Occupational Therapy's Role in Hand Therapy: Approaches and Perspectives

Abstract

Hand therapy is a practice area within occupational therapy. Occupational therapists have a unique skillset in which they are able to treat patients with upper extremity musculoskeletal injuries while realizing that each patient is an occupational being. The purpose of this capstone was to identify reasons occupational therapy practitioners lacked occupation-based interventions in treatment sessions, search the literature to find the best way to implement occupation-based interventions, and for the capstone student to utilize the findings from the research to provide the best possible patient care. Research suggests a combination of the biomechanical frame of reference and occupation focused frame of reference is the best approach to patient care in hand therapy. However, having the skillset to do that comes after months of experience. This capstone student identified the ways having a capstone in hand therapy in addition to a level II fieldwork in hand therapy advanced their skillset past that of an entry level practitioner. The capstone student implemented occupation-based interventions into treatment sessions and utilized advanced skills, such as provocative testing, to advance their skills beyond a level II fieldwork student. The student then created a table outlining the differences between a fieldwork student and a capstone student for future students and practitioners to use as a reference. Keywords: hand therapy, occupational therapy, occupation-based, capstone student, advanced clinical skill