OT-Bounce

Occupational Therapists have emotionally and physically demanding jobs.  We also have a strong professional ethos of accountability, assuming responsibility, and giving 110%.  While these values bring us many rewards, they can also  increase the risk to depletion of resilience. 

 

Resilience is defined as:

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1. the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.

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2. the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity. (https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/resilience)

 

In other words, resiliency is the ability to 'bounce back'. 

 

There is a compelling body of evidence showing that compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and burnout, all realities in OTs' worklives,  are significant risks to bouncing back.  Some of that evidence is listed in the section below if you would like to do further reading.

 

We started this project with a survey of OTs and OT students in Western Canada.  We learned that OTs believed they are able to bounce back but that it took a long time to do this.  We also learned that moral distress (knowing the right thing to do but experiencing institutional constraints that make it impossible to do so) was significant for many OTs and that as many as 40% had left a job because of ongoing moral distress.  

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Other items on the survey told us that close to 50% feel "overwhelmed because my OT caseload seems endless", and "bogged down by the system". 

The survey also revealed many OTs (41%) who were 'often/very often' preoccupied with more than one client, and that 1 in 5 (19%) found it difficult to separate personal from worklife. 

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More details about the survey are in the preamble to the module units.

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This website is to help all OTs learn more about recognizing and reducing these, and other, risks to resiliency in our workplace.

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In addition to the module units there are resources, a gallery of inspiring messages from fellow OTs, and a short learning quiz you can take.  After completing the quiz you will be directed to a downloadable certificate of participation for you to save for your professional learning portfolio.

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Thank you for visiting the website, we hope it helps you bounce!

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