In my first year of Occupational Therapy i was involved in two placements. My month long placement was in Older Persons Health and my second placement (which was longitutional placement) was in a youth metal health setting based in a school.
In my Older Persons Health placement i was able see the involvement of technology in the setting. This ranged form using the phone to then using the computer to document information. But as this setting was within a hospital the OT still had to view files that were blinded in folders. May be in close future all patient information will be logged onto the computer to save looking through patients notes after notes.
In my second placement technology was also used. This was in the use of computers and music, but more for the clients for an educational purpose or even calming purposes.
In Creek, Lougher & Van Bruggen (2008) talks about how the development of information technology is used widely as Occupational Therapist. Specifically it talked about how
information technology has made recording patient data easier and can be also accessed easier. Also it is evident that Occupational Therapists use Information Technology for research to further there degree or knowledge (Hagedorn, 2001). These can be through different websites like http://www.books.google.com/ where you are able to view books online. Also http://scholar.google.com/ where a selection of online books, magazine and journal articles can be read. It is now evident that it is very beneficial for Occupational Therapy to be educated in the use of information technology. It helps OT's to ensure that they can adapt to change in technology in the future, to efficiently utilise the technology and also to critically apply their knowledge to maximize their client's ability to use and accept new technologies (Schaoer & Pervan, 2004)
Also you can view the blog on the top right of my page called TechnoOT by VirtualOT or go to http://techots.blogspot.com/
What issues exist around Occupational Therapy adoption of information technology systems and tools?
Issues that may exist around OT's adoption of IT systems and tools may be that they become too reliant on it. This may cause problems in the future as technology, as brilliant as it is also has glitches. This is because information can be lost, in parts or even in whole or if things are not saved properly it can also be lost. All very inconvenient, and if the information is not backed up test may be necessarily repeated.
IT as being a potential tool for practice-
I think that the use of IT is incredibly useful in the practice of daily lives. It is useful in the way to know all the basic of how to use it in relation to jobs and schooling etc as it can assist in making life easier and produce work quicker. Also in general internet is great when you may need a quick recipe or want to research a topic as it only takes a matter of seconds to find. Also there are links to this within my 5 top blogs published on my page ans also one blog, occupational therapy issue is specifically related to New Zealand and its Occupational Therapists.
Soooo.... By having a good understanding of Information Technology in our lives can help us in our practice of daily life. This can be in the way of communicating networks via internet or phone that enable us to contact people quickly and effectively so we are up to date on what is happening. Also the use of the internet is big now in the way of education via skype and other online communicative devices. Information Technology in relation to people with disabilities is also seen to help enable or compensate for a loss that they may have in order for them to be able to carry out their lives with as much independance as possible.
But what ethical implications may arise from capturing, sharing and transferring of information via IT devices or systems?
Ethical issue that were discussed in class were mainly around the use of internet and the implications. These were in reference to mainly online communities and chat rooms used inappropriately to exploit people or even encourage inappropriate behaviours. Also privacy can be broken as pictures and videos can be leeked onto the internet for everyone to see. These can be seen when the intellectual property, social justice and informed concent are broken.
Intellectual property is a right, typically granted by the govenment to protect property. This is usally seen in the form of copyrights and trademarks. (Holland etal, 2007) So this is a way in which people are able to keep their work authentic and prevent it being stolen, or having someone claim the work as their own. Examples of these are the brand Mac that is copyrighted so for someone elce to use this some label and name on their product is illegal, even though still fakes are being produced all over the world. Thinking of this aspect in practice is greatly important with appropriately referencing work and not coping off others. Also by examining copyright details of work can determine the reliability of the work you are referencing (Holland etal, 2007)
Social justice is described as establishing just for not only for the individual, but the society. It is based in the concept of giving fair treatment to all in society and all access to benefits available in society (Capeheart & Milovanovic, 2007) The use of social justice in information technology can be evident in the aspect of digital divide. Digital divide is described as the divide between people who have access to the computers, the internet and technology compared to the people that dont. So without this access to technology, these people then are distancing themselves from the 'online communities' that are now being created through the vast amouts of people that have access to technology (http://www.wikipedia.com/). This relates to information technology and OT as people with this digital divide may be excluded from information that otherwise they may have access to if they had this technology.
Informed concent is descrided as the given concent of someone after they are aware of all the facts and implications of the action and have a full understanding of it (http://www.wikipedia.com/). In relation to this and information technology in occupation therapy, concent is critical for many aspects. For example picture that go on the internet all need concent and also files that an OT may use on a patient cant be given to any old person without the clients informed concent.
References:
Hagedorn, R. (2001). Foundation for practice in occupational therapy (3rd ed.). Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.
Creek. J., Lougher. L., Van Bruggen. H. (2008). Occupational therapy and mental health (4th ed.) Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.
Schaper, L., Pervan, A. (2004). A model for information and communication technology, acceptance and utilisation by occupational therapist. Australia: Curtain University of Technology
Holland, C.J., Canuso, V.A., Reed, D., Lee, S., Kimmel, A.L., Peterson, W. (2007) Intellectual property. USA: Entrepreneur Media Legal Guide
Capeheart, L., Milovanovic, D. (2007) Social justice: Theories, issues and movements. USA
Digital divide. (2011) Retireved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_divide
Informed concent (2011) Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informed_consent
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