How to Answer: How do you best communicate goals with your patients and, when necessary, their families?
Advice and answer examples written specifically for an Occupational Therapist job interview.
14. How do you best communicate goals with your patients and, when necessary, their families?
How to Answer
Setting goals for patients is an essential function of an occupational therapist. While the interview probably knows that you are efficient and effective at setting goals, here they are trying to determine how you most effectively communicate the goals to the patient and/or their family. Talk about how each patient needs to be evaluated individually and how your communication to them is tailored to their ability to receive and retain the information.
Written by Heather Douglass
Entry Level
"Communicating the goals of my patient plan and goals is extremely important to help them have an understanding of what their therapy will entail. During my internship, my supervising therapist stressed the importance of putting things in layman's terms for patients to help them understand the process the entire way through."
Written by Ryan Brunner
Answer Example
"As an experienced Occupational Therapist that is able to create customized plans and goals for patient, how that plan is communicated is equally important. A patient needs to understand and be on board with the plan and if the patient is unable to comprehend, their family or caregivers need to be the people that understand. If I'm able to communicate directly with the patient, I walk step by step through their goals and explain the importance of each step of the plan. This helps them better understand why we are working on the things that we are. If I need to work with family or caregivers, I use this same approach."
Written by Heather Douglass
Experienced
"As an experienced Occupational Therapist, I've learned that tailoring my communication to each individual patient or their loved ones is important. When I'm working with someone who is of sound mind, I relate to them on their level to help them know and understand the work that we will do together. For patient families that I need to communicate with, I find that educating them on why I do what I do is important to help them understand how their loved one will improve because of my therapy."
Written by Ryan Brunner