Consumer Focussed Occupational Therapy Resources
Elizan Gomez1, Ronelle Bosua1, Emily Falconer1, Ellen Feeney1
1St John Of God Murdoch Hospital, Murdoch, WA, Australia
Abstract
An admission to hospital can be a stressful life event. The admitted patient is normally medically compromised, in an unfamiliar environment and often overwhelmed by a multitude of staff asking questions and providing information. The process of information retrieval and provision commences at the point of admission. It continues throughout their length of stay right up to the point of discharge. At this point patients will have interacted with a number of different disciplines including but not limited to medical, nursing, allied health, pharmacy and administration staff with each profession imparting education along their inpatient journey. This can result in an information overload where the patient is no longer able to store the required information for retrieval at a later stage. In acknowledgement of this, the Occupational Therapy Department at St John of God Murdoch Hospital created a series of educational resources to compliment therapy provided in the clinical care setting. The intent of the resources was not to be displayed as general information available to all patients and significant others but rather to compliment assessment and treatment conducted on the wards. It provides the patient and significant others with something tangible to take with them on discharge in order to refresh their memory on topics discussed during their inpatient stay. At present there are five resources on the topics of Delirium; Working with your memory; Energy Conservation; Pendant Alarms and Occupational Therapy Equipment Providers. To ensure that the resources were appropriate for the target audience they were submitted for review by the Murdoch Consumer Consultative Committee with feedback integrated into their final design.
Biography
The Occupational Therapy department at St John of God Murdoch Hospital was established in January 2022. To ensure the success of the service, the team prioritised fostering professional partnerships with the multidisciplinary team and relevant stakeholders, defining clear operating procedures, ensuring effective resource allocation and clinical competency. Ongoing quality improvement identified the need for consumer driven educational resources to enhance the patient experience during their acute care stay. The Occupational Therapy department is committed to ongoing service development, clinical care enhancement and excellence in patient care despite being a young service in the early stages of operation.