Occupational therapy in emergency departments: Australian practice

Abstract

30 subjects (58% response rate) from 21 sites participated. Mean age 30.4, 29 females, one male and an average of 9-year clinical experience. OT service was usually provided within multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary teams by full-time employed staff and patients were overwhelmingly Australian Triage Scale level 4 or 5 and were over 65 years. Few standardized assessment or outcome measures were used. The OT role was consistently focussed on functional assessment and provision of interventions such as equipment prescription, patient education and referral to community and support services to ensure safe discharge or inform inpatient admission decisions.

Discharge Planning for the Elderly in Acute Care: The Perceptions of Experienced Occupational Therapists

“…Variations were present in what occupational therapists reported addressing compared to what was actually addressed in therapy due to the challenges that prevented comprehensive assessment of instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) (i.e., home management skills, financial management, transportation, and driving) in the acute care environment (Crennan & MacRae, 2010). Similarly, studies on occupational therapy assessment and discharge planning in the emergency department setting, which also serves a high proportion of elderly clients within a limited time frame, reported a lack of standardized assessments and the use of functionbased or "in-house" tools in order to make discharge recommendations (Carlill, Gash, & Hawkins, 2004;Cusick, Johnson, & Bissett, 2008;Veillette, Demers, & Dutil, 2007). Jette et al's (2003) study concluded that although the discharge planning process was largely guided by patients' functioning and disability, wants and needs, ability to participate in care, and life context, the limited time frames prevented the overt use of standardized assessments.…”

Continuing professional development for occupational therapy emergency department services

“…Typical CPD activities include journal reviews, in‐service training, personal reflection, short courses, conferences, clinical interest group membership, quality assurance projects and literature searching (Alsop, 2000). While the current literature provides an emerging evidence base for ED occupational therapy practice (Carlill, Gash & Hawkins, 2002; Cusick, Johnson & Bissett, 2009; Hendriksen & Harrison, 2001; Johnson & Cusick, 2009; Smith & Rees, 2004; Veillette, Demers & Dutil, 2007; Veillette, Demers, Dutil & McCusker, 2008), no literature was found exploring ED occupational therapy CPD. This study helps fill the gap by identifying factors relevant to CPD planning.…”

“…, 2002). Older people are the primary service recipients of allied health services in ED (Anaf & Sheppard, 2007; Cusick et al. , 2009; Veillette et al.…”

“…ED occupational therapy activities are directed to preventing unnecessary hospital admissions (so‐called ‘social admissions’) and facilitating safe discharge from ED by: assessing current and predicted function of non‐urgent older patients; providing individual treatment; providing patient and family education; referring to other hospital services (for example social work) for treatment; informing medical decisions to admit patients to hospital with assessment information and advice; prescribing and supplying daily living equipment; and referring to community or follow‐up services as part of the ED discharge plan (Carlill et al. , 2002; Cusick et al. , 2009; Hendriksen & Harrison, 2001; Lee et al.…”

“…One hospital (Bankstown Hospital NSW), for example, calls the allied health ED personnel the ‘Rapid Response’ team – this name communicates the sense of urgency and crisis that can surround an ED presentation that requires allied health/occupational therapy involvement. In the ED environment, standardised occupational therapy assessments or evaluations are rarely used (Cusick et al. , 2009), and only recently, have there been efforts to develop speciality standardised ED occupational therapy assessment approaches (Veillette et al.…”