Awareness of Occupational Therapy among Post-Graduate Resident Doctors and Speciality Medical Officers in Tertiary Healthcare Centre

Abstract

Occupational Therapy (OT) is an essential speciality in healthcare system that aims to maximize people’s
functional abilities and performance. Knowledge about OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY among healthcare
professionals is essential for the delivery of quality care services. Since Occupational Therapy is not a
well understood profession, this survey represents assessment of awareness of Occupational Therapy
among Post Graduate Residents (PG) and Speciality Medical Officer (SMO) in a tertiary health care
center in Mumbai. In this survey there were 145 participants from various specialties and who have
Occupational Therapy as a part of patient management team in the hospital. All participants completed a
questionnaire regarding awareness and knowledge of Occupational Therapy containing 16 questions. The
results revealed that 78.55% had distinctive awareness about Occupational Therapy, 18.75% had average
& 2.7% had poor awareness of Occupational Therapy. Maximum awareness was found in departments
of General Medicine&Psychiatry (79%), while poor awareness was found in department of Obstetrics &
Gynecology (51%). The preliminary findings suggest that Most participants perceived that Occupational
Therapy domain of practice only includes orthopaedics, mental health, hand rehabilitation and adult and
paediatric neurology while overlooking the areas of wellness and gerontology. Such a result reflects lack
of communication channels between Occupational Therapists and other healthcare professionals which can
restrict interdisciplinary work. Therefore, more interprofessional interactions and collaborative activities
needs to be incorporated within the curriculum and placements of all healthcare professionals.