Inpatient occupational therapy is used to help patients who have just undergone surgery to learn how to return to their normal routines prior to leaving the hospital setting. This type of healthcare service aims to make individuals more independent and is different from physical therapy, which instead focuses on enhancing a person’s flexibility, endurance, and balance. Therapists in this field have the responsibility of teaching caregivers how to handle various daily living situations to keep their patients safe as well.
Inpatient occupational therapy gives individuals recovering from surgery the opportunity to practice taking a shower, preparing food, or cleaning a room. These daily activities often are difficult to complete for someone who has limited function of part of his or her body due to a recent operation. Patients additionally learn how to perform grooming activities such as brushing their hair or applying deodorant. Even getting used to dressing themselves and feeding themselves is a requirement for patients with this service need.
Teaching people how to use adaptive equipment also is a necessary part of this career field. Some of the tools introduced during inpatient occupational therapy sessions include prosthetic devices, wheelchairs, or splints. These devices especially are pertinent for an individual who has lost function of his or her limbs due to amputation, paralysis, or the weakening of the muscles as a result of muscular dystrophy.
Increasing the cognitive abilities of certain patients additionally constitutes a valuable part of this aspect of the healthcare industry. Therapists might require certain hospital patients to complete activities that strengthen their eye-hand coordination, while others have to generate brief lists of objects that they recently saw, for example, to determine the severity of their short-term memory problems. This is critical for patients who plan to manage money at home. Professionals also assist patients with improving their abilities to focus on single activities, organize items according to certain standards, or even solve simple problems if they are recovering from strokes.
People also must develop their compromised physical skills prior to operating independently at their homes following hospital stays. For example, an inpatient occupational therapist might help someone to become accustomed to using a computer while in the hospital so that he or she will feel confident with operating this equipment after being discharged. Other physical exercises could be required to build a patient’s skills in performing tasks with his or her hands or strengthening his or her muscles for lifting everyday objects. Inpatient occupational therapy providers sometimes test people’s visual perception of depth to gauge their eyesight as well.