Terrianne, your message reminded me that the therapist I interviewed with told me that she had fought REALLY hard to have an OT presence in acute care.
But, I'm with you about people needing to get up an moving. You know, not walking down the hallways but walking to the bathroom, getting there clothes from the dresser, whatever it is. Is seems to me that in general, research (and common sense) says that hospitalized people need to be moving as much as medically possible. If an OT doesn't even get people out of bed (when it's appropriate to do so) isn't the OT doing a medical disservice to the patient? Ron ----- Original Message ----- From: Terrianne Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subj: [OTlist] Acute Care OT? TJ> Ron, I have maintained for years (since rotating thru acute TJ> care myself 10 years ago) that we are not doing oursleves any TJ> favors by trying so hard to maintain a strong presence in acute TJ> care as a profession. When we are there, the focus should TJ> definitley be, for those who can tolerate it, on getting people TJ> up and moving, in the context of daily occupations (so no rote TJ> exercises). For those sicker or more incapacitated, our role TJ> should be gentle introduction to ADL and recommendations for how TJ> OT might be helpful within the continuum of care (recs for TJ> inpatient rehab versus home care , for example). This opinion was TJ> met with total resistance from my acute care colleagues, many of TJ> whom practiced in a manner that was nearly indistinguishable from TJ> PT. At that time, most of the OT's I worked with hated acute TJ> care, and the 2 of the 3 who loved it had tried unsuccessfully TJ> to get into PT school (late 1980's) and went into OT instead TJ> because the waiting list for PT was too TJ> long. They often refused to adress basic ADL or self care TJ> and focused almost exclusivley on upper extremity PT. They TJ> argued for more OT staff because the "needs" were so great, but in TJ> reality had they truly practiced OT and addressed occupation TJ> instead of exercise, there would not have been as big of a need TJ> for OT in acute care, something that those hell bent on competing TJ> with PT did not want to admit... TJ> Terrianne -- Options? www.otnow.com/mailman/options/otlist_otnow.com Archive? www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] ************************************************************************************** Enroll in Boston University's post-professional Master of Science for OTs Online. Gain the skills and credentials to propel your career. www.otdegree.com/otn **************************************************************************************
