Occupational Therapists' Decision Making in Three Therapy Settings in Australia

Abstract

Can a work setting with its organizational, cultural, and practical considerations influence the way occupational therapists make decisions regarding client interventions? There is currently a paucity of evidence available to answer this question. The study aimed to investigate the influence of work setting on therapists' clinical reasoning in the management of clients with cerebral palsy and upper limb hypertonicity. Specifically the study aimed to examine therapists' objective and stated policies, and their intervention decisions using Social Judgement Theory methodology. Participants were 18 occupational therapists with more than five years experience with clients with cerebral palsy who were asked to make intervention decisions for clients represented by 90 case vignettes. They worked in three settings, hsopitals (5), schools (6), and community (6). One participant from private setting was not included in this analysis because of lack of participants in this setting. The results indicated that therapy settings did influence therapists' decisions about intervention choices but not their objective and subjective policy decisions.