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Occupational therapists are challenged to ‘ showcase their skills ’ at advanced practice level to help open up opportunities
If they want to drive change – any change – to their scope of practice , to the health system , to funding levels or their own levels of autonomy , occupational therapists need to navigate the social and political systems that have defined the profession .
This was the clear call to action – based on a quote from Nancarrow and Borthwick ( 2021 ) – to come out of a lively RCOT Insights session on ‘ Advancing practice and new ways of working ’ on the first morning of annual conference .
The session focused on the developments with advanced and consultant levels of practice across the UK and kicked off with the three speakers defining advanced practice and how it differs in the four countries , in alignment with the newly-published RCOT Informed View and the RCOT Career Development Framework ( CDF ).
RCOT ’ s view , in a nutshell , is that occupational therapists working at advanced or consultant levels of practice have an advanced and critical understanding of the complex interplay between the person , their occupations and their environment . Furthermore , occupational therapists at this level are able to deal with the complexity across all four Pillars of Practice , as laid down in the CDF .
Dr Stephanie Tempest , company director of Stephanie Tempest Consultancy Ltd , kicked off the debate saying this is all about new ways of working within a multiprofessional context .
‘ The allied health professions are still relatively young ,’ she said . ‘ We need to understand our history in order to understand interprofessional dynamics . As practitioners we need to embrace new ways of working – the systems we work in can ’ t stand still ...’
Looking at the debate around the use of language , and acknowledging that not everybody is in agreement , she explained that the use of the word ‘ specialist ’ is about ‘ a scope of practice , not a level of practice ’.
She said : ‘ Some people specialise – and you can change specialisms – while some people choose to advance their career and become experts .’
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Paul Cooper , RCOT lead professional adviser , urged occupational therapists to use the RCOT Informed View on advancing practice ‘ to articulate the offer ’.
Referring to a delegate chat box question about what steps RCOT might suggest are taken to increase the low number of
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If we want to drive change – any change – to our scope of practice , to the health system , to funding levels or our own levels of autonomy , occupational therapists need to navigate the social and political systems that have defined the profession .
occupational therapists in the very advanced responsible clinician role in mental health , Paul added :
‘ The numbers may be small , but it is an important strategic role … and the numbers can be used as a strategic example of what can be done .’
While Stephanie added : ‘ We know when we get occupational therapists into these very high levels , we can use them as exemplars , and learn from them about how to affect change .’
Karin Orman , RCOT assistant director – professional practice – stressed that it is vital to make sure that people starting out on their career in occupational therapy are aware of these [ advanced and consultant ] role models , as then ‘ we will start to see traction ’.
When it comes to these advanced and consultant roles , Stephanie concluded that ‘ these roles need advocating for ’. She said : ‘ They need to be created ; we are not at that stage in our profession where we are sitting with a bank of job opportunities to slot ourselves into .
Dr Stephanie Tempest Stephanie Tempest Consulting Ltd
We need to analyse the needs and make the business case . Boldly go and say “ Look at my skills , I can fill this population need ”. Let ’ s go out and showcase what we are capable of doing and showcase these opportunities .’
Dr Stephanie Tempest Stephanie Tempest Consulting Ltd
‘ We need to analyse the needs and make the business case . Boldly go and say “ Look at my skills , I can fill this population need ”. Let ’ s go out and showcase what we are capable of doing and showcase these opportunities .’
18 OTnews July 2021