Antifat Bias of OT and Physical Therapy Assistants

Date Presented 04/01/2022

Health care professionals’ antifat bias results in substandard quality of care that contributes to health disparities. OT and physical therapy assistants are key stakeholders in rehabilitation; however, little research examines these clinicians’ antifat bias. This study examined OT assistant and physical therapy assistants’ explicit and implicit antifat bias and find that the majority hold antifat bias with demographics and beliefs correlating with the findings.

Primary Author and Speaker: Laura Vanpuymbrouck

Contributing Authors: Carli Friedman, Heather Feldner

“This Is Going to Affect People in More Ways Than One … Even After It’s Over”: Perceptions of Recent Graduates of the Impact of COVID-19

Date Presented 04/02/2022

In the wake of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), practitioners, educators, and students had to shift to virtual interactions while experiencing significant unknowns and valid fears. How prepared are new graduates to enter a health care climate in a pandemic? This presentation describes the findings from semistructured individual interviews of nine recent graduates of OT graduate programs to explore their perceptions of the impact of COVID-19 on their future delivery of OT interventions.

Primary Author and Speaker: Laura Vanpuymbrouck

Contributing Authors: Carli Friedman

Embracing Difference: A Scoping Review of the Use of Universal Design for Learning in Graduate Allied Health and Medical Schools

Date Presented 04/01/2022

The benefits of universal design for learning (UDL) in classrooms have been shown to support lower education and undergraduate students, but its use has not been integrated into higher education, such as medical and allied health graduate programs. UDL can support students, regardless of the presence of a disability, in increasing performance potential in the school setting. This scoping review identifies gaps in the research on UDL implementation in medical and allied health graduate-level learning.

Primary Author and Speaker: Karolina Gawron

Additional Authors and Speakers: Nicole Mohan, Madison Tomlinson, Laura Vanpuymbrouck

Ableism of OT and Physical Therapy Assistants

Date Presented 04/02/2022

Bias in health care contributes to health disparities of people with disabilities (PWD). OT and physical therapy assistants are key stakeholders in rehabilitation; however, little research examines these clinicians’ bias toward PWD. This study examined OT and physical therapy assistants’ explicit and implicit disability bias, and the results show that the majority are implicitly biased toward PWD despite the majority being explicitly not biased. Implications and recommendations on approaches to address concern are discussed.

Primary Author and Speaker: Laura Vanpuymbrouck

Contributing Authors: Carli Friedman, Heather Feldner

OT Interventions to Promote and Support Client Self-Advocacy: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Date Presented 04/13/21

This literature review examined the evidence within the scope of OT practice addressing client development of self-advocacy and synthesizing the content of effective OT interventions addressing client development of self-advocacy to identify common features vital to successful outcomes. Additionally, this study aims to determine the quality of available empirical evidence of OT interventions designed to promote and support client self-advocacy.

Primary Author and Speaker: Laura Vanpuymbrouck

Additional Authors and Speakers: Olivia Easterbrooks-Dick

Contributing Authors: Alison Teasdale

Self-Advocacy in OT: Are We Practicing What We Preach?

Date Presented 04/21/21

Findings will be presented from a quantitative study exploring if, how, and when OTs address self-advocacy with their clients during therapeutic interventions. Implications for OT practice will be discussed, including examples of strategies used to provide clients with self-advocacy education and how they are being implemented in treatment and continuing education.

Primary Author and Speaker: Laura Vanpuymbrouck

Additional Authors and Speakers: Yinao Wang, Abigail Catalano

Contributing Authors: Gesina Phillips

“I Realize I'm Part of a Greater Whole Experiencing Occupational Deprivation”: OT Students' Use of Practice Models in the Wake of COVID-19

Date Presented 04/12/21

This project describes the experiences of 37 OTD students who lived through the coronavirus pandemic and examines their reflections on how OT theories and models of practice informed their approaches to adapt to the changing context of their lives in order to continue to participate in their everyday occupations, including that of a graduate student. Content analysis was used to examine the perspectives of students' needs, supports, and mechanisms of adaption.

Primary Author and Speaker: Laura Vanpuymbrouck