Dr. Rebecca Reder, Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD) alumna, spoke to graduates at the August 2019 Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions Commencement Ceremony.
Dr. Rebecca Reder, Senior Clinical Director of the Division of Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, frequently saw issues within healthcare and recognized the need for change, but felt there was little she could do.
“When we encounter some of life’s enormous problems, we stop trying to create change because the change is much bigger than us. Or, at least that is what we tell ourselves,” said Dr. Reder.
In her practice, Dr. Reder used occupational therapy (OT) treatments to help children with ADHD, so she was excited to learn that one of the medical teams at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital had just published guidelines on ADHD. To her disbelief, the guidelines said that occupational therapy didn’t provide any benefits for children with ADHD. Dr. Reder worked to correct the situation by meeting with the authors, but she found that since there was little research for evidence on OT interventions for children with ADHD, there was little she could do. But, the experience taught her a valuable lesson.
“I realized that I could no longer sit back and believe that it was someone else’s job to study our interventions so that we might learn about their effectiveness or to translate science into practice. I began to realize the enormity of the problem at hand and it became very clear to me that we had much work to do.”
Dr. Reder felt deficient as a clinical leader and decided to advance her education. So, in 2004, she enrolled in the OTD program at RMUoHP.
Advancing Knowledge
“As I participated in classes, I learned everything I could about evidence-based practice, knowledge translation, research, statistics, ethics, et cetera.” For one of her assignments, she read Don Berwick’s 2003 article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association entitled Disseminating innovations in health care. The article gave seven recommendations for healthcare leaders who want to accelerate innovation into practice, including the recommendation to “lead by example.”
Dr. Reder said, “I thought about the thousands of children that we see every year in our division and how their parents were bringing them to us for therapy, believing that we had the answers regarding what type of intervention yielded the best results and at what frequency and intensity. Unfortunately, we did not know the answer to these questions, not only at Cincinnati Children’s but across the nation.”
She continued, “I felt a sense of urgency to change the status quo… I realized that I needed the knowledge and courage to bring a culture change to our division and with the culture change, if I could engage over 200 therapists, we could create a massive shift. I needed to change the culture in our division to an evidence-based practice culture, so that became the goal of my Directed Independent Study for my OTD program.”
Advancing Healthcare
Through Dr. Reder’s efforts and desire to make an impact, she led an incredible change at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. She explained, “We began tackling the universal problems that are present in our healthcare system: (1) we worked to eliminate ineffective care, (2) we created systems where clinicians could study the outcomes of their interventions and review research findings to determine what works, (3) we began eliminating waste; and (4) we began to redefine our future.”
She explained how she and her team were able to become influencers (someone who motivates others to change and who makes things happen) in healthcare within their personal practice at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and within healthcare across the United States.
“We created a new vision by embracing the idea that we simply wanted to be the best at getting better…We told meaningful stories that influenced change. We became a transparent culture, sharing both our successes and failures publicly. We emphasized that our systems were perfectly designed to get the results we were getting, so if we wanted different results, we needed to improve our systems.” She worked to bring in “thought leaders to challenge our thinking” and linked “recognition and rewards to vital behaviors. We developed clear expectations of our staff and we intentionally created opportunities for the development of clinical leaders.”
The result was astounding. Dr. Reder said that she and employees in her division began contributing to their professions. “Our division now averages over 25 published manuscripts each year and we always have well over 100 presentations at regional, national, and international conferences each year.” In addition, her team of therapists “have created dozens of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and best evidence statements. As a result, we frequently get inquiries from across the US and around the world.”
After sharing her experiences and how her education allowed her to become an influencer in her profession and healthcare as a whole, she said to graduates, “Today I would like to challenge all of you to become an influencer. Instead of seeking serenity when you encounter a massive problem in healthcare, seek to make a difference wherever you are!”
For more information about the Doctor of Occupational Therapy program, visit the program website.
Author: Stephanie Bentley, Alumni Relations Manager
