During my time out on placement, as a student Occupational Therapist (OT), I viewed and experienced some of the ways in which OT's use information technology to assist their level of work in data gathering and processing, but also to help provide their assistance to the clients in their daily living.
I observed the OTs - Community OT's - use the telephone landlines to make contact with their referred clients and arrange a date and time to visit them in the community. They informally interview them plus assess. The OT would gather data about the client and the referred issue before going to the clients place by sometime collecting information from the computer via the internet or hospital data, to fill in the area they are unsure about.
The OT, when travelling around the community would have a mobile phone so people could have contact with them, for example other OTs, and so they (the OT) had access to a contact if necessary i.e. if held up somewhere, or lost/unsure where the address location actually is.
They use the technology of the digital cameras to provide a visual record; visual record of necessary data when areas of a clients home area needs to be modified to assist the client. The digital record provides the OT assistance when drawing up a sketch of the area having the modification.
The OT's put their written data about the client transferred onto the hospitals computer file, for long-term, clients privacy, and accessible only for certain people, e.g. client's doctor, physio, etc.
Some clients on my placements had electronic wheelchairs where they would functionally get around by transferring information to the wheelchairs using their upper limb to use the remote hand knob/button on the armrest to tell the chair where they wanted to go.
Information Technology!
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