Occupation

Abstracts Wednesday 29 June 2016
literacy and health, and evidence-based health practice and has
published widely in these areas.
presentation in a different format as part of a module entitled
‘the Art of Professional Practice’.
Session 21.2
Interactive reasoning: taking ‘underground’ practice
overground
Gill H, Brunel University London
Studies have found that interactive reasoning exists as a part
of ‘underground practice’ (Pierre 2001, Kim & Aas 2009).
Interaction between therapists and patients is highly valued
by occupational therapists but often goes unreported due
to a perceived lack of value by multidisciplinary teams and
commissioners (Kim & Aas 2009).
This poster presentation aims to highlight the value of interactive
reasoning and collaborative therapeutic interactions between
occupational therapists and their patients. It will be argued
that occupational therapists should endeavour to articulate and
document this value rather than keeping it as invisible practice.
Furthermore, it will be argued that the concept of interactive
reasoning can be expanded beyond Fleming’s (1991) definition
of this as reasoning ‘used when the therapist wants to
understand the patient as a person’. Interactive reasoning
can also be used to enable empirical observation and logical
inferences in a way that informs assessment and decisionmaking.
A case study of a practice placement experience
working with a woman with a history of schizophrenia in a
continuing care home will be used to illustrate how interactive
reasoning can be employed in this way. Through a number of
interactions with the patient, including playing chess and card
making, I had the opportunity to observe her capacities and
draw inferences about how far she would be able to cope and
manage her life independently.
It will be concluded that through the use of these two strands
of interactive reasoning, the interpersonal dimension (Fleming’s
1991 concept) and the empirical dimension (my addition),
occupational therapists can explain and justify aspects of
everyday practice whose value is often not fully appreciated.
It is recommended that occupational therapists define and
articulate these aspects of practice, which are difficult to
measure but which facilitate therapeutic success and effective
clinical reasoning.
References
Fleming, M. H. (1991). The therapist with the three-track mind.
American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 45(11), 1007–1014.
Pierre, B. L. (2001). Occupational therapy as documented
in patients’ records—part III. Valued but not documented.
Underground practice in the context of professional written
communication. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy,
8(4), 174–183.
Kim, L. G., & Aas, R. W. (2009). Occupational therapists’
perception of their practice: A phenomenological study.
Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 56(2), 112–121.
Keywords
Occupational therapists, Practice development, Practice – present
and future, NHS
Contact E-mail Addresses
harry_gill@hotmail.co.uk
Author Biographies
Harry Gill has completed an MSc in Occupational Therapy. It
was during his final year of this course that he delivered this
Session 21.3
Piloting a new approach to practice educator
updates – new roles and new partnerships.
Jackson S 1 , Dean S 2 , Brown J 2 , University of Bradford 1 ,
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 2
Practice education is an essential part of the undergraduate
curriculum. High quality placement opportunities are pivotal to
providing valuable experience for students to assimilate theory
into practice whilst developing a clear professional identity.
Students value educators that are competent, knowledgeable
and provide a positive learning experience (Rodger et al, 2014).
In order to facilitate this, education providers should seek to
provide on-going support and professional development for
practice educators (Kirke et al, 2007).
It is widely recognised that continuing professional development
is an essential and integral part of professional life (Parkinson et.
al., 2010). The College of Occupational Therapists (COT) expects
that practice educators receive appropriate initial preparation
and continuing support to deliver practice education and
advocates innovation and partnership working (COT, 2002).
The creation of a Practice Educator post within Bradford
Teaching Hospitals provided an opportunity to work
collaboratively with the University of Bradford to review and
enhance practice educator education. Attendance at the
University based update sessions was historically poor. The initial
aim was to provide bespoke update training for all Occupational
Therapy and Physiotherapy staff within the Trust. In order to
facilitate maximum engagement the update sessions were
delivered in-house, were half a day in length, interactive and
facilitated by a Practice Educator and a Practice Placement Coordinator
from the University. Feedback from the participants
was positive: a significant proportion of staff have been updated
and offers for student placements have increased.
The facilitate poster discussion will explore the benefits
that a Practice Educator post and the resulting collaborative
relationship with the University can bring to practice educator
training.
References
College of Occupational Therapists (2002) College of
Occupational Therapists: Position statement on lifelong learning.
British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 65(5), 198–200
Kirke P, Layton N, Sim, J (2007) Informing fieldwork design: Key
elements to quality in fieldwork education for undergraduate
occupational therapy students. Australian Occupational Therapy
Journal, 54 S13–S22.
Parkinson S, Lowe, C & Keys K (2010) Professional development
enhances the occupational therapy work environment. British
Journal of Occupational Therapy, 73(10) 470–476
Rodger S, Thomas Y, Greber C, Broadbridge J, Edwards, A,
Newton J, Lyons M (2014) Attributes of excellence in practice
educators: The perspectives of Australian occupational therapy
students. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 61, 159–167.
Keywords
Occupational therapists, Practice development, Education and
learning, NHS
Contact E-mail Address
s.jackson13@bradford.ac.uk
18