Coming out of this lab, and the role playing that was involved in our simulation of conducting the Job Demands Analysis (JDA), made me realize the complexities of the many occupations that we engage in throughout our everyday lives. The JDA brings out the implicit elements and skills that a typical job description would fail to include, bringing attention to some psycho-emotional determinants of occupation compared to a functional assessment or activity analysis. If I ever decide to use this in my future practice, I have to keep in mind that I need to be more resourceful to attain the full occupational profile of my clients. It's unfortunate that the JDA doesn't ask about how the client's different life roles impact her job performance and experience in the workplace. The stresses of her other occupations definitely plays a role in how she demanding she feels her job is at this point in her life. We're not super humans who perform each of our occupations in isolation from each other. As much as we try our best to put one hat away when we put on another, our stack of hats is usually in within our peripheral vision as we carry out certain occupations because we never know when we'll have to switch roles!
The topic of "roles" makes me think of a moment from placement:
I remember speaking to my preceptor on my last day of placement, asking her about if I could continue work as a volunteer on the ACT team. Besides the fact that I would likely have to go through the tedious volunteer application process with through the hospital, my preceptor told me that ACT teams usually don't take volunteers. And that if I were to successfully become a volunteer who was allowed to continue to help out on the ACT team, I would need to highly aware that my role would be that of a "Volunteer". It dawned on me that in that case, I would not be working as an "Occupational Therapy student" anymore. That wasn't to say that I can't Think like an OT student, in fact, I think it would be close to impossible for me to throw the past 6 months of learning out of my head. But I definitely wouldn't be doing assessments with the clients, or planning and facilitating client interactions as part of their recovery plans. Not only are there different functional tasks in the roles of the "volunteer" and an "OT student", but my motivations and the meaning of my experience of each occupations would be different. (This discussion relates to a question that my preceptor asked me that has stuck with me. Will post about it later.)
Furthermore, I've felt myself struggling with prioritizing my roles in my personal relationships with recent life events. As much as I'd like to start "OT-ing" (yes, I just used my future profession as a Verb) every time I see that some situation can use the expertise of an occupational therapy student, I force myself to stop and think: "What is my role in this situation/relationship?" And my answer is always something other than "occupational therapy student". That's because I embody many other roles in my relationships --I am a daughter, a sister, a friend, a volunteer to the people in my life. The role of a friend can even be dissected further into that of a "confidante" and a "buddy". Now I'm not saying that I shouldn't be applying my OT skills outside of the classroom. That would be plain silly!
However, as much as we'd like to be able to help some people in our lives as aspiring OTs, often times we need to be careful of what hat we're wearing. It's one thing to use our OT skills, but we must keep in mind that our different roles in our relationships is what makes that relationship unique. (It has taken me a while to realize this.) I can't be an OT student in all my relationships, because then my friends would lose a friend, and my relatives would lose a family member. Different occupations carry different demands (as shown by the JDA!) and different meanings. As an OT student, I have to realize the importance of my role as a friend or a sister in those relationships and these people's support networks. It means a difference that I am supporting someone has a friend, rather than an aspiring OT. Jumping into "OT" mode isn't always the best help I can give them. Sometimes, we're more needed in other roles. Not because one role is "better" than the other, but that they have different Meanings. That's not to say that I shouldn't suggest OT services if I see the need for them. Just that -I- shouldn't automatically combine and amalgamate distinct roles into one because even more complicated issues (such as conflict of interest) may arise.
At this point, I think I'm going to end this reflection post. It's obvious that the demands of blogging has overwhelmed me to the point where I'm starting to ramble...
RESOURCES to look up:
As I was researching "criticism of job demands analysis occupational therapy", an OT Student's Job Description came up. Although it doesn't touch on the PE determinants of being an OT student (that would be one long document!), it was an intriguing functional demands analysis!
And I also found a very detailed Firefighter's JDA and it was sad to see that the PE determinants of the occupation were left out again. If you open up the document (click on the words!) the very last page shows a chart of the types of demands, with only 4 of them being "Psych" related. However, all of these Psych related demands scored from moderate to high demand. Saving lives isn't all fun and games! Haha.
On a more serious note, I can definitely see the need for an OT to bring awareness to and address mental health issues in the workplace. The following Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) video on the National standard for psychological health and safety in Canadian workplaces talks about the steps that employers can take to promote positive mental health and keep employees mentally healthy in the workplace.
Steps (as outlined in the video):
- Access the National Standards for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace
- Review the Standard and commit to it
- Identify a workplace champion to take responsibility for your committment (OT ROLE ALERT!!!)
- Identify gaps in your organization
- Actively involve employees in the process
- Use the tools in the Standard
- Develop a policy statement around workplace place psychological health and safety
- Take the time to communicate what this means to all employees
- Use other tools such as MHCC's Action Guide for Employers
- Have staff trained in mental health first aid
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