After I wrote about health care teams a couple of months ago, I have been thinking about the role of OTs and the benefits they bring to patient care.

Let’s be honest, this is a struggle for OT, not because the profession doesn’t bring value but we struggle to communicate that value.

So, what if we defined OT as the difference maker on the team?  And backed that statement up with concrete examples of how OTs meet people where they are in their health care journey and make a difference in the quality of their lives.

Over the years, there are some patient experiences that have stayed with me because I, the OT on the team, truly made a difference that no one else would have made.

Terminal Cancer and Laughter
“ Paul” was a 10 year old patient diagnosed with terminal cancer and  wheelchair bound, who had become withdrawn and depressed.   Despite many different interventions, each day our hour of OT would end the way it began with the weight of his illness winning the battle.

One day I decided to bring a grabber along.  Paul’s mom was in the kitchen washing dishes when she left the room.  I used the grabber to pick up the towel and handed it to Paul.  I whispered, “Hide it under the table.”   Paul’s eyes lit up, and his smile got big when his mom returned to the room and started searching for her dish towel!  As she started opening drawers to search, Paul broke out into laughter and waved the dish towel in the air.

I left the grabber with Paul and he used it to tease his parents and siblings until his death two weeks later.  When his parents called to let me know Paul had passed, they also thanked me for bringing a little fun and mischief into the last days of a 10 year old boy.

Loss of Fingers – Loss of Function
Suffering from severe and uncontrolled diabetes, my patient “Jack” had just had surgery that left him with only his thumbs and ½ of his dominate index finger.  I helped him adjust some strategies for maintaining independence in ADLs when he confessed he was embarrassed to ask for help with one more task.  I gently encouraged him to confide in me, and he said, “The most recent surgery took my nose-picking finger”.

I assessed sensation, skin integrity and circulation in his residual finger and consulted both his nurse and doctor.  I then constructed a custom device with Velcro and splinting material.  With some adjustment, the device successfully helped with the task and Jack regained control over one of his occupations.

Prisoner at Home
“Dorothy” was a 75 year old patient with severe rheumatoid arthritis.  When I arrived, instead of answering the door, she called that the door was unlocked.  After my evaluation, I asked Dorothy why she had called to me rather than opening the door.  She shared that in the ten years she had lived in the apartment, she had never been able to open the door.  Instead she called neighbors to open her door and left it unlocked for visitors.

I inspected the door and discovered the magnetic seal was extraordinarily strong. Using masking tape, I covered about a half of the surface and Dorothy could open her front door by herself for the first time in 10 years!  Before I left the apartment complex, I asked the apartment manager to inspect the door and followed up with a call to the local fire station. Both agreed that the seal was still adequate for fire protection.

While these examples may seem small, they truly made a difference in a patient’s life.  And none of these needs would have been addressed without OT.

What are your stories of being the difference maker for your OT patients?  Use those stories the next time the healthcare team needs to be reminded of the value of occupational therapy.