Scenario A: the service consists of an inpatient and outpatient mulitdisciplinary rehab program for children who have had major trauma. You are the OT, and have been asked to demonstrate how you know your part of the program is worthwhile. How will you do this?
Well, you know that you provide OT intervention and this will be aimed at certain goals – around occupational performance. It is likely you assess the children using an occupational performance measure/s – this could include ADL assessments, COPM, FIM for instance. You need to then consider, could the individual outcomes then be analysed, say over a 12 month period to demonstrate effectiveness of the service? For the purpose of this task, I would say yes, and you will choose one or more of these assessments that you have heard/learnt about.
Scenario B: this is an adult service for people who have experienced neurological trauma and is an intensive service for people living in the community.
For this service, you know that the OT intervention will be aimed at certain goals, and these are likely to relate to outcomes you might expect after an acute hospital stay – managing at home, in the community, maybe return to work, driving – a range of skills, you can determine how broad the program is for the evaluation.
Your plan for evaluation:
1. In both scenarios, you are looking for evaluation of improvement in function/occupational performance.
2. What is required on admission to set the baseline? Outline the measure/s.
3. What will be required at the interval that you set to be the end mark? Most likely to be the same as the initial assessment.
4. Are there any other measures you think are relevant – Client satisfaction with the program, for example?
5. How will you compile the data for comparison?
6. Describe the assessment, why you have chosen it, and how it is appropriate for your service.
7. Type or data – will it be statistics, qualitative data or a mix?
8. The evaluation question will be a reflection of the service, as described, and what you think you want to ‘prove’ to the manager/s.
9. The communication will be what you think relevant – a written report is usually essential, and some other approaches to ‘sell’ your message – like a broader version of you modifications poster presentation.
10. Reflection: not just ‘I learnt this ….’, but also if/how you see the value of evaluation that extends beyond the individual assessments you are likely to be doing anyway. Why do you think it important to be aware of methods to explain the effectiveness of OT programs? Not as another essay in itself, but more from your personal learning perspective.