A therapist's Emotional Competence (EC) is their ability to navigate their own emotions and the emotions of their clients in therapeutic interactions (Brasseur et al., 2013; Wilkinson et al., 2017). EC is defined as a person's skills, confidence, and capacity to navigate emotions in different social situations (Coetzee et al., 2006, Saarni et al., 1997, Brasseur et al., 2013). It is a complex skill that draws from Emotional Intelligence and therapeutic use of self and is linked to one's self-awareness and empathy (Brackett et al., 2021; Perkins, 2018; Perkins & Schmid, 2019; Taylor, 2020). Studies show that effective emotional navigation in healthcare enhances the quality of care by improving client engagement and motivation, therapeutic relationships, and treatment outcomes (Brasseur et al., 2013; Kielhofner, 2009; Kotsou et al., 2011; Park, 2021; Taylor, 2020). Therapists also benefit from increased well-being and protection against burnout and compassion fatigue (Wong, 2016; Taylor, 2020, American Occupational Therapy Association, 2020).
Despite the importance of EC, curriculums for healthcare professionals typically place little emphasis on developing effective emotional-related skills and strategies (Brown, 2018; Grant et al., 2014; Perkins, 2018). Furthermore, many healthcare organizations lack on-site education to enhance practicing professionals' EC and interpersonal communication skills (Calabrese et al., 2019). All of these may adversely affect the therapist's well-being and the quality of care.
To address this gap in occupational therapy practice, the author created an intervention entitled EmOTions. EmOTions is a comprehensive, six-week- 30-hour online course for practicing occupational therapists. Its primary purpose is to build and
incorporate EC skills into daily therapeutic practice. This theory and evidence-based continuing education course uses key interventional ingredients found in the literature to inform the program's content and structure. The resulting changes in participants' EC and EC's effects on therapeutic relationships and therapist well-being will be evaluated using a pre-post comparative design. Funding for the course will be tuition-based, and the research will be funded using grants to promote quality care. The dissemination plan will be directed towards potential EmOTions course participants and organizations providing healthcare services.
In conclusion, emotionally competent occupational therapists will deliver better care and experience improved therapist well-being. It is the author's hope that the EmOTions course developed in this OTD project will positively impact the therapists' EC, resulting in improved therapist well-being, quality care, and client outcomes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/45031 |
| Date | 23 August 2022 |
| Creators | Fischer, Tamar |
| Contributors | Gafni-Lachter, Liat, Jacobs, Karen |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ |
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