Project Description
The doctoral capstone aims to educate and advocate for occupational therapy's role in dry needling. In partnership with Parkview Huntington, I created an educational workshop with lesson plans and tools and gained clinical knowledge to educate and advocate for dry needling as an occupational therapy intervention.
Needs Assessment
Dry needling can increase hand function and improve spasticity, which can increase functional mobility (Tavakol et. al, 2021).
The results showed that trigger point dry needling in individuals with CTTH is beneficial for decreasing headache frequency, intensity, and duration and increasing health-related quality of life (Gildir et. al, 2019).
Evidence shows the numerous benefits of dry needling, including improving pain, range of motion (ROM), spasticity, function, occupational performance, and, most importantly, overall quality of life.
Similar terms, such as occupational performance, functional mobility, and quality of life, are all found in the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process- Fourth Edition (OTPF-4).
According to the CDC, in 2019, 20.4% of adults had chronic pain, while 7.4% reported that the chronic pain limited their life and work activities (Zelaya et. al, 2020).
Literature Review
Evidence also shows that dry needling can improve upper limb spasticity and wrist PROM in individuals who have suffered a stroke, and the results remained one month later. Dry needling has also been shown to improve hand function and decrease spasticity, which can increase functional mobility (Tavakol et. al, 2021).
Improving pain and occupational engagement can overall improve individual quality of life. The OTPF-4 states, “Occupational therapy practitioners develop and implement occupation-based health approaches to enhance occupational performance and participation, [quality of life], and occupational justice for population (AOTA, 2020).
Mission Statement
To educate and advocate professional stakeholders on the benefits of occupational therapists role using dry needling as an intervention
Vision Statement
To inform the occupational therapy profession on the use of dry needling as a preparatory method for facilitating occupational function across Indiana.
Project Outcomes
The project has six deliverables, which are outlined below.
Lesson Plans
Annotated Bibliography
Certificate of Completion on State Legislation
Case Studies
Future Directions
Continue to advocate for the use of dry needling as an occupational therapy intervention.
Continue to research the effects of dry needling on different diagnoses and its effects on occupational function and participation.
Provide further resources and education on using dry needling as an intervention and fill the gap of clinical application skills between students and experienced occupational therapists.
(e) paxtonsimerman@yahoo.com (p) (260) 494-5580
References
American Occupational Therapy Association. (2020). Occupational therapy practice fromake work: Domain and process (4th ed.). American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 74(Suppl. 2), 7412410010. https://doi. org/10.5014/ajot.2020.74S200
Gildir S, Tüzün EH, Eroğlu G, Eker L. (2019) A randomized trial of trigger point dry needling versus sham needling for chronic tension-type headache. Medicine (Baltimore). 98(8):e14520. doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000014520. PMID: 30813155; PMCID: PMC6408118.
Tavakol, Z., Shariat, A., Ansari, N. N., Ghannadi, S., Honarpishe, R., Dommerholt, J., Noormohammadpour, P., & Ingle, L. (2021). A Double-blind randomized controlled trial for the effects of dry needling on upper limb dysfunction in patients with stroke. Acupunture & Electro- Therapeutics Research, 45(2), 115–124. https://doi.org/10.3727/036012921X16112663844923
Zelaya, C. E., Dahlhamer, J. M., Lucas, J. W., & Connor, E. M. (2020, November). Chronic pain and high-impact chronic pain among U.S. adults, 2019. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db390-H.pdf