AOTA

Newly Updated 2nd edition!

Get an AOTA Digital Badge on Cancer Rehabilitation to share your learning accomplishment when you complete the required CE.

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By Claudine Campbell, MOT, OTR, CLT Jennifer Hughes, MOT, OTR, and
Lauro Munoz, MOT, OTR, FAOTA

Earn .3 CEU (3.75 NBCOT PDUs/3 contact hours)

Course Description

This continuing education course was created by three occupational therapists with a combined experience in the field of oncology rehabilitation of more than 30 years. The content shares their passion for increasing awareness of occupational therapy's role in this emerging area of practice and encourages occupational therapists to develop expertise in this area. The course is made up of 4 lessons and a final case study that walks a client through the specific cancer paradigms discussed in the preceding lessons. Each lesson has specific learning objectives as well as learning activities to help reinforce the content. The lessons are as follows:

Lesson 1: Cancer Basics
Lesson 2: Medical Rehabilitation Principles in Oncology
Lesson 3: Complex Oncology Symptoms
Lesson 4: Oncology-Related Symptoms and Occupational Therapy's Role Case Study

Lesson 1 begins with the Cancer Basics portion of the course, in which an introduction to cancer, including some general statistics and information on cancer treatment and management is presented.

Lesson 1 Learning Objectives:

• Identify cancer prevalence and different forms of cancer
• Identify common sites of metastasis of malignant tumors
• Identify basic cancer treatments and their common side effects
• Identify the different goals of medical treatment for cancer

Lesson 2 covers rehabilitation principles as they relate to oncology. Cancer can be localized, but medical treatment for cancer can affect the entire body. Therefore, understanding the stage of disease and the possible short- and long-term side effects of cancer treatments is important for safe and effective occupational therapy intervention as well as for appropriate goal setting.

Lesson 2 Learning Objectives:

• Recognize the five stages in the cancer treatment continuum
• Identify common complications and precautions relative to cancer and cancer treatments
• Identify cancer rehabilitation paradigms that affect occupational therapy treatment planning and goal setting

Lesson 3 focuses on understanding complex oncology symptoms and how they affect occupational engagement. The symptoms experienced by clients with cancer present not as a single, isolated symptom, but as a combination of symptoms. Therefore, to facilitate optimal engagement in occupations, occupational therapists must understand clients' interrelated symptoms and how to manage them.

Lesson 3 Learning Objectives:

• Recognize how complex oncology symptoms affect occupational performance and engagement
• Distinguish between the objective and subjective components of cancer symptoms
• Identify attributes of occupational therapy intervention that are relevant in treating the objective and subjective components of cancer symptoms

Lesson 4 presents the unique contributions that an occupational therapist can provide in alleviating oncology-related symptoms interfering with desired or needed occupations. The related evaluation and interventions are client centered and symptom led rather than disease or diagnosis led.

Lesson 4 Learning Objectives:

• Identify five symptoms common to many cancer diagnoses and treatments
• Recognize the attributes for each one of the five symptoms
• Identify assessments used in determining occupational therapy interventions for the five symptoms
• Identify occupational therapy interventions that may improve occupational performance affected by the five symptoms

Introductory course

Appropriate for all OT practitioners and students

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