Improving Assessment and Intervention Strategies Using Evidence-Based Practice: Meeting the Needs of A Busy Pediatric Outpatient Clinic

Abstract

The pediatric outpatient therapy department at a local hospital has recently been granted a new treatment space with additional services and resources to meet the evolving needs of the department. These needs included increased productivity demands, lack of adequate motor skill assessments, and deficiency of interventions targeting handwriting deficits. This capstone experience is focused on identifying and addressing the needs of the clinicians within the new therapy space. After completion of an individualized needs assessment and thorough literature review, I identified two major gaps within the evolving clinic. During my time on site, I provided an in-depth electronic seminar to clinicians describing appropriate administration and scoring procedures. This information was utilized to develop a competency evaluation for the hospital to assess the interrater reliability of the new assessment tool within the clinic. After analyzing the data, it was clear the therapists were both valid and reliable when scoring the assessment. Next, the occupational therapists were interested in obtaining information and materials to begin planning for a new handwriting group within the clinic to address poor legibility and writing skills. I prepared an extensive seven-week curriculum along with detailed resources and parent communication handouts and provided them to the clinic for future implementation. At the end of fourteen weeks, through a qualitative interview process, clinicians indicated they were both satisfied and appreciative of the program development