Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Scholarly Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD)

Department

Occupational Therapy

First Advisor

Karrianna Iseminger

Abstract

Purpose: Occupational therapy practitioners (OTPs) working in a hand therapy setting primarily focus on neuromusculoskeletal injuries of the upper extremity (UE) (Kurrus et al., 2023). However, clients who experience UE injuries can also experience adverse psychosocial factors limiting their performance in daily activities (Kurrus et al., 2023). Psychosocial factors are rarely addressed in the practice setting due to institutional barriers and a lack of confidence in OTPs (Kurrus et al., 2023). This project aims to provide OTPs with resources to provide occupational therapy intervention to address psychosocial factors despite the barriers present within the practice setting of hand therapy.

Methods: A literature review was conducted to determine the barriers to addressing psychosocial factors in the practice setting. Databases, government sites, and professional organizations searched included CINAHL, PubMed, PsychInfo, Medline, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the American Society of Hand Therapists, and the American Occupational Therapy Association. Interviews with OTPs practicing in the practice setting and personal hands-on experience providing occupational therapy services in the practice setting also informed barriers to be addressed by the project. Once the barriers of the practice setting were identified, a toolkit of resources was developed for OTPs to use within the practice setting to address psychosocial factors limiting occupational performance.

Product: The product is a toolkit that includes nine handouts that can be completed by clients and a facilitation guide for OTPs. The facilitation guide includes education on multiple ix facilitation methods like in-session approaches, out-of-session approaches, and verbal facilitation of intervention.

Conclusions: The toolkit effectively overcame barriers identified in the practice setting. The toolkit provides handouts that can be completed both in-session and out-of-session, overcoming institutional barriers related to time, space, and expectation of neuromusculoskeletal-focused interventions. The practitioner’s guide helped overcome barriers related to practitioner confidence by educating OTPs on physical and verbal facilitation techniques to implement psychosocial intervention in the hand therapy practice setting.

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