Blog Post challenge #4

Today in foundations we continued to discuss the OT process and moved into clinical observation and documentation. As students we shouldn't expect to be exceptional at observation and documentation at this point, but we should continue to grow in both areas as we move into field work and more clinical aspects in school. When observing clients we should view ourselves as the problem solvers. We look for issues that act as barriers to our clients. These barriers keep clients from achieving the occupations they not only desire to do, but also the occupations that are required for daily living. As an OT it's very important to know what to look for in clients and which assessment tools are necessary, and then to apply the correct intervention to the client in relation to whatever is hindering the patient. The best part of this clinical observation is that it's all client centered and occupation based. This is awesome because it makes our job consistent and important in an ever growing health field.

Documentation is one of the most important aspects in the field of OT. Not only is it important from a legal view, it is also the evidence that our that our methods are valid and reliable. In a way documentation can be thought of as a mini narrative to the "adventure" that we embarked upon with our clients. I appreciate the foundation and system that is incorporated into documentation, in most cases documentation will be done in some type of template. Although I'm a little nervous about diving into the documentation process, I'm also very excited about learning more about it, and constantly improving at it.