Running head: FIELDWORK

Level II Fieldwork
Mallory Viveros
Touro University Nevada

FIELDWORK

2
Article Review

During my Level II A fieldwork experience I spent many hours in the trauma intensive
care unit (TICU) of Sunrise Hospital. The focus in this setting for occupational therapy is
maintenance of medical stability, prevention of secondary complications, and introduction to
functional performance. The setting utilized co-treatment with physical therapy due to the
medical state of each patient as well as safety during line and medical equipment management.
The three articles that I utilized during my intervention planning in the TICU focused on early
mobilization of ICU patients in order to prevent secondary complications.
According to Hellweg (2012), patients with traumatic brain injury benefit from early
mobilization and participation in self-care activities of daily living (ADLs) because it speeds up
recovery as well as introduce normalcy. The benefits of early mobilization include decreasing
the likelihood of pneumonia, airway complications, pulmonary complications, and vascular
complications (Clark, Lowman, Griffin, Matthews, & Reiff, 2013). Therefore, prevention of
secondary complication is therapeutic in itself. Co-treatment improves patient safety during
early mobilization interventions as well as improve musculoskeletal, psychosocial, and
cardiopulmonary systems (Czaplijski, Marshburn, Hobbs, Bankard, & Bennett, 2014). The both
co-treatment and early mobilization was the focus of my intervention planning in the TICU in
order to promote both patient safety and prevention of secondary complications.

FIELDWORK

3
References

Clark, D. E., Lowman, J. D., Griffin, R. L., Matthews, H. M., & Reiff, D. A. (2013).
Effectiveness of an early mobilization protocol in a trauma and burns intensive care
unit: A retrospective cohort study. Physical Therapy, 93(2), 186-196.
doi:10.2522/ptj.20110417
Czaplijski, T., Marshburn, D., Hobbs, T., Bankard, S., & Bennett, W. (2014). Creating a culture
of mobility: An interdisciplinary approach for hospitalized patients. Hospital
Topics, 92(3), 74-79. doi:10.1080/00185868.2014.937971
Hellweg, S. (2012). Effectiveness of physiotherapy and occupational therapy after traumatic
brain injury in the intensive care unit. Critical Care Research and Practice, 1-5.
doi:10.1155/2012/768456