Occupational Therapist - Acute Care

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About Duke Regional Hospital

Pursue your passion for caring with Duke Regional Hospital in Durham, North Carolina. With 388 beds, it is the second largest of Duke Health's four hospitals and offers a comprehensive range of medical, surgical, and diagnostic services, including orthopedics, weight-loss surgery, women's services, and heart and vascular services.

Occupational Summary

Develop, improve, or restore skills in activities of daily living, work or productive activities, and play or leisure. Intervention involves therapeutic use of meaningful and purposeful occupations, adaptation of environments, promotion of health and wellness, graded tasks and activities as prerequisites to engagement in occupations, design, fabrication, application or training in the use of assistive technology or orthotic/prosthetic devices, application of physical agent modalities, and application of ergonomic principles to the performance of occupations. Serve as a resource person for the team and department; participate in orientation of new staff therapists, physicians, and other health personnel. The senior therapist participates in teaching activities for occupational therapy and other health-related students.

Responsibilities

• Demonstrate and articulate sound clinical reasoning in synthesizing complex evaluation data identifying diagnosis and developing a comprehensive plan of care.
• Develop and update an appropriate plan of care in collaboration with the patient/family and related to the person's age and lifestyle with measurable long and short-term goals and a defined discharge plan.
• Understand the role of occupational therapy in the context of the patient's age, total needs perspective, and environment.
• Select and administer appropriate assessment and treatment techniques.
• Perform age-appropriate competency skills in area of practice and with respect to individual patient's problems.
• Follow intervention protocols and revise interventions appropriately.
• Discharge patient when goals have been met or medical necessity is no longer indicated. Establish provisions for continuing services/follow-up as needed.
• Meet competency skills for evaluations in area of practice.
• Consistently meet patient care productivity standards as established for job classification.
• Work cooperatively with supervisors and peers to contribute to the overall productivity of the team.
• Utilize support personnel (aides, senior aides, assistants) as appropriate and available.
• Actively support and participate in patient coverage efforts across all divisions within the department as necessary.
• Assess the learning needs and capabilities of patients and caregivers.
• Initiate patient and family education in a timely manner relative to age, length of stay, readiness to learn, and emotional status.
• Utilize appropriate methods and materials for effective learning, monitoring response to education, and adapting program appropriately.
• Ensure that patient/family understands when and how to access further intervention.
• Complete patient care documentation in a timely, legible, and efficient manner. Documentation is concise, pertinent, and meets the profession's and department's documentation standards.
• Provide clear, concise, relevant, and timely oral reporting.
• Perform all required data collection for the department accurately and within the expected time frame.
• Consistently meet peer review standards.
• Collaborate effectively with other members of the healthcare team.
• Take one to two students for short-term clinical rotation. Adjust supervisory techniques for individual students' needs.
• Provide in-services on clinical education as attended.
• Perform other related duties incidental to the work described herein.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Occupational Therapy required; Master's degree preferred.
• Current Occupational Therapy license in North Carolina.

Skills

• Ability to push-pull, lift-carry, and transfer patients.

Level Characteristics

See Clinical Ladder administration document.