Facilitating Clinical Reasoning
As each of us has grown in our professional pursuits, our clinical reasoning has deepened, and we are able to calculate all the complexities our clients present and create plans of action to help our clients meet their goals. Other phrases may be used to reference this kind of reasoning like critical reasoning, professional reasoning, even therapeutic reasoning. No matter what we choose to call this high level multisensory, cognitive skill and no matter the profession, it would appear that they all boil down to very similar processes:
There are copious quantities of literature and resources available to reference, but where we "connect the dots" and learn is through practice. Developing clinical reasoning skills through practice is one of the most important skills to begin developing in Level I Fieldwork and to establish entry-level competency by the end of Level II Fieldwork. Below are some quick strategies and tools that may help Fieldwork Educators facilitate and challenge students to sharpen their clinical reasoning skills no matter what level of fieldwork they are performing.
Questions to Ask:
(Full credit for the following four questions is given to AOTA Fieldwork Educator Certificate Program from the September, 2011 course provided at Spalding University. [copyright is 2009])
Other questions to ask:
(These questions include terminology from the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process, 2nd edition. Ask the fieldwork student or this faculty to provide members of the fieldwork agency with an inservice to further explain this document and how it relates to practice.)
Tools:
Click this link to view the Student Handbook page that lists documentation templates used during Level I Fieldwork that may be used as helpful tools for Level II.
Specifically view the link titled, "Intervention Planning Tool" which contains several of the questions asked above in one document.
The link titled, "Sample Client Log" may have more utility for Level II Fieldwork than Level I. It helps students to organize their client case load and significant details pertaining to each client.
All information found on the OTD Program Fieldwork website is property of the Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy at Spalding University in Louisville, KY. Information contained in ASOT fieldwork LibGuide may be borrowed or edited with credit given to this program. Please report any malfunctions related to the information or links found on this page to the Academic Fieldwork Director, Juliet Steffe. Email: [email protected]; Phone: 502-873-4227.
All information found within this site is property of the Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy Occupational Therapy Doctoral Program at Spalding University in Louisville, KY and may be borrowed or edited with credit given to this program. Please report any malfunctions related to the information or links found on this page to [email protected].