The Your OT Tutor Learning Library has been available for just over a month and already there are nearly 750 members signed up! To make sure you get the most out of your free membership, these newsletters will keep you up-to-date with new additions and also feature a spotlight on a particular topic.

This edition’s topic is clinical handover, and you won’t want to miss the latest update – I’ll tell you what’s coming in Phase 2 of the Learning Library launch!

But first, have you signed up?

If you signed up for the newsletter but haven’t signed up for the Learning Library yet, add it to your to-do list! All you need to do is add your name and email address via this link, then check your inbox or junk mail for the login details. If you’ve got an extra couple of minutes, you can even setup the free mobile app straight away.

Topic spotlight – Clinical Handover

The art of providing a clear and concise clinical handover to another health professional can be a difficult skill to master, but seeing as there are so many new grads starting their careers this month, I thought I’d help them out with some free resources.

Clinical handover involves telling another person, usually a health professional, about your client, including any issues you’ve identified and what recommendations you would make going forward. You can have clinical handover conversations with doctors on a hospital ward, or with a support coordinator as a community NDIS OT. You can even provide a clinical handover when discussing your client with your supervisor when you’re looking for advice about what to do next.

It’s an important skill to ensure the whole multidisciplinary team is on the same page and that miscommunications are minimised. But it’s hard to do well early in your career.

You’ll probably get tongue-tied, miss important information, or waffle on too much with irrelevant information. That’s OK – it does get easier and better with practice. But it will get better much more quickly if you have a framework to work off. My favourite one is the ISBAR framework.

Here’s what it involves:

• Introduction – Introduce yourself and the client you are speaking about 

• Situation – What is the reason for the conversation or the key issue you need to discuss?

• Background – Fill the other person in on information about the client, but only what they need to know so that the rest of your conversation makes sense.

• Assessment – What have you found out and what is your summary of the situation now?

• Recommendation – What do you think needs to happen next and when?

You might be thinking, “Mmm, handy! But I’m still not sure what that looks like…”

That’s where the Learning Library has you covered. There are three different resources available to help you learn:

1. Downloadable template with the ISBAR framework, including prompt questions and a couple of examples of how to apply the framework in different situations.

2. Video  with a quick demo of what a clinical handover looks like in action; the example provided is an OT giving a handover to a nurse on a hospital ward.

3. Webinar recording where I go through more information about the ISBAR framework, what it looks like, and how you can optimise the time you spend practicing as you work on this skill.

You can access all those resources on-demand now, as many times as you like, with no expiry. You just need to sign-up to the Learning Library!

Exciting Updates!

There are already over 50 resources available in the library, and I’m sure no-one has got through them all yet, but coming later this month there will be even more, and they’ll be a little bit different.

Phase 1 of the Learning Library launch involved putting all my free stuff together in one place. Done!

Then I added in a special gift for the early birds who signed-up – they were able to access a free mini-course on standardised assessments for FCAs. It was only available for a short time and has now left the library…

If you missed it, don’t worry, there will be more special gifts coming throughout 2025.

Now it’s nearly time for Phase 2. This is where you’ll get to learn from not just me, but from lots of other fantastic health professionals.

I’ve opened expressions of interest for other health professionals to add a resource to the Learning Library!

This is your chance to get your brand and your content out there in front of a wider audience. Here’s what you’ll need to do:

1. Fill in the EOI form here. Tell me a little about yourself and what type of resource you’d like to add to the library. If you need some inspiration, take a look through the library and see what’s in there. It could be a downloadable resource, video or webinar recording.

2. Once I get your EOI I’ll add you to the list and will get back to you to let you know what you need to do to have your resource added.

3. Once it is added you’ll get some free advertising via my social networks and in the library itself. You’ll get a mention in this monthly LinkedIn newsletter (over 2000 subscribers) and in my weekly mailing list newsletter (nearly 4000 subscribers), and I’ll give it a plug on my social profiles (nearly 14k LinkedIn followers!). The library itself has nearly 750 members, with new people signing up each day!

What’s the catch?

The catch is that you don’t have to pay for this free promo, but you do need to share your resource freely, without Learning Library members needing to join your mailing list to access it. There will still be spaces to share links to your mailing list and other promos, so if your resource is good enough, you’ll capture the right audience anyway.

I’m also not just including anything and everything. You need to show that you know your stuff. You also need to be open to a little feedback to get it up to scratch if it’s not quite ready to include straight up. But who doesn’t mind a little free advice and feedback?

This sounds amazing, why are you doing this!?

I’m doing this because there are so many great OTs and other health professional out there with fantastic resources and education services, and the OT world just doesn’t know they exist.  

If clinicians can spend less time searching for answers and reinventing the wheel, and more time working with our clients, it’s a win-win for everyone!

So that’s probably enough to get you excited! Now follow this link, sign yourself up, embrace your inner OT Nerd and give yourself permission to be a little excited about learning!

If you found this newsletter helpful, there’s so much more you can get from Your OT Tutor! Here are four ways I can help you become a better OT who loves what you do:

1.      Check out my on-demand courses

2.      Book in some one-on-one or group training

3.      Sign-up for one of my CPD memberships

4.      Send me a DM and we can chat about how I can help!