Effective Communication In Occupational Therapy

Effective communication is a key component of interprofessional practice to provide the best care for a patient treated by a multidisciplinary team. In my future profession as an occupational therapist there will be many important roles and responsibilities to consider across different specialities. Occupational therapists regularly work with nurses within an interdisciplinary team and the two health professions must practice effective communication, and the skills which foster the effectiveness. Occupational therapists, nurses, and the communication skills these professional require to work in an interdisciplinary team will be discussed.
Occupational therapy is a health profession dedicated to supporting people in living their lives with meaning

Howat, personal communication, March 22, 2018). Occupational therapist’s main roles include encouraging clients to develop new skills, helping them find improved ways of completing activities, manipulating the individual’s residence or workspace to meet their needs, or through providing therapy devices and equipment (About Occupational Therapy, 2018). When prescribing therapy devices, the occupational therapist must ensure the client knows how to best use it to ensure the client gets a full solution, not just a product (About Occupational Therapy, 2018). A further responsibility of occupation therapists is to consider the individual values of the client, an example of this is making a physically harmful activity less so because of the emotional benefits of the activity (K. Howat, personal communication, March 22,

It is important, for everyone in interprofessional relationships, to be active listeners as it fosters understanding and meaningful communication by preventing assumptions and therefore poor patient care (Bramhall, 2014). The two professionals can also use open-ended and probing questions to ensure that they fully understand the knowledge, regarding improved care, or feedback, regarding patient progress (Probasco et. al., 2017, and textbook). Non-verbal communication is just as important as verbal communication, the two types must match for the other health professional to acknowledge, understand, and accept the information or point of view (Bramhall, 2014). In the Probasco study, neurological nursing staff were educated to better assess the mobility of patients and determine if there was an impairment needing to be addressed and the specialty care of an OT required which resulted in a misuse of rehabilitation resources (Probasco et. al., 2017). In this study an important communication skill was clarity, the occupational therapist particularly had to ensure that the education information conveyed was clear, so it was not misinterpreted (Probasco et. al.,