Chapter 6: Using Online Social Media to Facilitate Clinical Reasoning in Entry Level Occupational Therapy Students

Technology is providing us with opportunities to create more dynamic learning environments to enable students to become competent professionals in occupational therapy. This chapter provides background to clinical reasoning and highlights a case example of one approach for moving students to become competent in this process. The overarching goal of occupational therapy as a profession is “to support the health and participation of people in life through engagement in occupation” (American Occupational Therapy Association [AOTA], 2008, p. 626). An individual’s occupations can simply be described as those activities that he wants to do, enjoys doing, or has to do. Occupations may include travelling, reading, photography, teaching, and many other activities that individuals engage in to create and structure a meaningful life. When an individual’s occupations are disrupted due to delayed development, a disabling condition, or environmental barrier, quality of life may be compromised (Yerxa, 1992). Occupational therapists move to help develop or restore occupations in the lives of the clients that they serve (Fidler, 2003). Best practice in occupational therapy may be described as individual, client-centered, holistic and humanistic (AOTA, 2008). It is the use of occupation, or meaningful activity as both an intervention and an outcome that defines and differentiates occupational therapy from other health professions and ensures that occupational therapy intervention promotes health and participation (Amini, 2010).