What is skilled occupational therapy? Introduction to Skilled Therapy Occupational therapy is a highly skilled profession and skilled therapy is important for occupational therapy practitioners (occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants) to understand as it affects how they choose the therapy they deliver, provide interventions, and even more importantly document and bill for them. First, … Read more
Introduction One way to communicate to other staff a patient’s level of agitation for occupational therapy such as in psychiatric settings like locked units is with an objective scale. A scale like the Behavioral Activity Rating Scale (BARS) can be used to measure agitation and also to help reduce defensive behaviors from staff, which can … Read more
Documentation in healthcare can be a stressful task for many healthcare providers, as it can take away from the time spent with patients and can feel like a burden. Many healthcare providers feel that they don’t have enough time to complete documentation, as it can take away from the time spent with patients. Some occupational … Read more
SOAP Notes for Occupational Therapy S-O-A-P = Subjective Objective Assessment Plan Documentation takes practice. When writing SOAP notes (which is one way of documentation – there are others), the main tip is to be concise. Why do we do it? “If you didn’t document it, then it didn’t happen!” Documentation such as with SOAP notes … Read more
Levels of Assistance Table Note: The following are ‘traditional’ values for levels of assistance in percentages. This shouldn’t be a problem if you are say, working in acute care. However, in settings such as acute rehab (ARU), as the FIM was phased out and replaced by the CARE Tool/Section GG, the language and percentages were … Read more
Drop Arm Commodes Drop arm commodes are much superior to standard 3-in-1 commodes. They allow the arm on each side to drop down to facilitate ease of transfer for squat pivot transfers and slide board transfers. You can’t really do a slide board transfer with a standard commode where the arms are fixed. Hospitals should … Read more