ACOTUP - Newsletter - Issue 29 - 2016

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Occupational therapy education is not only
about conveying knowledge, but nurturing
values and attitudes. While occupational
therapists would consider compassion as a core value of
client-centred practice it has been given little attention in
the occupational therapy literature. Queen’s Occupa-
tional Therapy faculty Catherine Donnelly (project lead),
Susanne Murphy and Anne O’Riordan were part of an in-
terprofessional team who received funds from the AMS
Phoenix Project to develop, deliver and evaluate an online
compassionate care module. The project sought to fill a
gap in the sparse literature on the teaching and learning
of compassionate care.
The Compassionate Collaborative Care Module in-
cludes six chapters: 1) introduction to compassion, 2) self-
compassion, 3) compassion for your patients, 4)
compassion for your team, 5) compassion at work and 6)
compassion in action.
The module has been piloted with students complet-
ing an interprofessional primary care placement. A new
chapter was introduced to the students each week while
they were on placement coupled with a 1-hour face-to-
face discussion of the module and examples from prac-
tice. Evaluation of the pilot feedback found that
completing the module made themmore aware of acts of
compassion in practice. Compassion became an explicit
lens upon which they viewed their clinical and team inter-
actions. Having the modules completed on a weekly basis
ensured it was a consistent part of their clinical practice.
“I was more mindful of compassion, being compassionate
… it was good to talk about it on a regular basis, it was al-
ways on the forefront of my mind”
Since the original pilot, the team has developed a
workshop for health care teams and the module has been
included in the program’s Advanced Professional Practice
course.
The modules are open access and can be found on
the Office of Interprofessional Education and Practice
website:
SUPPORTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF
COMPASSIONATE OCCUPATIONAL THERAPISTS
LICIT, ILLICIT, PRESCRIBED: SUBSTANCE USE
AND OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
Valuable Occupational Therapy Resource Launched
The Canadian national occupational therapists’
annual conference in Banff, Alberta was the
backdrop for the recent launch of Dr. Niki
Kiepek’s new book, Licit, Illicit, Prescribed: Substance Use
and Occupational Therapy. The book, reflective of over
ten years of education, research and experience in the
field, highlights the important role that can be played by
occupational therapists.
There is great variability in terms of who works in ad-
diction services, resulting in similar variability in the qual-
ity of the services provided. Through her experience, she
noticed that the main focus was on supporting people to
stop using substances, as well as relapse prevention, but
little attention on helping people to fill the gap with en-