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Guest Post: Reflecting on the Pegboard on These Occupational Therapy Ornaments

By Stephanie Yamkovenko posted 12-20-2018 13:21

  

Guest Post by Emily J. Morgan

I think Glen Gillen said it best after I asked him to view several photographs of the ornaments I continue to hang year after year on my Christmas tree: 

“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry!” he responded. 

As many of you may know, Project Champion Glen Gillen, EdD, OTR, FAOTA, presented a free webinar available to all AOTA members in early November introducing the Choosing Wisely® campaign. Choosing Wisely® is an initiative started by the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation (ABIM). Within our profession, five evidence-based recommendations of services that occupational therapy practitioners should not provide have been established from input from AOTA Board of Directors, members, experts, and staff. Don’t provide intervention activities that are non-purposeful (e.g. cones, pegs, shoulder arc, arm bike) is the first on the list of services that should be questioned.

During his presentation, I was chuckling to myself, reflecting on what I look at every year as I decorate our Christmas tree. I have been gifted a total of five identical “Occupational Therapy” ornaments from various people in the last 14 years that I have been in practice. The ornaments come from the famous Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, Michigan—the largest Christmas store in the world.

The ornament reads: “Occupational Therapists put the life back into living.”A Christmas tree with ornaments that say Occupational Therapists put the life back in to living. A picture of a pegboard is also on the ornament.

The picture next to this inspiring message: a pegboard

As you can see, this ornament symbolizes how there are subtle, often times silent, mixed messages about what occupational therapists really do that exist in our society. There is general confusion about who we are. What we stand for. The value we bring to health care. It doesn’t take long to live a day in the life of an occupational therapy practitioner to encounter misguided impressions about the fundamental meaning of our profession that exists among many members of the public. Unfortunately, these notions probably exist not because of someone else’s inability to understand our broad scope of practice and potential to intervene, but because we often take the path of least resistance to educate others about the depth of human occupation. After all, isn’t it true that when you point a finger there are always three fingers pointing back at you?

It’s not that whoever was involved in designing the OT ornament got it all wrong, but now we have to work in a unified manner to set it back to right. Choosing Wisely® and the five evidence-based recommendations promoted by AOTA is an important campaign to embrace because it gives us opportunity to look at ourselves in the mirror. Wise Aristotle said that, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” It starts with me. It starts with you. It starts with us.

Call out OT misnomers and misunderstandings. Ensure that function and life skills are at the heart of your treatment. Respectfully ask for reconsideration of misguided beliefs when you hear them stated. Rethink your “canned explanation” about who you are as you introduce yourself as an occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant. The time you spend to educate clients, care providers, allied health professionals, and third-party payers could make all the difference in their “buy in” for your skilled services. Slowly explain OT’s whole package. Just as you would not want the recipient of your Christmas gift to only open part of the present, we do not want others to miss out on the entirety of our profession’s offerings.

Two of them have broken, so I will continue to hang my three occupational therapy ornaments every year. I think they serve as an important reminder to practice what I preach. Whether it is the holiday season or not, I must continually remember who I am and what I represent, day in and day out. I am by no means perfect in my practice, but moving onward and forward, I intend to choose wisely.

Learn more about the Choosing Wisely campaign here.

A headshot of Emily J. MorganEmily J. Morgan, MS, OTR/L, CSRS, RPSFC in NDT received a M.S. from Western Michigan University’s Occupational Therapy Program in 2005 and is currently the site supervisor and lead occupational therapist at Ascension Genesys Therapy Services in Grand Blanc, MI. A strong advocate of evidenced-based practice, knowledge translation, and servant leadership, she involves herself and team in ongoing program development and quality improvement. Professional interests include stroke rehabilitation, Parkinson’s Disease, and non-invasive brain stimulation. She is an active contributor to OT/OTA programs around Michigan and pursues expansion of knowledge and resources for her team, the profession, and the community.

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