Occupational Therapy Practice and the History of the Medical Model: A Case for Why OT is Awesome

Recent movements on social media have made claims that occupational therapy as a profession is moving away from the medical model. However, occupational therapy has begun moving away from this model for a long time now. It is not something new. So as a healthcare profession, why did occupational therapy move away from the medical … Read more

Can an Occupational Therapy Student Find Their Own Fieldwork Setting? And Other Fieldwork Issues in Occupational Therapy School

One question that students commonly asked is if they can find their own fieldwork opportunities in occupational therapy school. The answer is it depends. There’s is a continuum of possible answer actually and this depends on the school that you attend. On one end of the spectrum, as shown by this response from ACOTE, some … Read more

Clinical Reasoning Introduction & Differences Between Novice/New Grads vs Expert/Experienced Occupational Therapists

Clinical Reasoning Definition Compared to other healthcare professions, PT and OT are more likely to use the phrase ‘clinical reasoning’. This is likely due to the explicit definitions for this term. There is also variability used to describe CR across the healthcare professions. Components of Clinical Reasoning Narrative Reasoning – the use of storytelling to … Read more

Introduction to Grading Occupational Therapy Interventions

Definition of Grading The dictionary definition of gradation is the process of advancing something step by step; as in a gradual process. In occupational therapy, a reference of my old lecture notes defines gradation (Reed and Sanderson, 1990) as an intervention technique that categorizes tasks into degrees of difficulty or complexity. In the simplest of … Read more

Occupational Therapy 2027 Degree Mandate Clarification

You may have heard or read about occupational therapy moving towards a Doctorate’s degree for occupational therapists and a bachelor’s degree for occupational therapy assistants in 2027. I was under the impression that this was the case too. As this is a controversial issue, it seems that this is no longer the case. Upon further … Read more

Blocked Practice vs Massed Practice in Occupational Therapy

In motor learning strategies, two terms that can be confusing are blocked practice and massed practice. Practice can be a very useful and empowering method to promote occupational performance and goals in occupational therapy. Blocked practice Both of these types of practice are types of motor learning strategies. Blocked practice can be thought of as the opposite of … Read more

Transfer of Learning in Occupational Therapy

What is Transfer of Learning? Occupational therapists promote learning using different strategies. One often used concept that clients learn is the transfer of learning. Transfer of learning concepts and its documentation is also used among the interdisciplinary team such as with speech-language pathologists and physical therapists. Transfer of learning is defined as the “generalization of … Read more