This site has multiple aims but simply put it is to aid the knowledge base of Working, Student & Research Occupational Therapists by highlighting current research, technologies and opinion pieces. As well as community driven blogs the site hosts several tools that are you are free to use and actively encouraged to help produce.

Workflow for writing/research

The bit after you've written your essay is always boring, prone to error and quite frankly a nightmare.

Previously I have written stuff like so:

  1. Gather information. This is largely from doing database searches (OVID, OTDbase, Cinahl, Pubmed) etc.. as well as a hunt around the library's books for relevant literature
  2. Read some articles/books and note down some points..
  3. Gather my points and categorise
  4. Plan where all the bits go
  5. Write the thing
  6. re-write the thing.. (!)
  7. 2 hours before the deadline sort out the references and citations. Usually this is followed by:
  8. "Aaarrgh! Where the heck did I get (Digby, Poncebury-Smythe, Smashey, Nicey 1996) from!!" After a quick look through my random bits of paper with the references written down I fail to find it. Damn. I have to delete the reference (or just hope nobody looks for the the citation in the reference list - which they usually do)!!

I've written a quick overview of what I now do. If it's a bit over your head dont fret! Just have a play with some of the tools that interest you - most importantly citeULike. The more people that use it the better it becomes! (CiteULike aims to do more than just "bookmark citations" for a good overview read the FAQ)

OT Glossary - Abbreviations, Acronyms and Mini-Dictionary

I've taken a collection of various Acronym's from around the place, stuck them together, tidied it up, and put it in the glossary database. If you have any more entries I'd love to know!
Please note that some of the entries haven't converted fantastically well - I'm working on fixing that. Also note that these terms may not be the particular terms used in your PCT/place of work, so use with care when using in your notes.

Also just out of interest really, I made a podSite/Guide from the information. Download this, unzip it, and place it on your ipod in the notes folder. Now you should have a trusty portable guide. Tell me what you think..

Here are a couple of pics to show you what it looks like:

The Main Menu: OTPod image on the ipod

A sample page: OTPod image on the ipod

OT's on the net and more..

OT blogs. Why are so few OT's out there involved with publishing anything on the net?? Read on for a bit of a opinionated rant...

Site Categories

site categories have been updated!

Smart Glowing Keyboard

I own a powerbook and make frequent use of the glowing keyboard when the light is a bit dim. This keyboard from logisys, claims to be one the of the brightest on the market. Also has a interesting feature - it flashes when your mobile rings.

Sample OT Book Chapters

Really handy little resource when you cant get to the library, or not sure if you really need that book. Sample Chapters in Occupational therapy from Elsevier

Nice resource including some Texts by Haggedorn, Creek and Turner