Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The Style Evolution Of Glasses: Acknowledging Well-Being For Wearable Medical Device, Lydia Royeen

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

The focus of Peta Bush’s work is to create wearable medical devices that address all qualities of the individual, including physical, mental, emotional, and psychosocial aspects. Peta is completing a practice-based research PhD titled “Therapeutic jewelry: The craft of people-centric devices for wellbeing.” Her passion for creating wearable medical devices that are multi-dimensional stems from her personal experiences, as she has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. In addition, she uses her knowledge of well-being and the biopsychosocial model when creating her wearable medical devices. Peta currently uses technology, such as 3D printing, as one method to fabricate her collection. Her aspirations are for …

More Tips For Making An Editor Happy, Jan Andersen

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

No abstract provided.

Concise Arm And Hand Rehabilitation Approach In Stroke (Caras): A Practical And Evidence-Based Framework For Clinical Rehabilitation Management, Johan A. Franck, Jos Halfens, Rob Smeets, Henk Seelen

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

The volume of information on new treatment techniques supporting the restoration of arm-hand function (AHF) and arm-hand skill performance (ASHP) in stroke survivors overwhelms therapists in everyday clinical practice when choosing the appropriate therapy. The Concise Arm and Hand Rehabilitation Approach in Stroke (CARAS) is designed for paramedical staff to structure and implement training of AHF and AHSP in stroke survivors. The CARAS is based on four constructs: (a) stratification according to the severity of arm–hand impairment (using the Utrecht Arm/Hand -Test [UAT]), (b) the individual’s rehabilitation goals and concomitant potential rehabilitation outcomes, (c) principles of self-efficacy, and (d) possibilities …

Occupational Therapy Students’ Perspectives Of Professionalism: An Exploratory Study, Theresa M. Sullivan, Andrea K. Thiessen

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: Professionalism is a dynamic, socially constructed idea, rendering it difficult to comprehend. Though characterized by the demonstration of values and behaviors, its meaning has not been fully explored and remains tacit. To explore how first- and second-year master’s of occupational therapy students conceptualize professionalism.

Method: This qualitative pilot study evolved from an interpretivist theoretical perspective. Convenience sampling yielded four first-year and seven second-year students from one entry-level master’s program to participate in two separate focus groups. Line-by-line constant comparison methods were used to analyze the data and identify categories. An audit trail, peer debriefing, and member checking were employed. …

High-Fidelity Simulation: A Tool For Occupational Therapy Education, Chi-Kwan Shea

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

High-fidelity simulation (HFS) is an educational tool commonly used by professional education programs of medicine and nursing for student training and assessment. Although its use in occupational therapy (OT) education is emerging, implementation of simulation in OT education varies broadly across programs, and, in general, the tool remains underused. This paper describes how the OT education program at Samuel Merritt University (SMU) has systematically expanded the use of HFS in various formats throughout the curriculum. The specific processes and procedures of using HFS in facilitating student critical thinking and clinical skills are explained to emphasize the potential educational value of …

Fieldwork Educators' Perspectives: Professional Behavior Attributes Of Level Ii Fieldwork Students, Marcie K. Campbell, Katelyn Corpus, Tracy M. Wussow, Teresa Plummer, Debra Gibbs, Shelley Hix

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

A review of the literature revealed a lack of consistent expectations for professional behaviors required of level II fieldwork students. This study sought to obtain a consensus of perspectives of level II fieldwork educators by asking, “What are the essential professional behavior attributes for level II fieldwork students?” Delphi methodology was used to collect data in two rounds of surveys. In the first, 49 fieldwork educators listed professional behavior attributes they believed to be important for fieldwork students. The data was synthesized into themes for distribution in the second survey, which were identified as essential, non-essential, or site-specific by 53 …

Evaluation Of A Sleep Knowledge Translation Strategy For Occupational Therapists Working With Persons Who Have Dementia, Laura Laberge, Blaire Sangster, Cary A. Brown

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Introduction: Sleep deficiency is a significant, largely overlooked issue for persons with dementia (PWD), and is associated with physical and mental health problems, increased caregiver burden, and increased likelihood of institutionalization. Despite the high prevalence of sleep deficiency in PWD, most health care professionals lack knowledge of the relationship between sleep problems and dementia. This project aimed to determine the feasibility of an archived online presentation, a knowledge translation (KT) strategy to increase therapists’ understanding of the impact of blue-spectrum light on sleep in PWD.

Method: Therapists who participated in a previous sleep and dementia survey were recruited via email. …

The Effect Of High And Low Antiepileptic Drug Dosage On Simulated Driving Performance In Person’S With Seizures: A Pilot Study, Alexander Crizzle, Sherrilene Classen, Christina Lafranca, William Silver, Stephan Eisenschenk

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: Prior studies examining driving performance have not examined the effects of antiepileptic drugs (AED’s) or their dosages in persons with epilepsy. AED’s are the primary form of treatment to control seizures, but they are shown to affect cognition, attention, and vision, all which may impair driving. The purpose of this study was to describe the characteristics of high and low AED dosages on simulated driving performance in persons with seizures.

Method: Patients (N = 11; mean age 42.1 ± 6.3; 55% female; 100% Caucasian) were recruited from the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit and had their driving assessed on a simulator. …

Executive Functioning: Relationship With High School Student Role Performance, Donna P. Mann, Roberta Snover, James R. Boyd, Andrea J. List, Aaron J. Kuhn, Bridget N. Devereaux, Susan M. Chenoweth, Gina L. Middaugh

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

BACKGROUND. Student role performance for academic success in secondary education is under represented in the occupational therapy literature, despite the persistently high dropout rate in the United States (Stillwell & Sable, 2013). Executive dysfunction is one of many possible contributors to difficulties in the classroom (Dirette & Kolak, 2004) and is a better indicator of school performance than IQ (Diamond, 2012). This research examined executive functioning of both alternative and traditional high school students to determine if there is a relationship between executive function and academic success as measured by cumulative grade point average.

METHOD. 132 high school students from …

Personalized Medicine: Definitions, History, And Implications For The Ot Profession, Diane Powers Dirette

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

No abstract provided.

Providing Compassion Through Flow, Lydia Royeen

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Meg Kral, MS, OTR/L, CLT, is the cover artist for the Summer 2015 issue of The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy. Her untitled piece of art is an oil painting and is a re-creation of a photograph taken while on vacation. Meg is currently supervisor of outpatient services at Rush University Medical Center. She is lymphedema certified and has a specific interest in breast cancer lymphedema. Art and occupational therapy serve similar purposes for Meg: both provide a sense of flow. She values the outcomes, whether it is a piece of art or improved functional status.

Framing Ecological Validity In Occupational Therapy Practice, Patricia A. Crist

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

No abstract provided.

He Said—He Said: A Scholarly Conversation About Assessment, Glen Gillen, Jim Hinojosa

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

No abstract provided.

Spiritual Assessments In Occupational Therapy, Barbara Hemphill

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Spirituality is recognized as an important concept in the study and practice of medicine, including occupational therapy. This aligns with occupational therapy’s core value of treating people holistically—mind, body, and spirit. Currently, the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Hospital Organizations (JCAHO) requires that a spiritual assessment be given to patients on admission. To conduct effective spiritual assessments, occupational therapists must distinguish between religion and spirituality. They also must be aware of their own spiritual beliefs and practices and how those might influence their clinical interactions. This article presents spiritual assessment tools that occupational therapists can use in clinical practice; …

A Review And Case Exemplifications Of Health Enhancement Lifestyle Profile (Help) And Its Screener (Help–Screener) For Older Adults, Eric J. Hwang, Terry Peralta-Catipon

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Growing interest in promoting healthy lifestyles as a way to enhance successful aging has led to the necessity of screening and monitoring lifestyle behaviors among older adults. The 56-item Health Enhancement Lifestyle Profile (HELP) and its screening version, the 15-item HELP-Screener are a set of instruments designed for assessing various health-related lifestyle behaviors in older adults, including exercise, diet, social and productive activities, leisure, activities of daily living, stress management and spiritual participation, and other health promotion and risk behaviors. This article depicts the critical features (e.g., administration and scoring) and clinical usefulness of the two instruments and reviews the …

Assessing Volition In Pediatrics: Using The Volitional Questionnaire And The Pediatric Volitional Questionnaire, Anne Kiraly-Alvarez

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Evidence suggests that pediatric occupational therapists predominantly use bottom-up, impairment-focused theoretical frameworks and assessments to guide their practice, despite the current trends promoting top-down, occupation-based approaches. Understanding a child’s volition, guided by the use of the Model of Human Occupation, contributes to a more occupation-based, client-centered, holistic, and strength-based approach to therapy. Two assessment tools, the Volitional Questionnaire and the Pediatric Volitional Questionnaire, contribute to a therapists’ understanding of children’s volition. These assessments facilitate therapists’ clinical reasoning and the ability to assess and address volition throughout the occupational therapy process.

Exploring Content Validity Of Shore Handwriting Screening And Newly Developed Score Sheet With Pre-Kindergarten Students, Denise K. Donica, Erin Francsis

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: Limited tools exist to measure handwriting readiness skills of pre-kindergarten students. This study was a preliminary exploration of content validity of the Shore Handwriting Screening (SHS) and the newly developed Score Sheet with the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, Second Edition (BOT-2) in 4- and 5-year-old pre-kindergarten students. Because socioeconomic status (SES) is known to impact handwriting skills, data from two different socioeconomic groups were collected.

Method: Students from a Lower SES group (n = 36) and a Higher SES group (n = 14) completed the SHS and fine motor composite of the BOT-2. Pearson’s correlation was used to …

Examining The Purdue Pegboard Test For Occupational Therapy Practice, Debra K. Lindstrom-Hazel, Nicole Vandervlies Veenstra

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: Occupational therapy ethics require that therapists use current assessment tools that provide useful comparison data. When an assessment only has normative data that is more than 40 years old, it cannot be considered current. The purpose of this study was to examine the past and current use of the Purdue Pegboard Test by occupational therapists and other professionals and to determine if it is beneficial to conduct a large normative study on the Purdue Pegboard Assembly Task (PPAT) in order to bring the test up to date.

Method: This was a psychometric study of inter-rater reliability and a small …

Performance-Based Tools For Assessing Functional Performance In Individuals With Mild Cognitive Impairment, Patricia Da Cunha Belchior, Melanie Holmes, Nathalie Bier, Carolina Bottari, Barbara Mazer, Alexandra Robert, Navaldeep Kaur

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: It is now recognized that individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) face subtle functional declines that can compromise performance in everyday tasks. However, it is still not clear how to capture these declines in the clinical setting. Thus, the goal of this study was to conduct a scoping review to identify performance-based tools for which the psychometric properties have been evaluated with the MCI population.

Methods: A scoping review of the scientific literature was performed with the guidance of a health science librarian in searching the MEDLINE, PsychINFO, CINAHL, and EMBASE databases from their inception until May 2014.

Results: …

Does The Role Checklist Measure Occupational Participation?, Tore Bonsaksen, Ursula Meidert, Deana Schuman, Hildegunn Kvarsnes, Lena Haglund, Susan Prior, Kirsty Forsyth, Takashi Yamada, Patricia J. Scott

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: Among the Model of Human Occupation (MOHO) assessments, the Role Checklist is one of the most established. In spite of its widespread use, no studies have examined role examples and their association with the three embedded levels of doing, as established in the MOHO theory.

Method: A cross-sectional survey of 293 respondents from the US, the UK, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, and Norway produced 7,182 role examples. The respondents completed Part I of the Role Checklist and provided examples of each internalized role they performed. Responses were classified as occupational skill, occupational performance, or occupational participation.

Results: …

Exploring The Role And Scope Of Clinical Assessment In Occupational Therapy, Ann M. Chapleau

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

No abstract provided.

Self Regulation Through Art And Chocolate, Lydia Royeen

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Josh Banks provided the cover art for the spring 2015 issue of The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy. The cover art is titled “Birthday Party” because the piece resembles images involved in a birthday party: multi-colored balloons, napkins, cakes, and icing. Josh created the piece using oil crayons on watercolor paper. Josh is sensory seeking and has difficulty using various types of materials, which include crayons, street chalk, and markers. After much experimentation, Josh is able to use nibs, a type of marker that does not have a cap. Josh is able to sit for 5-10 minute periods and …

Social Justice As A Moral Imperative, Barbara Hemphill

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

No abstract provided.

Lifesteps: An Evidence-Based Health Promotion Program For Underserved Populations – A Community Service Learning Approach, Melanie Austin-Mccain

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Chronic diseases are the most common, costly, and preventable of all health problems in the United States. Chronic diseases represent the leading causes of death and are experienced at higher rates by minority populations (CDC, 2012). Innovative community-based health promotion programs are recommended that meet the diverse needs of underserved populations (Yeary, et al., 2011). LifeSteps is being developed as an evidence-based health promotion program focusing on health and wellness, a domain area defined within the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (OTPF, 2008). LifeSteps will utilize a client-centered approach to coach individuals in making health behavior changes. Fieldwork and service-learning components …

Evidence Considerations For Mobile Devices In The Occupational Therapy Process, Kelly Erickson

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Mobile app-based device utilization, including smartphones and handheld tablets, suggests a need to evaluate evidence to guide selection and implementation of these devices in the occupational therapy process. The purpose of the research was to explore the current body of evidence in relation to mobile app-based devices and to identify factors in the use of these devices throughout the occupational therapy process. Following review of available occupational therapy profession guidelines, assistive technology literature, and available mobile device research, practitioners using mobile app-based devices in occupational therapy should consider three areas: client needs, practitioner competence, and device factors. The purpose of …

A Study Of Engagement In Active And Passive Roles In Casual Leisure Occupations, Anne M. Fenech

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: This article explores whether engagement with listening occupations varies depending on the occupational role or the level of sensory stimulation presented to participants with neuropalliative conditions.

Method: The study used a multiple case quasi-experimental study involving marginal-participant time-sampled observations of engagement of individuals with neuropalliative conditions, with casual leisure occupations using the Individual Child Engagement Record. Data was collected using the Individual Child Engagement Record with 14 participants (who had Barthel scores averaging 7/100). The participants represented a particular sub-group of individuals with profound levels of neurological disability.

Results: The time-sampled observations of engagement showed a significant difference between …

The Challenge Of Cultural Competency In The Multicultural 21st Century: A Conceptual Model To Guide Occupational Therapy Practice, Wesam Darawsheh, Gill Chard, Mona Eklund

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: Occupational therapists increasingly encounter clients from diverse cultural backgrounds and need to meet their professional obligation of delivering culturally competent practice. Yet the process of cultural competency is poorly understood in occupational therapy practice. There is a need for a clear understanding of the meaning and process of cultural competency as it is enacted in practice with a wide range of individuals from culturally diverse backgrounds.

Aim: To investigate the process, stages, characteristics, and requirements of cultural competency as practiced by experienced occupational therapists.

Method: Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 13 community occupational therapists experienced …

Field-Testing Reusable Learning Objects Related To Sensory Over-Responsiveness, Bryan M. Gee, Kiersten Moholy, Kimberly Lloyd, Anthony Seikel

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background. There is an increased need for dynamic, mobile, and relevant parent and caregiver education related to autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and Sensory Processing (SP). This need may be due to the increased incidence of the conditions’ co-morbidity and the revision of the diagnostic criteria of ASD. Reusable learning objects (RLOs) have been implemented as instructional tools as a part of, or adjunct to, formal health care education programs. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the appropriateness of RLOs as a part of routine patient and caregiver instruction of children with ASD.

Method. A semi-structured interview/rating scale was …

A Novel Cognitive Cueing Approach To Gait Retraining In Parkinson’S Disease: A Pilot Study, Stephanie Morrison, Sandi Spaulding, Jeff Holmes, Mary Jenkins

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) impairs gait performance, which can lead to falls and decreased quality of life. This study examined the feasibility of implementing a novel home-based intervention designed to elicit gait improvement in individuals with PD.

Methods: Five participants with PD completed a two-week home-based gait retraining intervention designed around guided video feedback. Semi-structured interviews were conducted postintervention and two months postintervention to acquire feedback from the participants about their experience with the intervention. Spatiotemporal parameters of gait and functional mobility were assessed pre and postintervention and at two months postintervention.

Results: Participants reported high levels of usability …

Time And Space Use Of Adults With Intellectual Disabilities, Terry K. Crowe, Jessica Salazar Sedillo, Emily F. Kertcher, Joy H. Lasalle

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Purpose: This study analyzed the time and space use of adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) in order to better understand the occupational patterns of this population.

Methods: Time and space use data were collected through observation of 15 adults with ID during 4-hour periods on typical weekdays and weekend days. Data were coded into 12 time and 10 space use descriptive categories.

Results: The participants used a greater variety of locations during weekdays that contributed to greater amounts of weekday time spent in a wider variety of activity categories. In contrast, the participants spent a majority of …