Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Scholarly Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD)

Department

Occupational Therapy

First Advisor

Mandy Meyer

Abstract

Background: With around 30 million people participating in athletics each year, injury prevention, management, and treatment are a necessity with the inevitability of injuries (Host & Mankie, 2018). Occupational therapy (OT) is a versatile profession that has the scope of practice to provide many different types of treatment as well as education to athletes and their supporters (Host & Mankie, 2018). In general, OT as a whole has previously overlooked how the profession can be of use to a population such as athletes who are more commonly seen in the sports medicine setting by physical therapists and athletic trainers (Host & Mankie, 2018). To address this, a guide was developed for occupational therapists and/or other sports medicine professionals; this guide contains inforation on the athletic rehabilitation setting and resources to support OT services within this setting and population specific to a regional facility in Fargo, ND.

Project description: The development of this product/guide was initiated through an in-depth literature review to identify gaps in rehabilitation of injuries of an athletic nature that can be filled by OT, current OT practices through the lens of hand therapy, current diagnoses and intervention methods utilized, current evidence supporting the intervention methods identified, problems that arise when starting an OT job in this setting, and tips for practitioners beginning in this setting. The literature was combined with real-world experiences of current occupational therapists, and the experiences of other sports medicine related professionals. OT specific theories were utilized to guide this scholarly project’s formation consisting of the Person- Environment-Occupation Model and the Biomechanical Frame of Reference (Baptiste, 2017; McMillian, 2011).

Discussion: The results of the literature review and combined experiences of various professionals were developed into a novel guide for OT professionals looking to begin working with orthopedic and athletic rehabilitation at a hand therapy facility in Fargo, ND. The guide consists of current research trends, advice from various local professionals, and evidence supporting OT involvement with this population. This guide provides accesible information to help improve OT’s voice within the sports medicine healthcare population by providing the gateway to common patient encounters, the specifics of OT in this setting, and how to best transition into a job of this nature.

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