This fieldwork experience has been a great learning experience. I have learned a lot about the occupational therapy process in the acute care setting as well as identifying and prioritizing patient needs. In acute care it’s important to prioritize patient needs because there are very few opportunities for service. It’s imperative to both medical and therapeutic teams that the patient are treated and moved to a sub-acute setting or home. Most patients are seen by therapy 3-4 times during their 3-5 day stay. During the chart review and through the evaluation process it is important to identify the patient’s limitations whether motor, strength, sensation, balance, vision, or hearing and provide appropriate interventions to remediate or compensate and maximize independence. In prioritizing patient’s needs for service it’s important to consider not only admitting diagnosis but how that diagnosis may have compounded underlying co-morbidities. For example, the patient who has a history of COPD and an admitting diagnosis of pneumonia may need services for energy conservation or strength training for ADL tasks because of increased difficulty breathing and increased fatigue during tasks they completed easily before admission.

This experience will be helpful in any setting because of limitation in services. There will always be a limitation in the services that can be provided whether by setting, insurance or patient determined goals. It’s important to prioritize interventions in order to address the most limiting deficits and promote independence.