Occupational therapy practitioner use clinical or professional reasoning to guide their decision-making process while planning and executing intervention. Seasoned occupational therapy practitioners make these decisions look effortless, but it is often a complicated and messy process to infuse into each person’s life story. The Matthews Model of Clinical Reasoning (MMCR) provides occupational therapy practitioners with a detailed systematic approach to develop their clinical reasoning skills during the evaluation and intervention process when collaborating with persons served across multiple practice area locations. The three core constructs of person, environment and occupation lay the foundation for occupational therapy practitioners to compartmentalize information from selected occupational profile and analysis of performance evaluations, determine relevant intervention priorities, implement occupation based intervention plans and document the outcomes. Specific MMCR clinical reasoning guide sheets transforms this fast pace decision-making process into a strategic and focused approach. This presentation will provide an overview of the MMCR model throughout the evaluation and intervention process, share the perceptions of an OT student while learning the model in the classroom and the experiences of current occupational therapists who use this model in a clinical setting. The MMCR model is being developed in textbook format for potential publication in 2022.

Reference:

Knis-Matthews, L., Mulry, C. M., & Richard, L. (2017). Matthews Model of Clinical Reasoning: A systematic approach to conceptualize evaluation and intervention. Occupational Therapy in Mental Health, 33(4), 360-373. http://doi.org/10.1080/0164212X.2017.1303658

Occupation-centered models and occupational therapy theories provide a cornerstone to our profession (American Occupational Therapy Association, 2020) and helps to define our expertise and skills in facilitating clients’ occupational performance. As we “return to normalcy” (Gillen, 2013, p. 649) from a mechanistic practice to occupation-centered practice, it is imperative we understand the factors that facilitate our occupation-centered practice. A scoping review of the professional and therapeutic reasoning literature in occupational therapy was completed to identify how occupational therapists’ reasoning is influenced by use of occupation-based theories and occupation-centered models. In addition, the methods used to implement theory/occupation-centered models in practice will be explored.