Actions and benefits provided by the intervention of the Occupational Therapist in the Adult Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

Introduction: In Costa Rica, the objective of the Intensive Care Units is to reduce the mortality and morbidity of critically ill users. Occupational Therapy can integrate the work team since its objective is to help control and prevent pathologies for recovery of people in the unit. Objective: Determine the actions and benefits that the Occupational Therapist's intervention provides in the functional alterations that adults present in the Intensive Care Unit. Materials and methods: Descriptive study of bibliographic review, use of databases such as EBSCOHOST, Dialnet, Pubmed, Science Direct and Google Scholar. A search was made with the following descriptors “Occupational Therapy, AND Critical Care AND Therapeutics”; published between 2012 and 2019, in Spanish, English and Portuguese languages. Results: The Occupational Therapist through different intervention processes will improve the clinical evolution, physiological parameters and behaviors indicative of an awakening of the coma. It achieves that the individual involves a large number of neural networks, post lateralized and medial regions of the brain, prevents deformities, edema, joint and muscle contractures; organic failures, hemodialysis continues and days of hospitalization going from 20.6 to 10.4; as well as 43% less the average time in bed. This lies in a gross annual savings of $ 2.2 million for the hospital institution. Conclusions: OT is fundamental in this process of rehabilitation in critical patients, since through the actions that it carries out it promotes the integral attention of the individual and the most apt to perform the same in all the spheres of human occupation. Research by occupational therapists is necessary in all health care problems.