Finding Your Voice: Addressing the Under-Recognition of Occupational Therapy in Daily Practice

Speakers: Niccole Rowe, BA, COTA/L and Kimberly Breeden, MS, OTR/L

Kimberly Breeden, MS, OTR/L has 30 years of experience working in occupational therapy in a variety of settings. She is an assistant professor, certified life coach and has an extensive background in clinical program development, leadership, administration and reimbursement.

Niccole Rowe, BA, COTA/L found her way to occupational therapy through her first profession in television news producing. She is grateful one story lead to changing to such an amazing profession as occupational therapy. She is in her 12th year of clinical practice. that includes academia, skilled nursing, outpatient, acute care and assisted living..

Kimberly and Niccole, together, developed an outpatient occupational therapy pain program. They have authored two continuing education articles on the subject of chronic pain and opioid guidelines. Kim and Niccole were the co-authors of the AOTA official document "Occupational Therapy's Role in Treating Pain". They have also served as contributing authors to an occupational therapy textbook on the subject of occupational therapy's role in pain management. They have traveled across the country serving as instructors for various courses on the subject of pain and non-pharmacological interventions for the treatment of pain. Niccole and Kim have enjoyed success and found fulfillment in their clinical and professional practice and are excited to be able to share their experience with other occupational therapy practitioners.

DISCLOSURES

Financial: Niccole and Kim are compensated as a Founding Partner of Aspire OT.

Non Financial: Niccole and Kim serve as Founding Partners of Aspire OT, which has partnerships and affiliations as noted on the Partner and Affiliation sections of the Aspire OT website.

Learning Objectives:

After the presentation, leaners will be able to:

• Describe 2 factors that contribute to the under recognition of occupational therapy.
• Explain 2 strategies that an everyday practitioner can utilize to address the under recognition of occupational therapy in their current practice setting.

Course Description:

How many times have we as OTs OTAs, and students explained what occupational therapy is to only be faced with more confusion by our families, friends, coworkers, and clients?  Maybe you concerned that occupational therapy is not being utilized enough in your setting?

Sure, we all do our best, but it's hard to navigate those discussions in our fast-paced work world. Join Kim and Niccole as they delve into the evidence and literature to determine just how under-recognized occupational therapy is and what may contribute to the problem.

You may be surprised to find out how OT practitioners are contributing to their own lack of recognition, but don't worry because you will learn strategies that can address this big issue in our profession and how to use them the next time you are at work.  This course provides practical strategies that can easily be implemented into any daily practice setting.

What better way to combat burnout than to empower ourselves and our amazing profession?