Graduation Year
2020
Document Type
Capstone Project
Project Type
Project
Degree Name
Master of Science in Occupational Therapy
Program
Occupational Therapy
Program Chair
Julia Wilbarger, Ph.D., OTR/L
Faculty Advisor
Gina Tucker-Roghi OTD, OTR/L, BCG
Abstract
The ultimate goal of the SNF is to help clients stabilize their medical conditions and attain their therapy goals so that they can return home (Orr, Boxer, Dolansky, Allen, & Forman, 2016). However, approximately 27% of heart failure (HF) clients are readmitted to the hospital after being discharged from the SNF (Allen et al., 2011). High readmission rates may be due to the cognitive (Dickson, Tkacs, and Riegel, 2007), psychosocial (Halliday, 2010), and lifestyle barriers (Maeda, Shen, Schwarz, Farrell, & Mallon, 2013) HF clients face. However, interventions in the SNF tend to emphasize activities of daily living (ADLs) and therapeutic exercise (Rafeedie, Metzler, & Lamb, 2018). This project aims to create and implement a clinical pathway for occupational therapists (OT) within SNFs, in order to address patient barriers and improve the quality of care.