This week Lisa Forrest @LisaForrestOT and her colleague Dr Fiona Kennedy @FionaKennedyOT are hosting #Otalk 

The development of clinical reasoning is an essential component of pre-registration Occupational Therapy programmes and everyday professional growth and development.

Clinical reasoning can be defined as;

“The process that practitioners use to plan, direct, perform and reflect on client care” (Schell, 2009)

Clinical reasoning draws on empathy, intuition, judgment and common sense.

Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1996) outlined a model of expertise.  They outlined 5 critical elements offering an enhanced understanding of what distinguishes novices from experts.  The 5 critical elements include:

1. Expertise is more about knowing how – knowing how to do things, knowing information and facts
2. Expert knowledge is embedded in the action of the expert
3. Experience is crucial in the development of expertise
4. Much of expert knowledge is automatic and non-reflective (but in this does not stop deliberation before action when a situation requires it)
5. Intuition of experts or the knowing how to do things is both experiential and tacit.

It is proposed that the development of clinical reasoning occurs on a continuum and not a static state.  However how do we develop our clinical reasoning skills from novice > expert?  And how can the profession and higher education institutions support and facilitate the learning required for professional practice and development?

Post Chat Updates:

Online transcript 

PDF transcript. #OTalk 1st March 2016

The Numbers

1,187,892 Impressions
676 Tweets
94 Participants

#OTalk Participants

Are Occupational Therapists able to maintain psychological well-being in physical acute hospital settings?As a newly qualified Occupational Therapist (OT) it was embedded throughout university to be client-centred, provide choice all whilst looking at the individual holistically (COT, 2015) and I was very eager to start fulfilling this role.
My first post as a qualified OT is in an NHS acute hospital whereby the OT’s main role is to increase patient’s independence to facilitate safe discharge from hospital. There is a great pressure to get patients out of acute hospital beds once medically fit– this can often mean that the role of maintaining patient’s psychological well-being is often forgotten possibly due to a lack of resources or time constraints. This could potentially lead to an increased number in admissions as evidence suggests decreased mental well-being is linked to a decrease in physical well-being (Department of Health, 2011), especially throughout long hospital admissions.

In the NICE guidelines (2011) there are a number of quality statements that emphasise the need for patients to engage in meaningful and appropriate occupations daily whilst in hospital yet in reality this doesn’t always appear to be happening.
Questions:

Do you think OT’s in acute physical settings are truly able to work holistically on the wards?

What do you think the barriers/implications are to maintaining psychological well-being in a physical hospital setting?

How do you address psychological well-being in acute hospital settings?

Ares OT’s involved in activities/groups on physical hospital wards or do other professions take the lead?

Hope to see you there on Tuesday 23rd February at 8pm!

Laura Reid, B5 OT- @laurareidOT

References:

College of Occupational Therapist. (2015). Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. London: COT.
HM Government. (2011). No Health Without Mental Health: A cross-government mental health outcomes strategy for people of all ages. London: Department of Health.
National Institute of Mental Health (2011) Service User Experience in Adult Mental Health. Available at: http://guidance.nice.org.uk/CG136 [Last accessed 10-02-2016].

Post Chat Updates:

Online Transcript can be found here: Healthcare Social Media Transcript

PDF of Transcript: #OTalk 23 Feb 2016

The Numbers

1,633,987 Impressions
786 Tweets
62 Participants

#OTalk Participants

This weeks #Otalk will be hosted by the current chair of the Northern and Yorkshire regional committee, and newly appointed Otalk team member Rachel Booth @OT_rach

The closing date for nomination to BAOT regional committees is this month on 26^th February.

I became involved in my regional committee soon after qualifying in 2006, but 10 years on, still have weekly conversations with OT’s who are not aware of regional committees, or their role.  I in part blame myself for this, and in one of my last acts as current chair for the Northern and Yorkshire regional committee I aim to improve awareness and encourage others to get involved.

I truly believe our profession is worth fighting for, and if you value, occupational therapy, it is your duty to become an active member of the British Association of Occupational Therapy, and avoid becoming a moaner, actions speak loader that words. Once you get involved in BAOT you understand how valuable your monthly membership fee is in keeping the profession alive, but COT/ BAOT needs more that your monthly contribution it needs your action.

You can do this is so many ways here a few –

• attending and presenting at national conference;
• writing for BJOT and OT news;
• joining and getting involved in sectional sections,
• and of course, getting involved in with your regional committee by attending a meeting, offering to write something for the regional newsletter, offering to help plan a local CPD event or standing for a position with your regional committee.

In this weeks Otalk, I hope to inspire you to become involved.

The first part I will be asking questions  of those how have chosen to join in the chat

Don’t be put off if you know little about regional committees this is your chance to learn,

Questions during the chat will ask if you have hard of your regional committee?

What you think they should be doing with your region?

I am hoping others from regional committee’s across the county will be joining in and this is your chance to ask them questions.

Louise Cusack @louisecusack from COT whose role it is to to manager regional committees and specialist sections, is also hoping to join in although this will be her first twitter chat so please bear that in mind.

In the mean time if your interested in finding out which region you’re a member of, what vaccinates they have and how to apply please visit the below link, you will need to login to your BAOT account to access.

https://www.cot.co.uk/nominations-elections/nominations-elections

Post Chat Updates.

On-line transcript of chat from Health Care Hashtags

PDF of Transcript

The Numbers

731,625 Impressions
398 Tweets
37 Participants
318 Avg Tweets/Hour
11 Avg Tweets/Participant

#OTalk Participants