DEVELOPING

OBSERVATIONAL SKILLS IN
OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
Annmarie Villanueva and Provvidenza DeArcangelis
DEDICATION

Debbie Hébert
March 19, 2020

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TODAY’S AGENDA

1. Group Activity
2. Introduction & Background
3. Description and Justification of Methods
4. Interpretation of Results and Presentation of
Findings
5. Relevance to OS & OT: Why does this matter to
OS &/or OT?
6. Questions & Answer Period

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 GROUP ACTIVITY: WHAT DO YOU
SEE?

Lord Frederic Leighton’s Mrs. James Guthrie (1864-65) 4

 Is she about to place the
flower in the vase or is she
extracting it?

Lord Frederic Leighton’s Mrs. James Guthrie (1864-65) 5

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INTRODUCTION &
BACKGROUND
PURPOSE OF STUDY

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 WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT OBSERVATION & OT?

New practitioners feel inadequately

prepared and report that not enough emphasis
is placed on the practical aspects of
occupational therapy such as the development
of observational skills (Adamson et al., 1998;
Binyamin, 2018; Parker, 1991;).

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STUDY
PURPOSE
Provide an understanding of the breadth of
research available on the development of
observational skills in occupational therapy
(OT) students and professionals.
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 RESEARCH QUESTION & OBJECTIVES

Question: What is known in the existing literature regarding the development of

clinical observation skills in OT students and professionals?

1 2
Characterize how observational Describe the current state of
skills are conceptualized in the the literature discussing
literature. strategies used to facilitate the
development of observational
skills in OT 9
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METHODS
Instrumentation, Procedures, & Data
Analyses
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PROCEDURE

DESIGN:
A scoping review
structured after DATABASES:
the Joanna Brigg’s CINAHL, Medline,
APPROACH
Institute Embase, AND
methodological ERIC
framework (Peters
et al., 2015)

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 INCLUSION
1. Reports results on observation
skills and/or strategies in the field of
occupational science & occupational
therapy
2.Includes a sample of OT’s, OT
assistants, and/or OT students
EXCLUSION
1. Not written in English
2. Aims to develop or assess the
validity and/or reliability of
standardized observational
assessment tool
3. Grey literature
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 DATA EXTRACTION & ANALYSIS
Bibliographic &
Methodological
Info
Authors, year of publication,
country of origin, study
purpose and design, sample
size, type of OT professionals
in sample
Qualitative Content Analysis
Info relating to
objective 1
Definition of observation used,
theories that speak to how
observation skills are learned
or understood, factors
influencing observations
Info relating to
objective 2
Reported strategies used
during observation, learning
format used to develop
observational skills, outcome
measures used
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3
FINDINGS,
CONCLUSIONS &
LIMITATIONS
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FINDINGS

Reasons for excluding

include:
1. Not discussing
observational skills
2. No access to articles
3. Grey literature
4. Non-English

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 CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDIES

Key Points
Study Design Number of ● Publication dates
Studies (#) range: 1968 - 2017
● 3 published in the
Matched Case-control 1 last 10 years
● Majority of studies
Pilot 1 are exploratory
● 4 countries of origin
Exploratory (Qualitative) 5 (USA, Canada,
England &
Retrospective Case Series 1 Scotland)

Review 1 16
 WHAT IS OBSERVATION?

“A mental picture is worth a thousand words.” -

Fred R. Barmard

Observation is a purposeful and

iterative process through which an
observer identifies key information from
an individual or environment. It is a
foundational occupational therapy (OT)
practice skill that is required to aid in
decision-making and problem solving.
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 STRATEGIES WHILE OBSERVING?

Themes That Emerged From The Literature:

● Attention to detail
● Bigger picture
● Interpretation
● Technology
● Perspective taking

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LEARNING FORMATS TO REFINE OBSERVATIONAL
SKILLS

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 MODEL OF OBSERVATION

Model of Observation
Adapted from MacKenzie & Westwood (2013).
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RELEVANCE TO OS & OT

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 APPLICABILITY

Practising
OT students Curriculum
OT’s
➢ Guidelines ➢ Mentorship ➢ Course additions
➢ Strategies ➢ Further education ➢ Implementation
➢ Techniques ➢ Expertise ➢ Practicality

● Novel identification of techniques or learning formats to support development of observational skills in OT students.
● Supporting the diverse areas OT by disseminating practical guidelines and frameworks for practising OT’s.
● Practical implications on OT curriculum to provide more opportunities to practise observational skills.

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Thank you for listening!
Thelma Cardwell Virtual Research Day 2020

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 QUESTIONS?
CONTACT US:
annmarie.villanueva@mail.utoronto.ca &
provvidenza.dearcangelis@mail.utoronto.ca

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 REFERENCES & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

† We would like to dedicate this research to our supervisor, Debbie Hébert, who passed away on March 19, 2020.
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Journal of Occupational Therapy, 61(4), 173-179.
Beck, A. J., & Barnes, K. J. (2007). Reciprocal service-learning: Texas border Head Start and master of occupational therapy students. Occupational therapy in health
care, 21(1-2), 7-23.
Binyamin, G. (2018). Growing from dilemmas: developing a professional identity through collaborative reflections on relational dilemmas. Advances in Health Sciences
Education, 23(1), 43-60.
Coppola, S., Miao, A. F., Allmendinger, C., & Zhang, W. (2017). Art in Occupational Therapy Education: An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Study of an Arts-Based Module.
The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy, 5(4), 8.
Edwards, M. M. (2002). The Betty Project: Jump-starting clinical observation skills in an OTA Curriculum. Occupational therapy in health care, 15(1-2), 99-104.
Fieldhouse, J., & Fedden, T. (2009). Exploring the learning process on a role-emerging practice placement: a qualitative study. British Journal of Occupational Therapy,
72(7), 302-307.
Goble, R. E. (1968). Planned observation. Occupational Therapy: the Official Journal of the Association of Occupational Therapists, 31(7), 23-30.
Johnson, C. R., Koenig, K. P., Piersol, C. V., Santalucia, S. E., & Wachter-Schutz, W. (2006). Level I fieldwork today: A study of contexts and perceptions. American
Journal of Occupational Therapy, 60(3), 275-287.
MacKenzie, D. E., & Westwood, D. A. (2013a). Occupational therapists and observation: What are you looking at?. OTJR: Occupation, Participation and Health, 33(1),
4-11.
MacKenzie, D. E., & Westwood, D. A. (2013b). Observation patterns of dynamic occupational performance: Modes d’observation du rendement occupationnel
dynamique. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 80(2), 92-100.
McCluskey, A. (2000). Collaborative curriculum development: Clinicians’ views on the neurology content of a new occupational therapy course. Australian Occupational
Therapy Journal, 47(1), 1-10.
Parker, C. E. (1991). The needs of newly qualified occupational therapists. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 54(5), 164-168.
Peters M.D., Godfrey C.M., Khalil H., McInerney P., Parker D., & Soares C.B. (2015). Methodology for JBI Scoping Reviews. The Joanna Briggs Institute Reviewers’
Manual. [PDF file]. Retrieved from https://joannabriggs.org/ebp#database

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