The impact of occupational therapists on the healthcare field

The lecture given by professor Jami Flick on the impact of occupational therapists on the health care field and how we can impact the issue of health literacy has been one of the most influential to me so far as a student. Many of the topics that were brought up in class I have learned previously about in undergrad as a psychology major. I took a class titled multicultural psychology during a summer when police shootings were at an all-time high. The discussions were heated but necessary and we covered a lot of information on how to approach different cultural backgrounds and how it is okay to start the conversion with someone by saying "I do not know a lot about this situation, we can work together". The video that professor Flick showed that an occupational therapist made about women who are use wheelchairs are still screenable for mammograms highlighted that same exact dialogue. The x-ray tech said "let's figure this out together".

We as occupational therapists are not supposed to know everything, nor are we expected to know how to deal with every situation that we will encounter. But we have a unique position to make a huge difference in the healthcare field. We can learn and adapt and make small changes that can lead to systemic changes. We can admit that we need more information about someone, we can ask if someone needs more help with something (paperwork in the waiting room), and we can go into a clinical situation knowing that everyone is unique, everyone is different and there is no exact universal way of approaching a situation except for an open mind and the willingness to learn.