Achieving Excellence: The OT Practice Commitment to Professional Development
Over a year ago, Paul started at The OT Practice after a fulfilling career as an OT and leader in frontline practice within the NHS, adult social care, and the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT). As Professional Head of OT, Paul is realising his potential to drive quality improvement in the field of occupational therapy, ensuring clients benefit from the very best of clinical practice. We asked Paul what initiatives The OT Practice have introduced over the last year to implement best practice and develop our associate network.
Continuing Professional Development
The OT Practice continues to support independent therapists to bridge the gap between their experiences in the public sector and the demands of the private sector, all while upholding standards of high-quality person-centred care.
As you know one of the key drivers to success in professional practice is around continuing professional development. With this in mind, at the start of the year, we launched our exclusive learning platform with the overarching desire of supporting our associates in their continuing professional development, in line with our commitment to maintain quality across all our work streams. Our platform, called the "Learning Lounge", hosts a collection of learning modules and webinars on core competencies, market sector insights, and specialised practice learning. Through this, we aim to enhance the skills of occupational therapy associates by:
• Learning more about The OT Practice values, keeping clients at the forefront of our thinking
• Fostering a creative, innovative and solution focussed mindset.
• Refining core competencies crucial to practice, aligned with the highest quality standards.
• Understanding the context of the market sectors they are working within.
• Developing collaboration skills across our clinical teams and wider MDT.
Clinical Lead Support
Alongside the Learning Lounge, we have established an expert cohort of our associates to act as Clinical Leads to provide support to our therapists with their professional development activities and the everyday challenges in private practice. Our Clinical Leads are experienced occupational therapists with a deep understanding of their specialist fields and a passion for nurturing fellow OTs. Over the past year, they have been assisting our associates with complex cases, transitioning to private practice, developing specialist knowledge and providing reassurance when exploring new areas of practice.
Our Clinical Leads have proven to be invaluable resources, offering constructive feedback to help therapists refine their skills and grow professionally. We now have Clinical Leads supporting Neuro, Functional Rehabilitation, Paediatrics, Manual Handling, and Housing and Equipment. Additionally, we can tap into expertise in Vocational Rehabilitation, Seating, Postural Support, Mental Health, and Hand Therapy.
Training Sessions
Another professional development opportunity we have introduced is a series of hosted drop in sessions led by our clinical leads, providing an open collaborative platform for associates to discuss clinical challenges with peers and receive guidance from experts. In recent months, they have hosted sessions on Housing and Equipment, Paediatrics, Manual Handling, and Hand Therapy. Our final session of the quarter was an insightful Q&A drop-in session on Manual Handling and associates have reported finding these sessions valuable for sharing knowledge and receiving support from within our occupational therapy community.
In addition, we have hosted more structured sessions, including a webinar on an "Introduction to Major Adaptations and the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) Process" designed to enhance therapists' proficiency, particularly beneficial for those involved in projects that support our local authority colleagues, followed by an "Introduction to Hand Therapy". Attendees were encouraged to explore specialist training resources available in the Learning Lounge and review guidance on Practice Plus to maximise their learning experience. Whether attendees were interested in finding out more about other specialist areas, or keen to refine their existing knowledge, these sessions and others, offered an opportunity to enhance therapist's professional toolkit.
More sessions are planned to take us to the end of the year, along with ongoing initiatives to enhance our commitment to developing resources on the Learning Lounge platform. These efforts, combined with the ongoing expertise of our Clinical Leads, support associates' continuing professional development, enabling them to excel at any career stage."
Please get in touch to find out more about the continuing professional development we offer, whether you are new to private practice or want to sharpen your private practice clinical skills. Call us on 0330 024 9910 or email Paul Cooper, Professional Head of OT on paul@theotpractice.com.
