Perceptions of Healthcare Clinicians on Occupational Therapists Providing Services During Well-Baby Visits

Background: To explore the perceptions of healthcare clinicians on the involvement of occupational therapists during a well-baby visit to allot for more face-to-face time with a healthcare practitioner and more efficient developmental milestone screening. Due to the high demand of healthcare clinicians, well-baby visits are becoming shorter caused by lack of availability for healthcare professionals to take on the roles of parent education. Occupational therapy practitioners are qualified as developmental specialists. Therefore, occupational therapy practitioners’ involvement in well-baby visits can compensate for this lack of time and allow for additional parent education and screening for developmental delay. Methods: A 13 question survey to quantitatively analyze the perceptions of healthcare clinicians using a Likert-type psychometric rating scale. The Qualtrics XM survey was distributed to licensed practitioners (i.e. primary care physicians, pediatricians, obstetrician-gynecologists, advanced practice clinicians) through Facebook groups and snowball sampling. Data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Results: Majority of clinicians believed the inclusion of occupational therapy during a well-baby visit would be beneficial in providing preventative education and developmental guidance to prevent developmental delay. This research was successful in determining that gender, age, and years of experience did not influence the perceptions of healthcare clinicians in regard to the inclusion of occupational therapy practitioners in primary care. Additional findings indicated that there is a discrepancy between the needs of parents and caregivers and the perceptions of healthcare clinicians regarding the sufficiency of education and resources provided during well-baby visits. Conclusion: Majority of clinicians believed the inclusion of occupational therapy practitioners during a well-baby visit would be beneficial to provide preventative education and developmental guidance to prevent developmental delay. Gender, age, and years of experience did not influence the perceptions of healthcare clinicians in regard to the inclusion of occupational therapy practitioners in primary care. Trial Registration Retrospectively registered