OT Resources I Wish I Had Known About Earlier
I have always thought that it seems unfair that we spend a lot of time gathering occupational therapy resources that so many are already aware of. We hope (one day) to have that golden, well-stocked Google Drive folder for evidence-based practice resources to pull from and help us provide the best healthcare.
I wanted to help you skip ahead a lot of digging through Google and share the ones I actually use on a consistent basis.
Here are the links to the resources and a short description of how I use them in my OT practice (both pediatric OT and adult OT resources are included) below.
Shirley Ryan Ability Lab’s Rehabilitation Measures Database
This is an amazing resource of healthcare assessments that you can search and they give you all the information you need to see age ranges, price, where to purchase validity and reliability, and diagnoses it helps. It was created by Shirley Ryan Ability Lab which is a hospital group based out of Chicago.
MedBridge
If you are looking for quality courses, I would turn to MedBrige first. They really have great visuals and hands-on practical examples in their courses and I have found them very relevant to the diagnoses and populations I work with.
#OTalk
Recently, I was grateful to be able to host an #OTalk on Twitter. It is run by a wonderful group of OTs in the UK and they support discussions around various topics through the Twitter platform to help engage the OT community. See the most recent one I participated in here about how to share and engage with research using social media.
Pathways.org
For early intervention occupational therapists, I have found this to be a great tool to engage parents in learning more about their child’s milestones and empowering them. I love the videos because they provide the visuals of what we are looking for at various developmental stages.
Tools to Grow
This is a classic if you are an outpatient occupational therapist or a school-based OT. It is a treasure trove of resources that you can print or download and they now have a great telehealth section. This saved me during the pandemic and is the most user-friendly parent resource I have found.
Occupational Therapy Toolkit
Working as an OT in a skilled nursing facility, I found this resource to be another invaluable support, especially when showing how to complete ADLs based on certain diagnoses. The pictures are easy to follow and can be given to the patient and/or their caregiver.
OTReference Pocket Guide
The OTReference Pocket guide was helpful for both studying for the NBCOT board examination and also for reminding myself of certain clinical areas when I was switching between outpatient and inpatient OT treatment.
AOTA’s Hot Evidence Infographics
The AOTA Hot Evidence infographics are a great tool to get quick snapshots of what the most updated evidence is from systematic reviews completed by AOTA. They take the interventions and use clear visuals to help you be able to review them over lunch. I am a bit biased as OT Graphically has supported creating these however I personally have used them in my practice.
I will also share that I created the OT Graphically Library to fulfill some of those gaps too providing resources to help you quickly stay up to date on research using infographics, learn how to critically analyze the research, and support problem solving on how to complete the implementation of new interventions. Learn more here.