Document Type

Capstone

Abstract

The purpose of the Blending of Worlds capstone project is to provide an educational in-service to promote the use of complementary interventions, such as massage techniques, during occupational therapy practice with pediatric patients. It was hypothesized that intervention was underutilized in occupational therapy and could benefit clients in achieving occupational therapy goals. By creating this educational in-service, therapists would be educated on how massage would be part of an occupational therapist's scope and show connections to its practical application as a part of occupational therapy practice. It also provides evidenced based research to support the use of the intervention and encourages, parent education, and continuing education to provide these interventions ethically and improve occupational therapy outcomes. This supports goals of the American Occupational Therapy Association's Centennial Vision and their promotion of heath and prevention of disease and disability. The project focused on presenting the evidenced based research to therapists and proving the value of massage as an occupational therapy intervention. Once the case was presented for the intervention, information was presented to demonstrate practical application including overcoming barriers in intervention, funding, context, and populations that were and were not appropriate for the intervention. The in-service provided instruction on massage interventions with specific activities to address specific needs. This was done through the use of evidenced based research, demonstrations, visual aids, and case studies. Emphasis was placed on parent education, such as client/family training to improve carryover of techniques in their natural environment. Although this was an introduction to the interventions, it is also meant to inspire therapist to explore the concepts further with continuing educational opportunities. To track the effectiveness of the in-service and assist in determining if hypothesized issues were present in occupational therapy practice, a pretest, posttest, and evaluation were created. This provided feedback from the participants about the information presented and how it was delivered. These tools consisted of anonymous response to multiple choice and open ended questions. Following the presentation all 14 participants provided responses in a randomized order, the items were collected and entered into the google forms to assist in analyzing the data. The results were calculated as percentages, number of respondents, numbers, and narrative responses. The data suggested the participants felt the objectives of the in-service were met. This could be interpreted as an effective in-service and positive correlation was made to hypothesized issues. This is evident by 100% of the participants responding they felt evidenced based research supported the use of complementary interventions like massage and they are now able to identify some principles of massage and occupational therapy. 85.7 % of the participants felt there was justification for the use complimentary therapy such as massage in pediatric intervention. More support was provided as a 100% of the participants responded, they would utilize massage as techniques as a part of an occupational therapy intervention with their clients and feel it could be provided as part of a practical approach to a client family centered method. The positive correlations included, 92.9 % of the participants felt massage intervention was underutilized in occupational therapy practice. 64.3% of the therapists agreed they had encountered parents who felt uncomfortable with positioning and handling of their medically challenged child. A I 00% of those in attendance felt the massage intervention would improve their client's health and wellbeing. Although the sample size of this group was small, the data did support the ideas behind the development of this project. The in-service could utilize data gathered in the evaluation to improve the presentation and repeat the in-service multiple times, to gain a more representative sample of this population. The information shared in the in-service is relevant to the profession of occupational therapy, as it addresses items the American Occupational Therapy Association deem as goals for our centennial vision and furthers their promotion of health and the prevention of disease and disability. It provides a novel insight into the use of massage as a tool to improve pediatric intervention, addresses issues in occupational therapy practice, provides advocacy for evidenced based practice, supports eliminating barriers, and furthering emerging areas of practice. Therefore, the Blending of Worlds in-service is truly complimentary to the national organizations agenda. It is recommended the in-service be utilized to promote and educate therapist in the use of massage intervention in pediatric occupational therapy practice, improve client care through parent education, and further the lifelong learning of occupational therapists.

Publication Date

2016

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