Chris, I think hand therapists have a wonderfully challenging and
rewarding job. But, I do NOT think that hand therapy is, nor should
be, analogous with occupational therapy. And I say this for a couple
reasons:
1. Hand therapy is way too specialized to be considered
occupational therapy. Just the very nature of "HAND therapy"
suggests that treatment is about the hand/UE. This is the same
for any specialized treatment provided by an OT; lymphedema,
wound care, cognitive retraining, etc. An OT can obviously do
these things, but that doesn't imply that the OT is doing
occupational therapy.
2. There is already so much confusion about OT and UE. I do
not think it's generally good for our profession for hand
therapist to be *closely* aligned with the OT profession. Many
orthopedic doctor's already think of OT's as upper extremity
people. Maybe this started with the hand therapists, I don't
really know. But, continuing alignment of hand therapy and OT
only serves to further entrench the OT/UE relationship.
3. A PT can equally do hand therapy. The CHT license exam is
not specific to OT or PT. Undoubtedly, a PT and an OT bring
different "flavors" to the hand therapy profession, but a
"flavor" does not make a profession.
4. If I were going to a hand therapist, I would want that
therapist to be kind, gentle, patient-centered and 100%
invested in hand therapy. I would not want an OT or PT doing
hand therapy, I would want a hand therapist doing my hand
therapy. If it came from an OT fine, if it came from a PT
fine.
Ron
--
Ron Carson MHS, OT
----- Original Message -----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subj: [OTlist] UE Evauation Yesterday...
cac> Ron,
cac> What do you think about OTs that practice as occupation-based
cac> therapists but on occasion can switch gears and become impairment
cac> based minded?? I like how you said "no, I'm an occupational therapist doing
cac> lymphedema treatment".? I guess that is what I do when I help out in the
hand therapy clinic.
cac> Chris Nahrwold MS, OTR
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