Technical Standards and Essential Functions
Becoming an occupational therapist requires the completion of a professional education program that is intellectually, emotionally, and physically challenging. Students must be able to take part fully in the academic and clinical life of the program to benefit from the educational activities and to succeed in fulfilling requirements for the Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD) degree.
In accordance with the provisions and philosophy of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), faculty are committed to providing appropriate learning experiences that maximize every student’s potential and working with students with disabilities to determine if there are ways to assist them in performing essential functions and skills to meet educational standards. This process involves students taking initiative to identify and request reasonable accommodations as appropriate to their disability status. The MGH Institute of Health Professions will consider any applicant who meets its academic criteria and demonstrates the ability to perform or to learn to perform the skills listed in the policy with or without reasonable accommodations consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Any applicant with questions about these technical standards is strongly encouraged to contact the Office of Accessibility Resources.
All students will be held to the same standards and must be able to perform the technical standards of their positions with or without reasonable accommodations. Upon request, reasonable accommodations will receive consideration for classroom, lab, examinations, and participation in fieldwork placements. The purpose of the standards is to designate the various cognitive/intellectual, psychomotor (physical and sensory), and professional attitudes, communication, and behavioral skills that are essential for matriculation into, participation in, and completion of the educational program.
The following technical standards are considered necessary for full participation:
Sensory/Observation:
- Sufficient visual field and acuity to be able to observe and interpret patients/clients accurately, including responding to emergency situations that emerge as a result of changes in appearance, vital signs, verbal or non-verbal communication of distress, and/or environmental circumstances.
- Functional tactile (feel vibrations, detect temperatures, feel differences in surface characteristics) and proprioceptive abilities necessary to perceive and synthesize inputs during patient/client evaluation/assessments, interventions, and interactions
- Sufficient auditory capacity to receive instructions and to evaluate and provide interventions for patients/clients, involving abilities to hear normal speaking levels, faint body sounds, and auditory alarms
- Olfactory abilities to detect odors and smoke
Communication:
- Ability to read, write, speak, and understand English at a level consistent with successful course completion and development of positive patient/client-therapist relationships
- Articulate and speak with volume that is understandable to the listener or audience
- Verbal and non-verbal interpersonal and communication skills that are consistent with productive classroom participation, respectful interactions with faculty, students, staff, fieldwork supervisors, and development of appropriate client-centered therapeutic relationships with patients/clients, family members/caregivers, and members of the healthcare team and others, in one-to-one, small group and large group settings
- Demonstrate sensitivity in appropriate communication with all individuals, regardless of lifestyle, of various ages, genders, ethnic/racial and religious/spiritual backgrounds, educational levels, and socioeconomic status, with various physical, cognitive, emotional disabilities
- Uphold privacy and confidentiality policies
- Complete required medical records, documentation, and intervention plans according to fieldwork policies and procedures in a timely and accurate manner
Intellectual/Judgment:
- Participate in intellectual activities that require critical thinking, judgment, analysis, conceptualization of spatial relationships, calculation of arithmetic data, problem-solving, abstract and professional reasoning, and organizing and planning within reasonable time frames and within a multitask setting
- Make timely decisions and take timely action in anticipation of or in response to patient/client circumstances that reflect actual patient/client-care conditions including time and resource constraints, including ‘on the spot’ situations and under pressure situations from high workload demands
- Ability to interpret information from multiple sources, including observation, written, verbal, interpersonal, environment, etc.
- Comprehend and follow written instructions, such as policies and procedures
- Adhere to safety precautions
- Demonstrate self-reflection and ability to apply feedback in order to develop proactive strategies for professional growth and development
Professional Behavior/Social Skills:
- Possess the emotional health required for full use of one’s intellectual abilities, adaptation to change, exercise of good judgment, adherence to ethics, and safe and timely completion of all responsibilities
- Relate to others with respect, courtesy, maturity, and compassion to honor their dignity by using a tone and attitude that is the appropriate level and type of language for the person, group, and/or situation
- Demonstrate ability and willingness to modify behavior/ performance after feedback from faculty or fieldwork/clinical supervisor
- Initiate completion of responsibilities with waiting for direction or reminders from others
- Deal appropriately with situations involving pain, grief, death, stress, communicable diseases, blood and body fluids, and toxic substances
- Maintain personal appearance appropriate to the classroom and follow dress code and personal hygiene guidelines of fieldwork facilities
- Demonstrate flexibility and coping skills in response to stressful circumstances, changing environments and/or client factors, and uncertainties that occur in fieldwork/clinical practice
- Participate in fieldwork/clinical and lab experiences that require exposure of body parts and palpation of body structures by faculty, students, and supervisors.
Physical/Motor:
- Demonstrate the alertness and endurance to attend classes 30 hours or more each week, including active participation in combinations of lectures, discussion, lab, and fieldwork/clinical activities.Preparation for class typically requires an additional 20-30 hours per week.The curriculum may also require occasional scheduled classes or lab experiences at local facilities in the early morning, evening, or weekends. Fieldwork/clinical experiences often require 40 hours or more per week on a schedule that corresponds to the operating hours of the facility and the fieldwork educator’s/supervisor’s schedule.
- Be able to independently perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and qualify for CPR certification
- Motor planning sufficient to manipulate and position evaluation and intervention equipment
- Demonstrate capacity for:
- Mobility/Gross-Motor skills:
- Sitting for long periods
- Standing and maintaining balance for up to 6-8 hours per day in fieldwork/clinical settings
- Walking
- Climbing stairs
- Twisting
- Bending/squatting
- Carrying equipment and supplies
- Reaching above shoulders and to floor
- Lifting/supporting 25 lbs.
- Exertion of push-pull forces of a minimum of 25 lbs.
- Coordination of verbal, manual, and gross-motor activities
- Movement from place to place and position to position with safe speed, strength, coordination, and endurance for handling equipment and classmates or patients/clients, sometimes within confined spaces
- Standing and walking while supporting a classmate who is simulating a disability or a client/patient with a disability
- Fine-Motor/Manual Dexterity:
- Continuous use of hands with firm grasp and manual dexterity
- Pinch/pick-up objects with both hands
- Grasp small objects with hands/fingers
- Twist with hands
- Write with a pen or pencil
- Manipulate computer touch screens and keyboards