Instructional Concurrent Session 10

As hand therapists, we need to be proactive to keep the hand therapy profession alive. Our profession is unique and serves as a critical step of recovery for individuals with upper extremity related issues. In this session, you will learn how to share your love and success in the field with new graduates interested in hand therapy as well as students on their clinic rotations. We will review an objective approach, as well as tips and tricks, to support a novice occupational or physical therapy student in a hand therapy clinical rotation. We will discuss barriers that may arise during a student’s fieldwork and steps to take to overcome those barriers. To conclude, we will describe ways to foster a positive mentorship between a supervisor and new therapist.

Level: Intermediate

Hand therapists are currently being presented the opportunity to research the increasingly popular sport of rock climbing and its required demands on the upper extremities due to the sport’s recent addition to the Summer Olympics in 2020. The unique and repetitive ways in which rock climbers use their upper extremities require due diligence in research and intervention from providers. This session will prepare hand therapists to efficiently treat their rock climbing clients. Providers will be taught a specific stretching routine established and researched by this presenter to target specific upper extremity muscles used frequently and repetitively by rock climbers that are not used in the same manner in the non-rock climbing population. Providers will be instructed on how to help their clients identify temporary pain due to strenuous activity versus harmful pain due to damaging an anatomical structure. Providers will also be instructed on how to collaborate with their clients on how to avoid repetitive strain during rock climbing without negating the body mechanics needed to functionally rock climb. The main objective of this presentation is to equip hand therapists with the tools needed to promote health and prevent injury with the current rising increase in rock climbing clients.

Our understanding of somatosensory systems continues to evolve, and so should our interventions. This session will focus on specific treatment ideas to address sensory loss and painful dysesthesias in the hand and upper limb. Participants will discuss individual and combined options for sensory re-education to optimize learning. The focus will be on how to grade clinic and home programs to help their clients progress towards a ‘sensational’ recovery. This session is suitable for all levels of experience, and the strategies are relevant across a number of client populations including nerve injury, multi-tissue trauma/crush injuries, complex regional pain syndrome, and stroke.

Level: Intermediate

Partial hand amputations comprise approximately 90% of all upper limb amputations. Along with the responsibility of addressing the patient’s functional goals, it is imperative that the treating therapist address any psychosocial and pain challenges that the patient may be experiencing. Levels of self-perceived disability are frequently greater in patients with partial hand amputations than those with higher level amputations. Pre-prosthetic interventions are critical to addressing multiple rehabilitation principles to help maximize outcomes with a prosthesis. Occupational therapists, in partnership with prosthetists, hand surgeons and other team members, help to guide optimal prosthetic choices for the patient that are based on client strengths, needs and the demands of their environment. Working with an upper limb prosthetic specialist ensures that the patient receives the most appropriate prosthetic options to meet their individual functional requirements. The presentation will show a variety of prosthetic options available and phases of prosthetic rehabilitation to help patients to return to living life to its fullest. Case studies will be presented to help demonstrate solutions throughout. Lastly, new and developing technology will be highlighted along with the latest surgical approaches designed to help decrease pain, improve control and advance the field of prosthetics.

Level: Intermediate