Cross over roles between OT and PT #physiotalk 21st October with @OTalk_

This is the second of our ‘chosen by you’ tweetchats for October and this time the topic is ‘Cross over roles between OT and PT’.  This tweetchat will be held on Monday 21st October at 8.30pm BST and we are delighted that OTalk are able to join us for the chat. We are hoping for lots of input on this chat from both physios and OTs in order to share each professions perspective.

Just a couple of reminders for the chat:

It’s a Monday chat at 8.30pm using the #physiotalk hashtag! We love the occasional lurk onto #OTalk on a Tuesday at 8pm of course, but this chat will use #physiotalk to host the discussion!

Tweet with professionalism – which we know you do of course! But just an extra reminder to be respectful of others opinions during the chat.

What do we mean by cross over roles?

There are a lot of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary teams out there working together in different specialities.  But more than that, there are roles whereby OTs may take on tasks or roles that might have been traditionally thought to be the preserve of the physio. And of course the converse applies with physios taking on aspects of an OT role. There are a variety of terms for this, such as role blurring or role overlap – we are not concerned so much with the terminology, more with the fact there is usually some form of additional training involved to allow you to take on a whole or part role that may have been done by another professional.

One of the prompts for tonights chat came from this tweet from @LaterLifeTrain about OTs attending specialised exercise qualification training (and yes, we obviously thought it could be a tweetchat!)

Equally there are plenty of examples of physiotherapists taking on what might be considered to be an OT role, often in assessing for home equipment or adaptations.

This is nothing new, with a paper by Booth and Hewson in 2001 exploring role overlap in stroke rehabilitation. Their findings were that role overlap can cause issues in role insecurity and territorial feelings, with the unwanted outcome of increasing overlap being generic therapy.  This was echoed in 2013 with Smith and Roberts paper which talks about professional tribalism.

However, there is also a wealth of literature around the positive aspects of shared and blurred roles, with many embracing this way of working, citing improved patient outcomes for a more non traditional approach to working. A recent article by Marc Berry in Frontline emphasises this aspect, whilst highlighting the key drivers in the process to make a  role blurred service effective for all.

Questions to consider

What is your experience of working in or alongside a service that has cross over roles?

Do you welcome the expansion into such roles?

What are the benefits and drivers for developing these roles?

What are the issues in developing these roles?

How do we ensure that we focus on the positives of these roles rather than become ‘tribal’?

Missed the chat?

Catch up with the transcript here