Occupational Therapy News OTnews January 2019 | Page 32

FEATURE PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY What I do: promoting the occupational therapy profession T Abigail Johnson is an occupational therapist working within a multiprofessional community rehabilitation service, where, she says, the occupational therapist’s role can be generic. Here she shares one ‘smallest of actions’ that is helping to promote professional identity he strive to achieve professional identity and promote the role of an occupational therapist has historically been a challenging one. Exploring our core and unique skills and being able to articulate them not only to patients, service users and their families, but to other professionals, can be challenging. As an occupational therapist working within a multiprofessional community rehabilitation service, where our role can be generic, there is a risk of losing our sense of professional identity. In an effort to address this, and during peer supervision sessions within the trust, occupational therapists discussed the issues around professional identity and explored what we felt our unique core skills were. Back in May 2017, Julia Scott, RCOT chief executive, discussed the use of the term occupational therapist over ‘OT’. This prompted some of our discussions, and we are aware of the importance in stating our professional title in full, rather than shortening it to just two letters (www.theguardian.com/healthcare- network/2017/may/04/occupational-therapy-nhs-social-care). As Occupational Therapy Week highlighted in November, we need to continually consider how we can promote the profession within the health and social care sectors, as well as to the public. Within a multi-professional team, promotion of the occupational therapy profession can be difficult, but it is essential. A new method of promoting the occupational therapy profession that we have chosen within our team has been through the use of a custom email signature, prompted by a team lead who was at a senior management meeting and respectfully asked a senior manager: ‘I know who you are, but I don’t know what you do’. This prompted discussions and ultimately led to the idea of using ‘What I do’ statements within an email signature. The aim of the signature is to summarise what we do Occupational therapists in our day-to-day roles as occupational therapists and are skilled in working with people highlight the skills less seen or understood by other to enable them to engage in doing the healthcare professionals. daily tasks and activities that they want to Each occupational therapist gave a different do themselves. Research shows that personal definition and information under their signature, to independence is important in maintaining health show the breadth of occupational therapy. and a sense of wellness. I enjoy working in The boxes show examples of what we have community rehabilitation and working alongside been using as part of this initiative. clients to help rebuild their independence Professional identity is shaped by discussion, following events that have caused disability external feedback, increased knowledge and skills, or illness. I have a particular interest in as well as changes in attitudes and values. We continue dementia and using Mindfulness to find ways of increasing understanding of occupational techniques to improve individual wellbeing. therapy; this is one that I wish to share, to show that even the smallest of actions can help to promote our profession. Abigail Johnson, occupational therapist, Joint Community Rehabilitation Team, Bexhill Hospital. Email: [email protected] 32 OTnews January 2019