated in all the 50 states, before getting a license, one should be trained in accredited institution and sat for the national certification exam. Qualified occupational therapists are warded the ‘Occupational Therapists Registered’ (OTR), however specific licensing vary from one state to another for example some states consider an education practice certification, education related classes or the early intervention certification. In addition, one should have competed supervised field work (Wilcock & Townsend, 2009). Occupational therapists work in large rehabilitation centers, educational institutions, nursing care facilities, home heath care services, government agencies, and community care facilities, hospitals, employed in private practice and in ambulance services. Occupation therapy works alongside the field of medicine, sociology, anthropology, law and psychology and any other discipline that contributes to developing its knowledge base. In this case these profession work along with doctors, nurses, counselors, psychologies ,social workers, public health officers, med lab scientists, family members among other key players in improving the patients life. On average it costs $ 15,000 to complete the training, given that occupational therapists are becoming more popular in almost all health institutions, undertaking the course will be very beneficial both in the long run and short run. For instance, in 2008.there were 104, 500 0ccupatonal therapist in the US alone. 2. Legal Issues The general Federal laws on the practice of occupational therapy are I regard to certification and licensing. States have laws that slightly differ from one state to another, for example South Carolina’s statutes on this practice are found in Title 40 –Of Professions and Occupations Sec 40. In Ontario, the statutes based on this profession are were constituted through the occupational Therapy Act 1991 There are the standard general laws that should be adhered to in practicing occupational therapy, the first standard is professional standing and responsibility and his practice should be in consistent with established principles and concepts of theory and practice. The screening, evaluation and re evaluation are all the responsibilities of the occupational therapist in accordance with the federal and state law among other regulatory and payer requirement and AOTA law. Occupational therapists should ensure that the intervention plan is in accordance with the set requirement such as external accreditation program, state and federal law and within the relevant time frame. The occupational therapist should document and interpret related to the client’s ability. There is no unique feature that is found between occupational therapist and MI law compared to other profession. However, it is important of r practitioners to cover themselves against liability suits. The key benefit of having an insurance cover is t cover for any liability that a client may press against the practitioner. The common policies that are undertaken by occupational therapists themselves are claim made policy and occurrence policy. An employer can also take a cover for his employee and the most common one under this category is the employer vs. self owned coverage. 3.Ethical Issues Ethical issues are found in all profession, that guide the practitioner on how he should conduct himself when dispensing his duties. The code of ethics, presents the standards that is expected of all occupational therapists working in the US. The main purpose of the code is to protect the existing and potential consumers of occupational therapy services and at the same time protect the integrity of the occupational therapy profession ,. One of the code of ethics in the occupational therapists profession is; Principle 3 on Autonomy and Confidentiality It states that “the occupational therapist shall respect he right of the individual to self determination”. It is the duty of the practitioner to treat the patient in a way that they desire to be treated and within the accepted standards of care that the practitioner shall protect the client’s confidential information. To attain this code of ethics , an occupational therapist shall establish a collaborative and friendly relationship with the clients service including care givers, his family and significant others is coming up with goals and priorities, obtain consent from the client or his legal representative before conducting any service on them, acknowledge the recipients view in regard to issue including decline to be treated ,maintain high level of confidentiality in regard to communication with the client ,provide information on the client in regard to any activity and ensure that they fully understand it ,and collaborate with any students in fostering academic policies and procedures. An example of breach of the above code of ethics is when occupational therapists discloses private and confidential information to other people without his/her the consent. For example an occupational therapists, attending to a young woman, who shares her personal information freely to the therapist in faith that the piece of information would hasten her recovery. However, instead of keeping the shared information confidential, the therapists, openly shares with one of his colleagues and in no time, the information is known in the entire institution. The therapist client, who had earlier been assured of privacy and confidentiality, goes ahead and loges a case of breach of privacy on her side. In such a case, I will summon the therapist and let him explain and expound on what had happened, besides ,I will talk with the client .Meanwhile, even though I understand that therapist is wrong, as his employer, will find an attorney to defend him. Immediately after the trial, I may consider pardoning him and give him a second chance or firing her incase she does not show any apologies and intend to reform. 4. Health Care Data and Statistics Occupational therapists deal with varied types of data; the clinical data that the therapists come across with on daily routines include, the patient’s medical history, age, blood group, disease diagnosed with, the type of mediation being administered, the type of treatment the client is receiving,the duration that the patient has been attended, a chart showing changes on the patients well being, description of the dose, the clients personal information such as home telephone number, home address among others. The kind of information that the administration would require in relation to the practice include, patients personal a therapist informing and files ,is, the treatment being undertaken, the practitioner personal information , the contract or letter of appointment between the employer and employees, the hospitals occupational therapy files and information among other important information that is vital in the performance of duties by the therapists , and facilitate smooth communication and team work within all other department in the hospital (Purtillo, 2005). Proper and organized record keeping is vital within the occupational therapy application. This is because without any vital information, first in regard to the patient, a therapist may not be in a position to fully and efficiently execute his duties. For example the data on a patients medical history, that is the cause of the current problem may assist the therapist in coming up with a particular way to address the problem in a bid to restore life of the patient. The level of interaction with given information depends on tits importance; however an occupational therapist should regularly revisit all information and data that is related to his field. For example , previous information about a client with the small problem as the current one ,may remind the occupational therapist of the approach that had been taken thus give hi advice on what he can do to improve the recovery procedure of the current case ,however such information may not be reviewed as often as the current patients file. While collecting information form patients, one of the things that is commonly practiced among all therapist is building a rapport and treating any kind of data given with confidentiality and importance. Some of the information that is common in the profession is client’s medial file that covers personal information and medical history. 5. Cultural Humility and Competency Occupational therapist should be ready to work with various kind of patients in relation to age ,sex, social class ,rationality ,race among others. The Nonmaleficence code of ethics call for occupational therapists to refrain from actions that cause harm, inflict injury or wrong others. Practitioner should apply the concept of due care which outweighs the benefit of treatment. For one to fully implement the code of ethics not necessary to be within the law but have the will to due of care, one should be culturally rich and ready to assist those in need. For instance, some religion may not allow a therapist of another gender treat them. In such a case, it is prudent and understanding to find substitute who will enable such a client receive medical care without any inhibitions (Braveman & Bass-Haugen,2009). Occupational therapists should have through cultural understanding of patients who do not have the same culture as they, this will enable them to put themselves in the clients shoes or cultural setting to offer the best services in an acceptable manner to the client. Example of such groups may be the old, Muslims, Hindus, and other religions that have a number of restrictions in a variety of aspects and cases where there is language barrier. An example of a scenario where there was cultural interference in the delivery of occupational therapy is the attendance of a young male to a Muslim woman, according to their religion, it is not right to be touched by a man other than one’s husband. In such a scenario, the patient will be uneasy and may not undergo the entire therapy especially when assistive equipment are being used. In yet another case, the occupational therapist may be speaking a different language from that of his patient, in such a scenario there will be a communication break down making the provision of service a challenge (Braveman & Bass-Haugen, 2009). Works Cited American Occupational Therapy Association, Policy 5.3.1: Definition of occupational therapy practice for state regulation. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 58, 694–695 ,2004. Wilcock, A. A., & Townsend, E. A. Occupational Justice. In E. Crepeau, E. Cohn, & B. Schell (Eds.), Willard and Spackman’s occupational therapy (11th ed., pp. 192– 215) . Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins ,2009. Law, M., Polatajko, H., Baptiste, W., & Towsend, E. Core concepts of occupational therapy. In E. Towsend (Ed.), Enabling occupation: An occupational therapy perspective (pp. 29–56). Ottawa, ON: Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists, 1997. Braveman, B., & Bass-Haugen, J. D. Social justice and health disparities: An evolving discourse in occupational therapy research and intervention. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 63, 7–12 ,2005. Purtillo, R. Ethical dimensions in the health professions (4th ed.). Philadelphia: Elsevier/Saunders ,2005. Read More