October 2011 - Posts
I am in the habit of attending primarily occupational therapy conferences, so when I recently was a participant at the annual meeting of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM), it seemed out of the ordinary at first—no big opening ceremony, no dancing in the aisles, far fewer participants in the plenary session than at AOTA (600 versus 6,000), and a mix of rehabilitation professionals from diverse professions.
To be honest, I was surprised and pleased to see that so many of my occupational therapy colleagues were among the mix. In fact, at a luncheon I attended comprised of a stroke networking group, not only was occupational therapist Dr. Beth Skidmore in the leadership, but I would estimate that 30% of the 100 participants were occupational therapists. We definitely were an important constituency at this meeting. Some of my takeaways included a comprehensive notebook of quality measures for rehabilitation that provide policy, provider, and patient perspectives; familiarity with National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research (NCMRR) funded infrastructures to which all of us have access that can assist in locating appropriate measures or databases for our studies, and the knowledge that large scale randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to date indicate that, while manualized interventions in general have been shown to be beneficial compared to usual care for stroke patients, the various manualized approaches are all comparable in their effectiveness. All in all, I found the content of presentations to be outstanding. I really want to urge all of you to venture out—being in an interdisciplinary world for several days is both eye-opening and wonderfully satisfying.
I recently attended the Annual Meeting of the Occupational Therapy Association of California (OTAC) and joined in the celebration of its 35th birthday. Yes, OTAC was formally incorporated in 1976 and now, in 2012, 750 participants attended the meeting. And what a great occasion it was! As AOTA President, I presented Dr. Shawn Phipps, OTAC’s current President, with a letter conveying how pleased AOTA has been to partner with OTAC in responding to state regulation concerns. The letter noted that AOTA was particularly proud of the unprecedented joint effort on the part of OTAC and AOTA that resulted in the enactment of the California Occupational Therapy Practice Act in 2001.
I felt so proud to be present at this celebration, not only as President of AOTA, but also as a founding member of OTAC. Yes, there was a time—can you believe it?— when state occupational therapy associations in their current form did not exist. Occupational therapy in most states had neither licensure nor the organizational structure to support it, and most of us looked only to the national association for legislative leadership. How great it is that this is no longer the case and we can enjoy two professional homes—our state associations and AOTA. They constitute a vital and dynamic duo assuring that consumers who need us continue to have access to our services.
If you read my last blog, you will know that I recently traveled from New York to Washington D.C. on the Acela train. But what I did not tell you was that I was traveling to be a speaker at AOTA’s first Middle Managers Leadership Training Seminar. Now, no doubt, you are aware that for the past few years AOTA has been convening this kind of programs for “emerging leaders,” defined as those with the desire to become leaders who are new to the profession. In contrast, the middle manager group is older, more experienced, and has already ascended into leadership positions in the facilities where they work. One of the participants is now the Director of Occupational Therapy for a school district, several others are overseeing interprofessional rehabilitation programs, and others have already developed innovative programs in specialized areas such as cancer and lymphedema care. Most tended to be in their 30’s and 40’s, in contrast to the mostly 20-something emerging leaders.
I was pleased to be a member of the instructional team, which included AOTA Vice President Virginia (Ginny) Stoeffel and Nancy Blair, who had been trainers for the AOTA Emerging Leaders Program. Nancy is an extremely impressive scholar whose research has been on leadership development, and Ginny had worked under her guidance as a doctoral student. Sue Bowles, who now works for Ancillary Care Solutions but had previously been Chief of Occupational Therapy and Director of Outpatient Services at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, was the fourth instructor. It turned out we brought complementary skills to the program, were highly compatible, and had a great time throughout the experience.
But the real stars were the participants. If the middle managers throughout our profession are of their caliber, our future is in terrific hands. What a great time we had discussing their concerns: how to get more of the practitioners they supervise to see the value of joining AOTA, how to most effectively lead interprofessional teams with fairness and equanimity, how to negotiate the ever-changing power contexts in which they find themselves at their workplaces, and how to move onward in their personal leadership trajectories. I think the big take-aways for me were: (1) I learned a very concrete and accessible approach for resolving conflict; and (2) I could see that a new generation of promising young leaders is now coming into full flower and will soon take us to the next level of professional excellence.