Reflective Portfolio of an Occupational Therapist

Reflective Portfolio of an Occupational Therapist Reflective Portfolio and Continuing Professional Development Portfolio The HCPC defines a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) portfolio as: ‘A range of learning activities through which health professionals maintain and develop throughout their career to ensure that they retain their capacity to practise safely, effectively and legally within their evolving scope of practice’. (Allied Health Professions project) Put simply, a Continuing Professional Development Portfolio is a way for professionals to continue to learn and develop throughout their careers so they keep their skills and knowledge up to date and are able to work safely, legally and effectively within social services or the private sector. Alsop (2000) recognises that there is a wide range of benefits of CPD. By keeping a Continuing Professional Development Portfolio it helps to encourage a higher standard of personal professional performance. It demonstrates a commitment from the healthcare professional to ensure the best practice is given as well as demonstrating a dedicated commitment to service users. Continuing Professional Development Portfolio requires some specific documents. For example a CPD portfolio requires a fully up-to-date Curriculum Vitae and a personal statement with a summary of current work and how your CPD improved the quality of your work and the benefits you have provided to your service users. As well as the basic necessities there are a variety of things that could be beneficial to include in ones Continuing Professional Development Portfolio such as informative hand-outs or articles that have impacted upon your understanding of Occupational Therapy or examples of your skills applied to your current situation. Another key aspect of keeping a Continuing Professional Development Portfolio is to have regular reflections of your objective practices and assessments. By turning ones experiences of practice into a written form of documentation it will help each individual identify and support their learning outcomes and learning needs. It also helps to have a wide ra nge of learning activities including peer review/feedback and group projects. As well as peer feedback from group work it would also be beneficial to include feedback on assignments from professors, illustrating how your learning has developed, and your practice has improved. The Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct (COT, 2010) specifies the requirements of an Occupational Therapist in relation to keeping a Continuing Professional Development Portfolio. It states that all Occupational Therapists must continue to keep a CPD portfolio that may be audited by the HCPC every five years. Each professional must make sure that their CPD Portfolio shows a variety of different kinds of activities and that each activity is relevant to their line of work. Each CPD portfolio should aim to improve the quality of work you produce, and ensure that each healthcare professional is able to practice safely and effectively within their scope of practice as well as being able to practise within the legal and ethical boundaries of each varying profession. For example an Occupational Therapist because they have such a holistic approach to their care would need to be aware of the impact of culture, equality and diversity on their practice (HCPC 2013) With each health care prof essional updating their Continuing Professional Development Portfolio they will be able to draw on up to date and appropriate knowledge and skills to inform their practice decisions and to help them understand the need to establish and maintain a safe practice environment. However a Continuing Professional Development Portfolio is not just kept by Occupational Therapist’s but are required from the entire multidisciplinary team A multidisciplinary team (MDT) is composed of members from different healthcare professions with specialised skills and expertise. This is beneficial to the patients because when professionals from a range of disciplines with different but complementary skills, knowledge and experience work together they are able to deliver comprehensive healthcare aimed at providing the best possible outcome for the physical and psychosocial needs of a patient and their carers. Multidisciplinary care occurs due to the fact that a patient needs may change with time and treatment. Since the team has such a diverse range of professions to call upon for a patients care the structure of the team may also change to meet these needs. There are many health care professions that make up a multidisciplinary team ranging from District Nurses, Physiotherapist, Doctors, Speech and Language Therapists and of course Occupational Therapists The role of an Occupational Therapist can provide many benefits within the multidisciplinary team. Their specific training allows them to hold the distinctive role of understanding a patient’s medical, physical and psychological state and the impact that their disability or injury might be imposing on their lives. It also helps that occupational therapists are able to address an individual’s broader goals that will help a patient integrate with their local community and reduce depression and participate in the activities that are important to them. Essentially Occupational Therapists prove to be instrumental in combined teams as they are able to understand both the health and social care context of a client. The Occupational Therapists have a unique opportunity to link various professionals dealing with a clients care. They can act as the cohesive agent to maximise the effectiveness of a team. They have involvement in working with both health and social care and return to work schemes. Unlike the rest of the multidisciplinary team Occupational Therapists’ provide a client centred approach to their practice, they look at the person as a whole so involving the clients occupation, their environment and their spirituality into their treatment. ‘The occupational therapist values individual experience, cultural diversity, religious beliefs and lifestyle diversity in their clients. The expression of these values means that occupational therapy is essentially a flexible process in which the therapist listens to the client in order to understand and respond to their individual needs, values, interests and aspirations. For intervention to be integrated into the life and context of the individual, the family and carers, it must be culturally sensitive and culturally relevant.’ (Creek 2003, p29). This client centred approach is also greatly aided by the fact that occupational therapists have an extensive knowledge and understanding of the equipment and adaptations that are a major part of healthcare services (Rabiee and Glendinning 2010). This makes Occupational Therapists a valuable part of the MDT for the government as they drastically help reduce the cost of care for some clients. A recent study which explored the relationship between provision of correct equipment from an Occupational Therapist and the reduction on care package costs and residential care found that on average the cost of an eight week care package was dropped by over  £60,000 (Hill. S (2007). This was because housing adaptations made by the Occupational Therapist greatly reduced the need for daily visits and reduced or even in some cases removed the costs for home care this ultimately brought savings in that ranged from  £1,200 to  £29,000 a year. (Heywood and Turner.2007). Ultimately the setting up of supplementary moving and handling equipment by the occupational therapists reduces the need for two carers to assist the patients with their personal care. In Somerset, of the 125 services users who were assessed; 37% of them are now only assisted by one carer instead of two, with savings of  £270,000 achieved. The average initial investment in equipment was  £763 per service user (Mi ckel 2010). This additional money saving shows that the Occupational Therapists are a cost effective and highly efficient members of the multidisciplinary team, who can provide holistic, well rounded care to each individual patient. As well as all members of the multidisciplinary team having to keep a Continuing Professional Development Portfolio they must also keep reflection folders. Reflection can be defined as a framework through which professionals can explore all issues involved in clinical practice to them it is a means of enabling practitioners to theorise about practice and thus enable theory to emerge from practice. Schà ¶n (1983) presents the idea that there are two types of reflection: Firstly there is reflection in action this is when the professional’s instinctive actions are reflected upon, whilst they are carrying it out the actions or assessment, and altered as necessary whilst in the situation. Secondly there is reflection on action this is when we as professionals step back from the performance and reflect on that action at a later time and date. Many different professionals have presented different models of reflection for healthcare practitioners to follow, ranging from Graham Gibbs, Christopher Johns and John Driscoll. Graham Gibbs developed his reflective cycle (Gibbs 1988) based upon each stage of David A. Kolb’s experiential cycle (Kolb 1984). He suggested how a full structured analysis of a situation could take place using prompt questions at each stage. It is probably the most cited model by health care professionals but does not contain the number or depth of prompt questions contained in some other models Description In this section, the professionals need to explain what they were reflecting on. This means that they need to include background information, such as what it is they were reflecting on and tell the reader who was involved. It’s important to remember to keep the information provided relevant, to-the-point and most importantly confidential. Feelings In this section the professional needs to discuss their feelings and thoughts about the experience. They need to consider questions such as: How did you feel at the time? What did you think at the time? What did you think about the incident afterwards? Here they are able to discuss their emotions honestly. Evaluation-For the evaluation, the professionals need to discuss how well the event went. Including factors such as: How they reacted to the situation at hand, and how did other people react to the same situation? What was good and what was bad about the experience? Analysis- In the analysis, one needs to consider what might have helped or hindered the event at the time. The professional also has the opportunity here to compare the experience with the literature they have read. Conclusion- In the conclusion, it is important for the professional to acknowledge: whether they could have done anything else; what has been learned from the experience; consider whether they could you have responded in a different way. If the experience was positive it is important to discuss whether the same actions would be undertaken to ensure the same positive outcomes next time. At the same time considering if there is anything that could have been change a to improve things even further. If the incident was negative then you need to reflect on how this could have been avoided and what needs to be done to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I chose Gibbs’ model of reflection to use in my own assignment, because I found that the structure was easy to follow, and was laid out clearly. The instructions were simple and sequential. In addition to this the model was easy to apply to my assessments and my clients. Applying the Model to an Assessment performed on Placement. For confidentiality reasons during this reflection the client will take the pseudonym of Mrs Jones who was a seventy five year old woman and my educator will go by the pseudonym of Mrs Smith. Description In this section I will be reflecting upon a washing and dressing assessment with Mrs Jones that took place on the ward before her returning home. Mrs Jones was in hospital for several months after suffering a fall at home. Mrs Jones lived at home by herself in a two storey house, with three bedrooms but with a downstairs toilet and bathroom. Involved in this assessment were myself, Mrs Jones and Mrs Smith. The assessment took place on the ward in a small wash room and toilet. After her fall Mrs Jones had been using a Zimmer frame to walk around the hospital ward. Feelings As this was my first assessment on my own naturally I was incredibly nervous. Throughout the entire assessment I was worried that I was going to make a wrong choice or a poor decision. Throughout the assessment I was also conscious about trying to impress my educator, so actually I could be guilty of focussing more upon impressing my educator than focussing on the patient. However after the assessment had finished I did feel that it had been a success! Mrs Jones had performed well proving that she was capable of washing and dressing herself with minimal assistance from myself or from Mrs Smith. This ultimately proved that she was ready to return home. Evaluation- During the assessment I felt that I remained calm and collected and managed to keep my nerves under control. However looking back on the assessment and after a discussion with Mrs Smith, I feel like I could have been a bit firmer with Mrs Jones. For when she kept asking to sit down and rest during the assessment I would let her whereas Mrs Smith said that she would had encouraged Mrs Jones to keep going. Stating that since being on the ward Mrs Jones had become used to the nurses doing everything for her and that whilst she was with us I would need to learn to differentiate between Mr Jones genuine need for help, for example when she needed help washing the top of her back and when she was being lazy and trying to get me to do things for her. However Mrs Smith said that being firm but fair with clients would become much easier with age and experience. Analysis- During this assessment I also learnt to give the physical environment much more thought before starting a washing and dressing assessment. The cubical wash room was quite small and I failed to take into consideration that during the assessment I would have to manoeuvre myself, Mrs Jones and Mrs Jones’ Zimmer frame around the toilet, shower and wash hand basin. I should have realised that I should have entered the wash room first in order to have full access to all the facilities, however I politely followed Mrs Jones into the bathroom, but then had the difficulty of moving round Mrs Jones and her Zimmer frame in order to move on with the assessment. A greater awareness of the physical environment would have enabled me to pre-empt this inconvenience. Conclusion- In conclusion I feel that the assessment was a positive experience for both myself and Mrs Jones. In order to replicate the same positive experience for both parties, I need to remain confident and emphatic to my clients, whilst ensuring I am realistic with their abilities. The fact that I remained in an energetic and encouraging mood help lift the spirits of Mrs Jones, and inspired her to keep going in the assessment even when she claimed she didn’t want to. I found that the mood of the Occupational Therapist can quite often transfer to the patient, so remaining positive whilst in front of the client is essential to a beneficial and successful assessment. Reflecting on all of my assessments whilst on my placement helped me identify my future learning needs. I realised that there is still plenty of room for me to grow and develop not only as a professional but also as a person. Mrs Smith and all of the clients helped me understand that to grow as a professional I need to continue to build therapeutic and respectful relationships with my clients. Although a strong rapport with patients is essential at the same time I need to learn to distance myself emotionally from my clients and to continue to remain professional. For a few times on placement and during initial assessments I found myself becoming emotionally attached to my clients, viewing them as if they were a family member, my grandparents for example. In order to become a better professional I need to learn to differentiate sympathy and empathy for my clients. Once I have managed this it will be easier for me to learn to find the balance between firm and fair when assessing my eld erly clients, and only ask them to do what was realistically achievable. The final learning need that I was able to identify from my multiple written reflections, and from my reflection discussions with Mrs Smith was that as a professional I need to learn to be more confident when in charge of an assessment, but this will be something that will continue to develop and grow with age and experience. In assessing a client’s needs and appropriate course of treatment I need to consider which methods will best help achieve the desired outcome. Experience will help develop my ability to determine realistic targets and reflection will enable me to create a portfolio of these methods to achieve those targets. A record of good and effective practices such as exchanges with other Occupational Therapists can only serve to enhance my professional development. References (Allied Health Professions project), ‘Demonstrating competence through CPD’, 2002. Alsop, A. 2000. Continuing Professional Development: A Guidefor Therapists. London: Blackwell Science. COT- College of Occupational Therapists 2010. Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. London. College of Occupational Therapists. Creek J (2003) Occupational therapy defined as a complex intervention. London: College of Occupational Therapists Gibbs, G. (1988) Learning by doing: a guide to teaching and learning methods. Oxford: Further Education Unit. HCPC Health and Care Professions Council 2013.Standards of proficiency for occupational therapists. London. Health Care professions council Heywood F and Turner L (2007) Better outcomes, lower costs: implications for health and Dsocial care budgets of investment in housing adaptations, improvements and equipment: a review of the evidence. London: Stationery Office. Hill S (2007) Independent living: equipment cost savings. [Research report identified through the COT Killer Facts Database]. Mickel, A (2010) A ticking timebomb. Occupational Therapy News [OTnews], 18(5), 38-39 Nottingham University: Reflection Models online accessed 25/04/2014 http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/nmp/sonet/rlos/placs/critical_reflection/models/gibbs_model.html Rabiee P, Glendinning C (2010) The organisation and content of home care re-ablement services. (Research Works 2010-01). York: University of York, Social Policy Research Unit. Schà ¶n D.A. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner. Aldershot. Arena

Obesity Statistics Essay

Obesity statistics in Malaysia are getting scarier by the day. The World Health Organization (WHO) survey in 2010 ranked Malaysia as sixth in Asia with the highest adult obesity rate. Obesity statistics from the Malaysian National Health and Morbidity Survey in 2006 showed that 43% of Malaysian adults were obese or overweight at that time. And these obesity statistics showed that overweight children were 38% of the child population in Malaysia. The recent WHO results of 2010 showed that 60% of Malaysians aged 18 and up, had a BMI over 25. A BMI of more than 25 means the person is overweight. In 2008, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) did research on the ‘prevalence of obesity among children’. The results were astounding, showing an increase of obesity of 30% in the 6 to 12 years old age group. In 2007, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) did a nationwide, all Malaysian states study on obesity, on Malaysians aged 15 years old and above. A person with a BMI of more than 30 was considered to be obese. Those overweight with a BMI reading of more than 25 were excluded. The UPM researchers found that females were more likely to be obese at 13.8% while men were at 9.6%. Malays and Indians had higher cases of obesity at 13.6% and 13.5%, while Chinese came in 8.5% of their population groups. Sarawak natives had 10.8% cases of obesity while the Sabah natives had the lowest at 7.3%. The data obtained were statistically significant (p< 0.0001). All these obesity statistics have rung alarm bells at the Malaysian Ministry of Health. The Malaysian government is concerned on the health effects, productivity and the healthcare costs implications of an obesity epidemic in the country. The government notes that this obesity and overweight issue is far more serious in Malaysia than in other countries in the region. The Malaysian Ministry of Health had planned for another survey in 2011 to update these obesity statistics. This would have included a study on the incidences of diabetes and kidney diseases in Malaysia. But no results are available as of now.

Keat’s & Longfellow Analysis

Jasmine Carter Mr. Gillet A. P. Literature September 20, 2012 Keats and Longfellow Both Keats and Longfellow were poets during the Romantic period. The two compose poems in which they reflect on their inability to live up to their creative potential and the idea that death could intervene at any moment. Longfellow is disappointed in his failures and sees comfort in the past rather than an uncertain future. Moreover, Keats fears he won’t accomplish all that he wants, but sees possibility and realizes his grievous goals won’t be important after death.While Longfellow’s tone is fearful, Keats’ is appreciative and hopeful about what life has to offer right now. In both poems, the poets use the literary devices parallelism and symbolism, to depict their particular situation in their own lives, while also using diction with characteristics of romantic poetry, reflecting their time period. The two poets of â€Å"When I Have Fears† and â€Å"Mezzo Camminâ €  tell their fear of not attaining what they want in life through the use of parallelism. Keats uses parallelism by starting his first quatrain, as well as the other two, with the word â€Å"when†, conveying that time is moving forward in his life.The use of this word also delivers the idea Keats’s youthfulness during the time he wrote this poem, and illustrates his fear of not showing others his writing potential before he is â€Å"[ceased to be]†. Longfellow uses parallelism in line 9, telling readers he’s â€Å"halfway up the hill† and that he only â€Å"[sees] the past†. The use of this parallelism depicts his older age and his views on the little time he has left to accomplish something major. Both Keats and Longfellow bring forth their ages to get their readers to realize there is not much time left in life, and they must make a choice to do something worthwhile before it is too late.The second sections of the two poems draw attent ion to the differences in each situation. The two poets use symbolism of something dark; Keats using the symbol of â€Å"the night’s starred face†, while Longfellow uses the symbol of â€Å"a city in the twilight dim and vast†. Both symbols are used to convey that darkness is equivalent to future’s mysteries. The difference in this is that Keats has a positive outlook on the mysteries his future holds, whereas Longfellow finds comfort in his past and fear in his uncertain future.Longfellow’s fears have stopped him from accomplishing greatness all together, in something such as â€Å"[building] some tower of song†. On the other hand, Keats has taken full advantage of the time he’s had and is only slightly frightened that he does not have time to achieve his greatness. Poets in the romantic period felt strongly that literature and nature had the effect to move people. Keats and Longfellow utilize diction characteristics of their romanti c style of poetry. In the couplet of â€Å"Mezzo Cammin†, Longfellow declares he â€Å"[hears an autumnal blast above him]†, referring to the way nature makes him feel.In this case, nature moves him in a negative way; conveying his old age, sickness and, most commonly, the death in which he believes is only getting closer. Although it is not used in Keats’ couplet, he uses the word â€Å"behold† to depict that he sees greatness in his writing and how it would move him, in a positive way, if he accomplished his goal of being a famous poet. In the couplet of â€Å"When I Have Fears†, we see that Keats believe without beholding greatness, he will be moved in a negative way, (i. e. â€Å"nothingness†).In both poems â€Å"When I Have Fears† and â€Å"Mezzo Cammin†, the poets use the poetic devises parallelism, symbolism and diction with hints of romantic style, to reveal the theme that death only comes closer, but what you do in the time you have left is strictly your choice. The two sonnets, written during the Romantic period, bring forth that outlooks on life can be both negative and positive. They convey the idea that no matter what age you are, there is always some feeling of the fear of death in all of us.

Kant s Philosophy Of Philosophy - 2351 Words

The eighteenth-century German philosopher, tutor and professor, Immanuel Kant, contributed highly complex deontological works of philosophy during the time of the Age of Enlightenment—an era when learned men in society urged others to live according to reason and individualism, rather than continuing simply to follow tradition. This was a time for questioning, for employing scientific, evidentiary knowledge where once there had been action only according to faith, to unsupported beliefs. Kant s works aided in bringing important changes to the fields of epistemology and metaphysics; changes most famously outlined in his work, Critique of Pure Reason (1781). This was followed by: Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals (1785); Critique of Practical Reason (1788); and Metaphysics of Morals (1798). Despite their importance in the philosophical canon, Kantian ethics have the power to confound, imbued as they are with contradiction, and the flaws that inevitably attach to human th inking and reasoning in context with experience. Kant believed in acting from duty above all else, and that to do so in a moral fashion meant that one should act free of any self-interest or direct inclination—for example, even if one were to feel so grief-stricken as to wish for death, one s duty would be to continue to live rather than taking one s life; but the action of continuing to live would derive moral worth only from the choice to live for the sake of duty, and not because one had anyShow MoreRelatedKant s Philosophy Of Philosophy1220 Words   |  5 Pagesfrom the philosophical teachings of David Hume, when Immanuel Kant—Father of Western philosophy—entered the picture. 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It was this emphasis on reason that lead him towards his deontological theory, therefore he was concerned with the actions, not the consequences. Kant theory was influenced by: †¢ Religion: Kant thinking was used in Britain to challenge