ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog

Occupational therapists have a century long tradition of identity confusion and that has been complicated by incrementalism in how the profession defines its scope of practice.  A significant victory against incrementalism was realized in the 2014 Fall Representative Assembly Meeting when the Philosophy of Education document that was proposed was not supported, but an amended document passed that removed references to the 'occupational needs of institutions.'  The amended document now reads: "Occupational therapy (OT) education prepares occupational therapy practitioners to address the occupational needs of individuals, groups, communities, and populations" The motion was to replace the word "institutions" with the word "groups" as individuals, groups, communities and populations have human occupational needs as OTs know and understand them, and it makes the language of the new document consistent with the Occupational Therapy Performan...

The American Occupational Therapy Association has a Commission on Continuing Competence and Professional Development (CCCPD).  The CCCPD is conducting a 5 year review of its standards on continuing competence.  This is a good opportunity to assess the AOTA efforts in this area. Links to the draft document and a survey can be found here: http://www.aota.org/Publications-News/AOTANews/2014/CCCPD-standards-review.aspx Here are my concerns with the document: 1. I find the document to be rather vague, and the standards are not evidence-based.  There is no citation that provides information on how these standards were established or how they were developed.  In comparison, NBCOT develops practice standards that are based on a Practice Analysis and they can be viewed here: http://www.nbcot.org/practice-standards 2. The standard on Knowledge is vague and self-referential: "OTs and OTAs shall demonstrate understanding and comprehension of the information req...