Occupational Therapy Strengths And Weaknesses

A SWOT analysis within health care can allow organisations, programs and individuals to determine both internal and external factors that influence a practice either positively or negatively, in terms of identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (Minnesota Dept. of Health 2016).

Strengths

Strengths are internal factors that assist or contribute to achieving a particular goal or outcome successfully (Minnesota Dept. of Health 2016). Some strengths of evidence-based practice in occupational therapy include:

-There may be valuable library services available and access to literature within the organisation making it easy and convenient for researching (McCluskey & Cusick, 2002).

-There may be people already employed within
Information from varied and diverse sources can be critically evaluated and appraised to provide evidence relating to degrees of effectiveness of certain occupational therapy treatments (CAOT 2016). This allows occupational therapists to give clients and other professionals the services they want based on available evidence, improving patient care (CAOT 2016). Decisions in treatments can then be made through combining the evaluation with client needs and judgments by the occupational therapy (CAOT 2016). This practice also reduces the use of ineffective interventions. Although critically evaluating research is time consuming and occupational therapists often lack knowledge and skills surrounding researching and appraising information (Bennett & Bennett, 2000), I believe this is an area within the field that can be taught to OTs, by integrating this is into university courses and allowing current occupational therapists to complete short courses, or to learn from others, such as new graduates. Staff can use critical appraisal checklists to assist them in determining the validity of the research they have found. Although time consuming, teamwork between colleagues and effective time management/rostering will be beneficial to assist with this. I believe using evidence to formulate decisions on practice would maximize the effectiveness of treatments to the
Information from varied and diverse sources can be critically evaluated and appraised to provide evidence relating to degrees of effectiveness of certain occupational therapy treatments (CAOT 2016). This allows occupational therapists to give clients and other professionals the services they want based on available evidence, improving patient care (CAOT 2016). Decisions in treatments can then be made through combining the evaluation with client needs and judgments by the occupational therapy (CAOT 2016). This practice also reduces the use of ineffective interventions. Although critically evaluating research is time consuming and occupational therapists often lack knowledge and skills surrounding researching and appraising information (Bennett & Bennett, 2000), I believe this is an area within the field that can be taught to OTs, by integrating this is into university courses and allowing current occupational therapists to complete short courses, or to learn from others, such as new graduates. Staff can use critical appraisal checklists to assist them in determining the validity of the research they have found. Although time consuming, teamwork between colleagues and effective time management/rostering will be beneficial to assist with this. I believe using evidence to formulate decisions on practice would maximize the effectiveness of treatments to the