Occupational Therapy Commons^™

Treating Cognition Through Occupational Performance In Individuals With Neurological Disorders In Home Health, Alcina J. Park

Occupational Therapy Capstone Presentations

Neurological Disorders (ND) like Alzheimer’s Disease, is one of the leading chronic diseases in older adults (National Council on Aging, 2023). One of the most common symptoms of ND is cognitive dysfunction, which prevent individuals with NDs from pursuing their daily occupations (Liu et al., 2019). This makes the exploration of treatment that delays functional decline in NDs imperative. Occupational therapy is valued and recognized in literature, but limited research is specific to cognition in occupational performance in home health. This capstone project used cognitive therapy approaches Cognitive Stimulation Therapy, Cognitive Rehabilitation Therapy, and Cognitive Training, to combat cognitive decline …

Interventions To Improve Medication Management In The Aging Population: An Evidence-Based Practice Project, Carrie Ashland, Grace Grommesh, Josephine Marchant, Katherine Mrozek, Reilee Schepper, Brandi Steinbach, Alexandra Stellmach, Sara Teske

Graduate Occupational Therapy Research and Projects

The overall focus of each of case scenarios are related to assessment or interventions that are related to Choosing Wisely Campaign® items 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 10. Case scenarios were developed related to each initiative with clientele and conditions across the lifespan in various practice settings. Practice settings included school district, outpatient pediatric, primary care, skilled nursing facility, work rehabilitation, and acute care.

Early Mobilization For Critically Ill Adults In The Intensive Care Unit: An Evidence-Based Practice Project, Tori Brown, Jessica Jenny, Kalley Kadlec, Karis Knoff, Chloe Lantz, Bryana Leverentz, Madeline Prosser, Sophie Willems

Graduate Occupational Therapy Research and Projects

The overall focus of each of case scenarios are related to assessment or interventions that are related to Choosing Wisely Campaign items 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 10. Case scenarios were developed related to each initiative with clientele and conditions across the lifespan in various practice settings. Practice settings included school district, outpatient pediatric, primary care, skilled nursing facility, work rehabilitation, and acute care.

The Role Of Occupational Therapy In A Multidisciplinary Outpatient Concussion Setting: Persistent-Post Concussion Symptoms, Lina Rivera

OT Student Capstones

Background and Purpose: Nearly 15%-20% of individuals with a concussive or mTBI experience persistent residual cognitive, psychosocial or physical symptoms (Cogan et al., 2019). Majority of patients who sustain a concussion recover within 10 days, however, 15-20% of individuals experience prolonged recovery lasting longer than 10 days or suffer from post concussive symptoms affecting one’s participation in daily occupations (Patricios et al., 2015 & Harris et al., 2019.) With increased awareness of concussions, concussion management approaches have shifted from complete rest to a holistic, whole-body approach and graded return to activity to improve functional outcomes. The purpose of this study …

Creating Focused Occupational Therapy Interventions For Clients With Heart Failure In Skilled Nursing Facilities, In Hwa Chae, Camille Marcia Schilling, Elena Ruth Vaccaro

Occupational Therapy | Graduate Capstone Projects

The ultimate goal of the SNF is to help clients stabilize their medical conditions and attain their therapy goals so that they can return home (Orr, Boxer, Dolansky, Allen, & Forman, 2016). However, approximately 27% of heart failure (HF) clients are readmitted to the hospital after being discharged from the SNF (Allen et al., 2011). High readmission rates may be due to the cognitive (Dickson, Tkacs, and Riegel, 2007), psychosocial (Halliday, 2010), and lifestyle barriers (Maeda, Shen, Schwarz, Farrell, & Mallon, 2013) HF clients face. However, interventions in the SNF tend to emphasize activities of daily living (ADLs) and therapeutic …

Executive Function And Motor Skills In Preschool Children, Meggin Kelley

Undergraduate Distinction Papers

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of a short-term motor program on the executive function and motor skills in preschool children utilizing a Pretest and Post test design. The present study was designed with two periods of program intervention- once in the fall and once in the spring. It was hypothesized that a 10-week motor intervention would demonstrate positive motor and executive function gains in the experimental (motor) group. Children ranging from 4 to 6 years of age participated in this study. Baseline motor and executive function scores were obtained during the Pretest phase. Subsequently, …

The Role Of Motivation And Cognition In Adults With Schizophrenia, Jaime Willard, Evangeline Abraham

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

Our work is based around the holistic nature of the field of occupational therapy. This evidence-based project initially began, at the request of our community partner, with the intention of finding one or more assessments that may help identify the cause of a lack of motivation among group home residents at Tri County Mental Health in Lewiston, ME who suffer from schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental illness that is now diagnosed as a spectrum disorder. It is characterized by distortions in the perception of reality and impairments in cognition and motivation. Schizophrenia can be categorized into three …

Can Brain Training Through Replicating A Three-Dimensional Object Improve Visuospatial Performance?, Rachael Rice

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Studies have shown that cognitive training improves brain function. There are many forms of training that have been used to improve brain function from recalling a list to improve memory, using aerobic exercise to increase brain activation, to increasing the ability to talk in nonverbal autistic children. Training the brain and focusing on one task can also improve untargeted areas of the brain. This study uses the understanding of how perceiving biological movement of hands and how working with one’s hands can activate the superior temporal sulcus to create a brain training task that will activate and improve participants visuospatial …

Functional Cognitive Activities For Adults With Traumatic Brain Injury: Pilot Case Studies, Ajay Pala, Karen Huang, Ashley Cook

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

The purpose of these pilot case studies were to investigate the effectiveness of the Functional Cognitive Activities for Adults with Brain Injury: A Sequential Approach (FCA) in generalizing functional cognitive skills across meaningful occupations for adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study was a pretest-posttest design consisted of two participants with TBI.

Both participants attended 14 out of the 16 intervention sessions, twice-a-week for eight-weeks. Pretest-posttest measurements, including the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM), Kohlman Evaluation of Living Skills, and Goal Attainment Scale (GAS), were used to measure changes in occupational performance. Additionally, a four-month follow-up phone interview using …

Educational Materials For Implementation Of Cognitive Interventions Across Practice Settings, Ashlyn Grindberg, Nicholas Wahlstrand

Occupational Therapy Capstones

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to develop educational materials for the UND occupational therapy (OT) program to address cognitive strategies for intervention across populations.

Methods: A literature review was conducted to determine the need for our product. The review of literature included the role of OT in functional cognition, use of cognitive intervention strategies with populations, and specific frames of references used in OT practice settings. It was found that new OT practitioners did not feel prepared to address cognitive deficits across populations when moving from one setting to another.

Results: The Adult Learning Theory …

The Cognitive And Functional Impact Of Open Heart Surgery: A Pilot Study Including Three Common Procedures (Coronary Artery Bypass Graft, Heart Valve Replacement, And Left Ventricular Assist Device), Robert Fix

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the impact of open heart surgery (Coronary Artery Bypass Graft, Heart Valve Replacement, or Left Ventricular Assist Device placement) on cognition, functional performance, and mood in the three months following surgery. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Kettle Test (KT), Physical Self Maintenance Scale (PSMS), and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HD) measured global cognition, functional cognition, functional performance, and mood states, respectively.

Thirteen male participants (ages 38 – 75) completed assessments at four time points -- when they were scheduled for surgery, within one week prior to surgery, before hospital discharge after surgery, and three months after …

Validation Of The Medication Box Task Assessment, Katherine Blank, Alison Chandler, Malcolm Isely, Serena Soria, Yamin Zaw

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

There are a limited number of validated occupation-based cognitive assessments that are feasible in clinical settings. For individuals with acquired brain injury (ABI), ecologically valid cognitive assessments are needed to understand how cognition influences functional performance. This study implemented a quantitative exploratory correlational design using a battery of gold standard tabletop cognitive assessments as criterion measurements against the Medication Box Task assessment, an occupation-based cognitive assessment. Eight participants completed the test battery. The student researchers used Pearson correlations to analyze each participant’s scores on the Medication Box Task assessment and the scores on the battery of gold standard assessments. Results …

Occupational Therapy In The Intensive Care Unit, Kelsie Colombini, Kristen M. Henderson, Michelle Huie, Courtney Malachowski

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

In recent years, the number of inpatient cardiovascular surgeries has significantly increased in hospitals around America. Occupational therapists in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Mills-Peninsula Medical Center (Burlingame, California) lack a standard protocol for addressing physical, cognitive, and psychosocial factors in patients post cardiac surgery. Furthermore, individuals’ experience and clinical reasoning frequently guides interventions rather than current evidence. The American Occupational Therapy Association’s Centennial Vision encourages occupational therapists to pursue science-driven practices and provide evidence-based interventions. In response to this Vision, an evidence-based clinical pathway was developed for the occupational therapists at Mills-Peninsula Medical Center. The clinical pathway facilitates …

The Impact Of Chemotherapy And Radiotherapy For Breast Cancer On Cognition And Functional Performance: A Comparative Analysis Of Survey Data Taken At Three Time Points Post-Treatment, Ann Marie Potter

Theses and Dissertations

Cognitive impairment related to treatment for breast cancer, affects as many as 75% of patients in study samples (Jansen, Cooper, Dodd & Miaskowski, 2011). Deficits in the cognitive domains of short-term memory, attention, speed of information processing, judgment, reasoning, spatial attention, and verbal memory have been documented. The extent to which these deficits impact functional performance within this population has not yet been quantified. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of breast cancer on self-reported cognition and functional performance in the six months post-completion in two groups of breast cancer survivors, a chemotherapy group and chemotherapy …

Identification And Intervention For Action Planning Deficits In Children With Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy, Swati M. Surkar

Theses & Dissertations

The primary purpose of this investigation was to describe and quantify action-planning deficits during goal-directed movements in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (HCP). Three specific topics were addressed: brain activation, kinematics, and the use of visual input. First, we assessed prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation during complex goal-directed actions in children with HCP. The outcome suggested that children with HCP have higher PFC activation than age matched typically developing (TD) children during action planning, potentially due to the difficulty in allocating attentional resources for simultaneously processing the cognitive (i.e., attention, memory, information processing) and motor demands of the goal-directed task. Reduced …

The Feasibility Of Using Metacognitive Strategy Training To Improve Performance, Foster Participation, And Reduce Impairment Following Neurological Injury, Timothy J. Wolf

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Executive function is central to our ability to learn and participate in everyday life activities and rehabilitation outcomes for individuals with executive dysfunction after neurological injury are poor. The impairments and performance challenges these individuals experience are typically not identified appropriately so they often do not receive adequate rehabilitation and can have significant challenges returning to complex everyday life activities. The vast majority of rehabilitation efforts to support individuals with neurological injuries with executive dysfunction are based on a restoration model that aims to improve cognitive function with the expectation that these gains will translate to everyday life. The available …

Skill Generalization Following Computer-Based Cognitive Retraining Among Individuals With Acquired Brain Injury, Jonathan William Alonso, Nisha E. Chadha, Jennifer Elizabeth Pulido

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Individuals with acquired brain injury (ABI) often experience cognitive deficits. This creates many challenges in learning or relearning skills and generalizing skills among different contexts and task demands. Computer-Based Cognitive Retraining (CBCR) is a common intervention utilized by occupational therapists to help remediate cognitive deficits in individuals with ABI. Although research has shown that CBCR programs are effective at improving cognitive domains, there is limited evidence to support generalization of these skills to functional daily living tasks. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study was to assess the occurrence of generalizing gained skills in overall cognition, attention, and memory from …

Computer-Based Cognitive Retraining For Individuals With Chronic Acquired Brain Injury: A Pilot Study, Stephanie Camille Gella, Joshua Victor Ramos, Julie Anne Robertson, Lucia Diana Ulloa

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a computer-based cognitive retraining program, the Parrot Software, on improving cognitive deficits in memory and attention in individuals with a chronic acquired brain injury (ABI).

Research Design: This study utilized a quantitative quasi-experimental one-group pretest-posttest design.

Participants: Eleven adults over 18 years of age who sustained a chronic ABI two or more years prior to participation in the study and demonstrated deficits in memory and attention were included. Only individuals with ABI due to traumatic brain injury, hemorrhagic cerebrovascular accident, or ischemic cerebrovascular accident were included.

Method …